Join us for the Social by Social Game at Net Tuesday

If you are in London on June 2 evening with a couple of hours to spare, and an enthusiasm for exploring how to use social technology for social benefit, join us for a run of the Social by Social Game at Net Tuesday.

As organiser Amy Sample Ward explains here:

The Social by Social game is a fun session to help people explore how social technology can be used for social benefit: whether that’s by a nonprofit, a social innovation startup, within a neighbourhood, or across a community. We’ll invent some of those places, then challenge each other in groups to develop plans using a pack of specially-developed cards and other props. It will be a mix of collaboration and competition that should give you lots of practical ideas that you can use in your own projects.

We facilitated a version of this game recently at SHINE09 and have put our heads together to continue making the game better and better.   Here’s how a version of the game ran at SHINE09.

(read more...)

Time for a cull of memberships. Reflectively.

I’ve written a fair bit about membership organisations and the impact that social media may have on them, and also helped start a project on the subject that’s now been taken forward by NCVO and RSA. The Carnegie UK Trust is also investigating civil society associations. (read more...)

Twenty theses for Government 2.0

More social media theses, inspired by The Cluetrain Manifesto.  Over at Social Media Strategy Steve Radick has written Twenty Theses for Government 2.0. Apparently Pesident Obama’s transparency and open government initiative is producing much excitement among those offering services to government, and reality checks are appropriate. Some resonance with the 45 propositions developed for the Social by Social handbook. Tweeted by UK Minister Tom Watson, so noted in Whitehall no doubt.

After audioboo, ipadio

I’ve enjoyed using audioboo to capture and blog interviews on the my iphone, as here … now there’s ipadio that works from any phone, though in a rather different way. Either landline or mobile. You register, get a number to call and a pin to enter, make an ordinary phone call, press hash and it streams live to the web (and stays on your page). You can tag, add photos and description. I’ll be doing some tests.

Digital engagement Minister to step down?

Simon Dickson follows up a Sunday Times story that e-government/Digital Engagement Minister Tom Watson will step down from the post after the reshuffle expected within a couple of weeks. Intruiging, but no confirmation of the ST line: “Tom Watson, the Cabinet Office minister wrongly accused of involvement
in the Damian McBride smear e-mails, will return to the back benches.
He has told friends he is exhausted by government and wants to see more
of his two children.”

Rebooting Britain project and event announced

Details are emerging from NESTA of Reboot Britain, a project to “take a top-to-bottom look at the challenges we face as a
country and the new possibilities that – uniquely – this generation has to overcome them”. (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...)

Asking people how to run open government (US only)

In January US President Barack Obama circulated memos to public agencies saying Government should be transparent, participatory, collaborative. Yesterday senior adviser Valerie Jarrett announced on the White House blog how that will be put into practice …. through an open process:

Today we are kicking off an unprecedented process for public engagement in policymaking (read more...)

Digital barn raising ideas and rumours of a new champion at RSA seminar

I’ve blogged a long piece over here about today’s Digital Inclusion and Social Capital seminar at the RSA, ending with ideas for a sort-of travelling circus of geeks and community developers to help with digital barn raising in local areas. If you are interested, please drop a comment there … or even better (read more...)