Starting to stock the Good/Big Society DIY store

Recent blog posts by Nat (now Baron) Wei, unpaid adviser to the Big Society programme, give further clues to government thinking about the way that local services should evolve, with more support for groups at neighbourhood level. (Earlier posts here). I’ve been pulling together some tools and links that may be useful – including reports of a couple of sessions using a neighbourhood media version of the SocialbySocial game. I played the one above last week in Holland. (read more...)

How to make Big Society really engaging: divert 1% local public funds to communites

I’m taking much of my Big Society blogging over to the Designing for Civil Society group on SocialbySocial, where I’ve posted some interviews I did yesterday at an excellent round table event organised by New Start magazine and (read more...)

The appropriation of citizen empowerment

Kevin Harris offers a strong challenge to the approach RSA is adopting in it’s Citizen Power project in Peterborough, arguing it is the latest example from the empowerment industry of appropriating ideas of citizen action to wonkdom. Prestige launch at London HQ set the tone this month … citizens get their chance in May, when a more open style is promised. I’m hopeful.

Is the Summer of Social Media Love a fading memory?

The prospect of doing some interviews at the seminar on Jemima Gibbons book, Monkeys With Typewriters, later today set me thinking on some gentle provocations to get things going … particularly ones that are a bit metaphorical.
Recent conversations and exchanges dispel any remaining simplistic enthusiasm for the possible benefits of social media. It isn’t a magic potion. We should pay far more attention to the context in which social media is used, for what purpose, by whom and so on. (read more...)

Participation literature review

The Pathways through Participation project is “exploring how and why people get involved and stay involved in different forms of participation over the course of their lives”. They have now produced an excellent and wide-ranging literature review covering community development, volunteering, public participation, social movements, everyday politics and ethical consumption. Download from here.

How Twitter brought an event organiser to offer free tickets

A few months back I wrote Is your event worth the price of the ticket? and explored how far event organisers would be able to charge high prices when there was an increasing move to free, self-organised unconferences. I quoted the organiser of one £300 two-day event as saying “Next year we are going (read more...)

Time to celebrate failure at FailCamp

When you are starting something new the most useful stories are often honest accounts from those who have failed – as Clay Shirky said in an interview last year. Now the social media folk in Birmingham – source of many successes – are promoting the idea of FailCamp. As Pete Ashton says (read more...)

The Community Engagement Pyramid

The Widerearth blog believes you can simplify the way most people engage with online communities into five simple stages:

1. Everyone starts off as Visitors, either because they were invited or because they stumbled upon your community;
2. They may sign up to become Members if there is a clear cost/benefit;
3. If they are moved into action, they will become Contributors of content;
4. With enough positive experiences they evolve into community Evangelists, inviting others to join;
5. And finally, they may step up as community Leaders.

10 approaches to digital inclusion

Tim Davies has produced an excellent analysis here of themes from the recent Digital Inclusion and Social Capital seminar at the RSA, that I mentioned the other day. (read more...)

RSA explores how online networking may help build social capital

The RSA is breathing fresh life into exploration of the relationship between two issues – digital inclusion and social capital – with a seminar tomorrow launched by a paper from Will Davies on The Social Value of Digital Networks in Deprived Communities. The paper will be available at some point after the seminar, informed by discussions. The opening position  is:

• Digital inclusion is the use of technology to improve the lives and life chances of disadvantaged people and the places in which they live.
• Social capital is a way of understanding the (positive and negative) impact of social networks and norms on people’s lives.

… with evidence showing strong correlation between those who are socially excluded and those who are digitally excluded. The seminar – and the Connected Communites project being developed by the RSA – will explore how far online networking may help develop the socially and economically important weaker links that connect people beyond friends and family. (read more...)