Recipe for success…how to cook up a day of public sector digital goodness

[NB: cross posted from the Scottish Public Sector Digital Group blog]

 

Serves: 16431+ *

Preparation time: as long as it takes 

Cooking time: a day or so

 

Ingredients 

 

60+ digi types (a high quality mix from 14 local authorities and 16 public sector organisations)
4 inspirational speakers
1 very helpful sponsor
several pints of coffee
2 great venues
1 flipchart
limitless sticky notes
wifi
smartphones, Macs, netbooks and iPads
whatever social media sites you have to hand
many, many teacakes 

Method 

Place the digi types in the first venue, fill with coffee and then slowly add the inspirational speakers.

Simmer for a bit, then allow the mixture to rest for 30 minutes.

Remove the digi types and place in the second venue.

Carefully place the sticky notes onto the flip chart (using the picture above as a guide).

Stuff the digi types with teacakes, add the wifi to the mix and fold in the Macs, netbooks, smartphones and iPads. Sprinkle on the social media sites.

Separate the mixture into 3 separate rooms.

Allow the mixture to rise. Remove after 45 minutes and stir.

Repeat twice more.

Recombine the mixture.

Serve chilled.

Optional step: add alcohol to the digi types and flambé.

And hey presto! A day of questioning, listening, knowledge sharing, planning, plotting, idea forming, contact making, and more!



* that's the number of accounts Tweet Reach says we reached...

Amazing things are happening in Scotland...

One of my public sector digital inspirations, Dan Slee (Walsall Council), recently made some predications about digital in local government in 2012, including this one:

12. Amazing things will happen in Scotland. Some of the brightest people in the public sector who are innocavating aren’t in London. They’re north of the border serving as police officers as well as in local government. It’ll be fascinating to see how this develops.

Which is nice.

It’s good to get a more objective perspective. I’ve been feeling a bit disheartened recently by (what seems to me anyway) our lack of progress on the digital front and have been looking south with jealous eyes. On reflection, I think this is actually more to do with people not talking enough about the good stuff they're doing rather than no good stuff happening at all (is it the Scottish Calvinist thing?).

And I this year certainly does have the potential to be a very interesting one for digital in Scotland (and hopefully that means lots for me to blog about!). 

We’ve certainly got things off to a cracking start with the announcement of #Tartantm - concurrent TweetUps for public sector types in all the major Scottish cities on the evening of 22 February.

It’s ambitious. But it’s got two of our most dedicated public sector social media advocates, Carolyne Mitchell (South Lanarkshire Council) and Gordon Scobbie (Deputy Chief Constable of Tayside Police) behind it (assisted by others around the country), so it can’t fail.

If you work in the public sector and are interested in using social media to engage or to build online communities, you should get yourself along for food, chatting and tweeting. There's more info at http://tartantweeple.wordpress.com/.

So, I’ll see you there! (And if you really can’t be there – and you’d better have a damn good excuse - then follow the Twitter hashtag #tartantm.)

Public sector blogging in Scotland

I’m going to assume that if you’re reading this you think that people blogging about their work is a GOOD THING. And possibly also that blogging AT WORK about more personal stuff is also a GOOD THING. If, however, you’re not convinced, have a read of this and this.  And if you’re still not convinced – why on earth are you reading this blog?!

I’ve been blogging about my work (with the occasional post about more personal stuff) for about four years now. I’m still not very good at it, but I think the fact that I’m doing it at all is a GOOD THING. For me, even if it’s not for anyone else. And for me other people blogging about their work in the public sector has been a VERY GOOD THING - I’ve learnt a hell of a lot from the blogs I read.

Because it’s a GOOD THING we need more folk doing it. There are some very good blogs with a public sector focus written in Scotland. Here are some that I’m aware of - in no particular order (and with apologies to any I’ve missed out):

• http://benplouviez.wordpress.com/
• http://corrinnedouglas.wordpress.com/
• http://www.prettysimple.co.uk/blog/
• http://royhair.com/
• http://scotgovcamp.wordpress.com

But we can do better!  So I’ve being having a think about how we might get more public sector folk in Scotland blogging. (And I’m talking here about blogging outside the walled garden of the Communities of Practice space – lovely though that garden is.)

Blogger extraordinaire Mr Dave Briggs recently wrote a post about Public Sector Bloggers, which aggregates content from UK public sector blogs (very few are written this side of the border), and mentioned it’s growing unwieldiness (cos of the increase in blogs). Suggestions for the future development of the site include better categorisation and the addition of blogging guidance.

But...I’m wondering if a Public Sector Bloggers type resource specifically for Scotland/Scottish bloggers would be something worth developing?

What do you think?  Would existing Scottish public sector bloggers be keen to have their posts aggregated in this way?  Would it be a useful resource for encouraging people to blog?  Or could we just make more of the existing Public Sector Bloggers site?

I’d also be interested in suggestions for other ways to encourage more blogging in the public sector in Scotland.