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.)

Forgive me blogosphere, it’s been six months since my last post

To be honest, I wasn’t even going to bother today, then I noticed that I’d had 250+ views last night (from Russia?!). Thought I should give them something new to read should they return tonight.

Looking back, I was very clear that this blogging lark was primarily a selfish enterprise – I hoped blogging would encourage my reflective practice – and if anyone else found anything useful, then great, but it wasn’t my primary objective.

As time has gone on, I’ve had some really good conversations here, made connections with people that I wouldn’t have otherwise and been asked to do fun stuff off the back of what I’ve written here. And people do seem to have found at least some of my ramblings interesting/useful.  Which is nice. There has even been some reflection on my part :)

But the last six months have been very disappointing for me professionally. I don’t think there’s any need to go into the detail here, but suffice to say, I’ll be glad to see the back of 2011. There’s been very little to blog about, and when there has been something to write about I've not really been in the mood to do it.

But, I'm hoping for better things in the new year and look forward to get my blogging mojo back on! I can't be having a go at the lack of public sector blogging in Scotland if I’m not doing any myself.

Why information professionals should be at the heart of government digital engagement activities

This is my the proposal for Online Information 2011. I have to write approx. 5000 words on this by mid September - I will be looking for your help!

In 2004, commenting that people were increasingly confident to search out information themselves, Maewyn Cumming made a prediction about government information professionals:

"We will appear in more places than we do now. At the moment, librarians are cropping up everywhere, in weird and wonderful little corners, running or helping organize websites and intranets, even document and records management systems. We will be in places that don't initially always appear to be information management places. I know librarians who are working in enterprise architecture systems.” (Cummings, M. 2004, p16)

That librarians should support knowledge management across government was a key theme in the literature in subsequent years (Taylor and Corrall. 2007, p. 301). Attempts were made to place knowledge and information management at the heart of government. In the UK, the Knowledge Council was established as a cross-departmental body to raise the profile and give encouragement and direction to information and knowledge management initiatives. Information Matters: Building Government's Capability in Managing Knowledge and Information (HM Government, 2008), recognised that knowledge and information professionals are “experts who have key roles to play in contributing to the success of their organisations”.

However, this paper will argue that information professionals can play an even more central role at the very heart of government business.

Digital technology has revolutionised the way in which people communicate and share information  – the growth of social media over the last couple of years has been particularly spectacular. Good use of social media can help governments better understand, respond to and attract the attention of specific audiences. It enables real two-way communication with people in the places where they are already engaging with their interests. Social media can enable people to participate in proposing and shaping policies and laws, to provide feedback on programmes and services, and in some instances influence service design.

However, the ability of civil servants to use social media and the growing stakeholder demand for these channels is causing tension as government departments work to update pre-digital processes which do not work as effectively in the digital era. The pace of change is already rapid and is increasing in speed. This can cause further tensions, as many stakeholders’ contact with departments can be sporadic, making it difficult to know how and where best to engage with them. Engaging with stakeholders in their own spaces is creating a whole new set of learning opportunities for civil servants.

This paper will outline the roles involved in digital engagement within government, set out the skills required and explain why information professionals are ideally placed, not only to take on some of these roles, but also to assist in building digital engagement capacity more widely across government.

The author will draw on personal experience as an information professional who has worked in several ‘weird and wonderful little corners’ within government and is currently involved in the development of a digital engagement strategy for the Scottish Government.  

References

• Cummings, M. (2004), "A vision of the future", Network Journal, Autumn Issue, 2004
• Taylor, K. and Corrall, S. (2007), "Personalized service? Changing the role of the government librarian",  Journal of Information Science, Vol. 33, No. 3, pp. 298-314.
• HM Government (2008), Information Matters: Building Government's Capability in Managing Knowledge and Information, The National Archives, UK.

Learning Points

• Overview of the current status of the information profession in government (UK and worldwide)
• Digital engagement roles in government and the skills required
• Insight into the contribution information professionals can make to digital engagement
• Future opportunities for information professionals in government

PS. I have to come up with a title for this paper - by tomorrow. Any suggestions?