• UK GovCamp 2012
• Public Sector Cloud Contact Centre webinar: catch up online
• Social Media Skills: You need some Comms2point0 in your life
• UK Councils Social Media Reputation Index for December 2011
• UK Councils – Customer Access Index – October & November 2011
• If you had a magic wand or 3 wishes
• Events & that

Last Friday & Saturday, the 20th/21st of January, 300+ people descended upon Microsoft’s futuristic offices in London for the 5th Annual GovCamp, their common denominator, a drive and passion to make a difference to public services.
Made up of both Private & Public Sectors, Central/Local Government and Third Sector, the delegation for this “unconference” were all keen to see how new technologies, new ways of working and sharing experiences and contacts could make the Public Sector a better place.
For those unaware of the “unconference” format, these are free events where there is no set agenda, attendees “pitch” ideas to the rest of the audience, and the ideas that receive the most interest are given a slot and a space for it to carried out in a presentation/workshop/discussion session. There are approx 5 of these slots dispersed with refreshment breaks and downtime where people can be found to be networking and chatting with old friends and new acquaintances.

The idea was made reality by Jeremy Gould, a Webbie from Whitehall and then the organising baton was passed to Steph Gray and Dave Briggs who have grown this exciting and thought-provoking event over the last 4 years.

The majority of the content/ideas/discussions and general goings on are summarised and broadcasted to the online community via Twitter, Blogs and other digital platforms but to be present at one of these events must be akin to being a bee at the centre of a hive during the summer, a frenzy of discussion, activity and excitement.

Themes included:

• Open Data
• Content Strategy Development
• Ushahidi & Crisis Mapping
• Social Media: what’s the ROI

There were many other topics covered but Friday’s proceedings were brought to a close by Mike Bracken, Executive Director of Digital at the Government Digital Service. Mike gave attendees the chance to hear about the next generation of government website, which promises to take Direct.gov and bring it up to speed with a slicker design, modern features and simplified and streamlined content. This is no small task, and looks like it is well on the way to producing a truly improved user experience.

Walsall MBC Press Officer, Dan Slee, who is a regular attendee and significant contributor to these events and has been prolific in his work at Walsall to use digital tools and platforms to make a difference at Walsall, came up with the idea for attendees of the GovCamp to submit 20 bulletpoints of what they took away from the event which could be collated at a central point.
So without further ado, get stuck in to the multitude of posts at: http://ukgc12.posterous.com/

Public Sector Cloud Contact Centre webinar: catch up online

Last Friday, we teamed up with BT to run a webinar on the benefits of implementing a cloud contact centre strategy in the Public Sector. You can check it out in its entirety at the link below:

Last year many of us faced severe difficulty just getting to work with the travel chaos caused by heavy snow across the UK. Even a local journey to work became almost impossible. Can we expect the same this winter?

• Have you considered the alternatives? Allowing your people to use a virtual contact centres and working temporarily from home?
• Do you have the capability to deploy temporary homeworking at short notice?
• Can your agents access the right information and resources regardless of their individual location?

You might be surprised to learn how easy this can be done, how little it will cost and how quickly it can be achieved because your citizens will still expect their call to be answered regardless of weather conditions.

BT PSN will examine how Public Sector Authorities are starting to recognise and use cloud-based technology to deliver savings, improve front-line services and ensure services face minimal disruption when the unexpected happens. We will be covering:

• Cost Savings
• Permanent & Temporary homeworking or site relocation
• Managing the unexpected including business continuity planning
• Keeping pace with the rapid rate of change in citizen’s behaviour – not forgetting future trends

View the webinar here

Social Media Skills: You need some Comms2point0 in your life

Really pleased to say that we are working with a new information resource for PR, Marketing & Communications types that goes by the rather apt moniker Comms2point0.
Run by couple of comms professionals with over 30 years experience in planning, shaping and delivering effective communications across the public and private sector, Comms2point0 is a free online resource created by comms professionals for comms professionals linking feeds, tweets, posts, tips and templates on all aspects of comms, from creating effective comms plans to using social media to build your business.

