The report is available exclusively through a microsite (www.socitmweb2.net) containing blogs, a forum and other facilities to encourage feedback and information sharing.

Insight subscribers can access this site using the standard Insight username and password.

Any self-respecting 10-year-old can tell you what widgets, mash-ups, tag clouds, and UGC are.  What they can’t tell you is why these and other ‘web 2.0’ developments have any relevance to the day to day work of public sector managers.  So, if you have a suspicion that some of what’s going on in Facebook, Second Life, YouTube, LinkedIn and the rest might just be relevant to your work, don’t rely on your kids – come along to this event.  And if you don’t have any idea why Web 2.0 could be relevant to you, then you really do need to come along.

The depth and breadth of the facilities available is enormous, and growing at an  exponential rate.  The range of possible uses is limited only by our imagination. Attending this event will help you get up to speed on what is going on, learn what others are doing, and kick start your thinking about how your authority could take advantage of web 2.0 developments.  We have a superb line-up of speakers for this launch seminar chaired by Socitm’s blogging president, Richard Steel.

Why you should attend

This event will provide an opportunity to:

• discuss with committed practitioners the potential of Web 2.0 for public services
• listen to the co-author of The Power of Information, who has also won awards with websites that promote new ways of engagement with public services.
• hear how one council has pioneered the way in using Web 2.0 techniques for its innovative and award-winning website
• understand new ways that elected representatives and council staff can engage with communities
• listen to the key messages about Web 2.0 from the latest Socitm Insight report
• debate with colleagues transforming the way in which web-based services might be transformed.

Event Programme

Our guest speakers

Ewan McIntosh, our principal speaker is the  National Adviser in Scotland on Learning and Technology Futures and a member of the Channel 4 New Media Education. He speaks internationally, leading workshops and conferences, helping people to understand how social media, gaming and flexible curricula can help transform their organisation, and show how effective change can then be nurtured throughout every part of that system.  His infectious energy and enthusiasm for the topic is demonstrated by his use of a wide range of the facilities during his presentations.

Steve Johnson is Director of Customer Services and Performance at Redbridge – the first local authority to have a website that embraces Web 2.0.  Steve is an organisational change agent with senior management experience of highly successful change implementation across the UK public sector: working in a range of government agencies and UK local government. His main interests lie in business transformation, performance improvement through lean process techniques and improving the customer experience. Returning five months after a very successful talk at the SPiN/Socitm Insight conference, Steve will give an update about what has been happening  at Redbridge. 

Tom Steinberg is the founder and director of mySociety, a charitable body that runs many of the best-known democracy websites in the UK, from WriteToThem.com, to PledgeBank.com to the volunteer-founded TheyWorkForYou.com  to the No10 petitions website. Most recently he has won the 2008 New Statesman award for innovation with WhatDoTheyKnow.com supporting Freedom of Information requests. MySociety's missions are to build websites which give people simple, tangible benefits in the democratic and community aspects of their lives, and which teach the public and voluntary sector how they can use technology better to help citizens.

Alan Weinberg has been an elected member of London Borough of Redbridge since May 1982, and has been Leader since May 2006. Prior to his leadership role, he has held cabinet and committee chairman positions in libraries, housing, planning, highways, environment, policy and regeneration. He has provided enthusiastic leadership for Redbridge-i, acknowledged in Better Connected 2008 as the first example of a local authority website using web 2.0 and social networking facilities.

 
The power of information

Last year, the Government commissioned Tom Steinberg, one of the world’s leading practitioners of online re-use of government information, and Ed Mayo, a leading social entrepreneur and consumer activist to produce the Power of Information review, with a brief to explore new developments in the use and communication of citizen- and state-generated public information.

Putting aside the slight niggle that the author ‘could have painted a more positive picture of the Government’s progress to date’, the Cabinet Office accepted the report’s findings (already enthusiastically received by practitioners) and agreed to take on three key challenges:

• working with user-led online communities
• enabling re-use of government information where appropriate
• advising public servants on how best to participate in social networking and other web 2.0 activity

This agenda is now being taken forward by the Cabinet Office which, keen to demonstrate its commitment, announced in July a competition inviting anyone to come up with ideas for using public sector data in new ways.  By day two of the competition 100 entries had been submitted to the Show Us A Better Way website, including mash-ups on empty council flats, a blue plaque finder, and a ‘fix my transport’ site.

Highlights from previous event 

Our prototype for this event (9 June) established the foundations for our new report that will now be launched at this new event.  Delegates were fulsome in their praise:

"The speakers – their presentations were excellent"
"The content was equally as good"
"We've taken away some really valuable pieces of information"
"The technologies are here, (I learnt) how they could be used, and what we need to think about in terms of taking these back into our organisation"
"Overall, excellent event – very informative"
"Just wanted to say a big thank you for the social networking presentation yesterday. We've taken away some really valuable pieces of information"

Who should attend this event?

Any public sector manager who has a keen interest in innovation and a desire to understand the potential of the next wave of web technology in transforming services and engagement with communities of all kinds, especially:

• directors of customer service
• managers of transformation
• website managers and developers
• communications professionals and those concerned with e-democracy and citizen engagement
• managers of ICT and ICT professionals

Every delegate will receive a CD-ROM with a copy of the report and hyperlinks to extensive web resources.