We’ll be working with the guys at Comms2point0 on a number of exciting projects but in the meantime ,check out some of the following excellent content at their site:

How social is local government?

Surviving uncertain times – 7 top tips

Feeling the love for infographics

Looking for social media guidelines?

Comms2point0 website

UK Councils Social Media Reputation Index for December 2011

In this month’s edition…

The top 20 UK councils for new online buzz

Spotlights stories:

• Stirling Council: #hurricanebawbag – would your council have had the balls to use this hashtag?
• South Northamptonshire Council: Silverstone ‘masterplan’ granted planning permission
• Horsham District Council: Safety warnings over fake vodka

Buzz and Media Mix – News v Blogs v Twitter etc

The Top 20

These are the councils that have seen the biggest increases in the volume of online buzz they are attracting. The biggest movers (subject to them attaining a minimum number of references during the month – Districts = 100 mentions, Counties and Unitaries = 300) for this month are:

View the index

UK Councils – Customer Access Index – October & November 2011

Welcome to the review of GovMetric data. We are looking at both October and November 2011, following the Christmas break.

This index is based on aggregated data from 70 UK councils, gathered monthly through www.govmetric.com.

This month:

• Monthly Spotlight – Highest multi-channel satisfaction scores
• Monthly Spotlight – Highest per channel satisfaction scores
• Feature story – Post Offices and Local Government delivering services in partnership
• UK Councils – Channel Access Ratios
• UK Councils – Highest volume service demand
• Methodology for Monthly Spotlights

View the index

If you had a magic wand or 3 wishes:

There are a number of events and activities looking to crowdsource the various issues that frontline staff face when delivering services to citizens and trying to understand how the development of new processes, mobile apps, brower-based applications or use of technology might be able to overcome those issues.

With the diversity of the Public Networks community covering:

• Social Care
• Revenues & Benefits
• Environmental Services
• Housing

to name but a few, we’d thought we’d do a quick survey to see if anyone had any issues that we could then fire out to the plethora of Local Gov tecchies and boffins that also reside within the Public Networks community for consultation and feedback.

Where there are common problems we’ll see what can be done to create a solution!!

Answers on a postcard to nick@publicsectorforums.co.uk with:

Name:
Role:
Organisation:
Problem:

It’s the first time we’ve done anything like this but it shouldn’t take you too long to submit an issue that’s been getting your goat and we might be able to sort if for you !!!

A number of events in production that we’ll be alerting you to including a Look at Mobilising the Public Sector Workforce at the end of March in Birmingham and an event looking at how Local Government is leveraging technology in Contact Centres in London in April

Meanwhile, we have the following events for your interest:

#EPIC Social Media in the Public Sector SOUTH WEST
Tuesday 7th February 2012
Exeter

Quality line up of public sector digital engagement speakers, unconference-style sessions in the afternoon to get your social media queries and questions answered and the opportunity to engage with suppliers with proven technologies to help to deliver your strategy.

Running alongside the social media event, this event will look at how public sector organisations have successfully deployed channel shift programmes. Hear from Buckinghamshire CC, Connect Digtially, Poole BC and Cornwall CC along with others.

Facebook is the largest social media platform and, as the cliche goes, if it were a country it would be the fourth largest in the world.

Facebook has 800 million users and counting and 29 million of them live in the UK.

The case for whether or not the public sector needs to use social media has been won long ago. The question is not ‘if’ but ‘how.’

But like it or not the public sector can’t say it’s truly got social media until it’s got Facebook right.

Right now it hasn’t. All too often it’s a tumbleweed corporate page shovelling out press releases and a handful of brave people following. Often it’s nothing at all.

The purpose of this conference is to draw together some of the limited best practice in Public Sector Facebook activity, hear from the practitioners about the trials and tribulations in delivering their Facebook presences and provide those wishing to initiate or improve their Facebook strategy by networking and engaging with seasoned practitioners.

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