Dissident World

I thought I should make the most of this blog to publicise a number of job vacancies that will be advertised in the Guardian this coming week. The positions have been created as part of the strategy I’m developing for the Information Authority Secretariat. The Information Authority has been established as an independent body
to set and regulate data collection and reporting standards for all organisations
involved in further education and training in England and Wales. A key component of the strategy will be the creation and development of communities of interest and practice across the further education sector to enable a more open, collaborative and transparent environment for information and knowledge sharing.  A community platform is planned, utilising Web2.0 technolgy and social media applications. The community platform will be available to all data providers and users across the further education sector, including schools, colleges, training providers, agencies and non-government department public bodies.

Quite an ambitious plan, and hence why I’m recruiting the key individuals make it all happen. A copy of the job adverts that will appear in the press and in various web site this week, including Jobserve, Gurteen and TFPL is attached

to this posting.  Anyone interested should apply through the information authority web site where an application form will be available from Tuesday 17th July.

Download info_sec_lsc_x126.pdf

Another great video from Common Craft. This one is about Social Networking. Enjoy!

I read with interest that my old employer - Reuters - has chosen Blogtronix as the social media platform for their recently launched Green Market Social Community. I’ve been pondering which platform would best suit the social media network I’m planning for the Information Authority, which will be supporting data providers across the Further Education system. Knowing how rigorous Reuters are in their procurement process, I’d be foolish not to include Blogtronix in the short list.

Came across a blog from Collective Intelligence on the topic of social bookmarking (tagging). I was at the Blogs & Social Media conference referenced in the article, where Keely Flint presented on the Bupa experience using Cogenz as the social bookmarking application. It occurred to me how much more successful these initiatives could be if Librarians were out there evangelising the merits of personal tagging, and how this would support more effective search and retrieval, a point also picked up by Helen Nicol. Maybe I’m reading the wrong blogs, but my perception is that most Librarians remain wedded to structured, corporate categorisation and file management systems, and haven’t yet grasped that the world is changing around them.  Sorry if I’m over-generalising, but  I’ve seen very few  articles/comments/blogs from Librarians in support of social bookmarking. Someone prove me wrong?

The IDeA have published a report on the Community of Practice ‘Facilitator’s Workshop’ I organised for them on 27th April. The purpose of the workshop was to bring together the various facilitators of the on-line communities supported on the IDeA CoP platform, to learn from their experiences in facilitating communities of practice across local government, and in response to issues raised by the facilitators through their own dedicated CoP, namely:

• how can I keep momentum going?
• who can I turn to for support?
• will my opinions be seen as ‘novice’ compared to others in the community?

Community adviser and activist Ed Mitchell spoke on ‘Nurturing
communities from networks: the gritty bits’. There was also a session
from Hilary Messeter from the National College for School Leadership
(NCSL).

As with many of these type of events, the coming together and sharing of knowledge can be a therapeutic  process, i.e. the realisation that you’re not alone and that someone else has the same concerns and issues as yourself, and better still,  finding someone who has solved the issue you’ve been worrying about.

One particularly encouraging piece of information that emerged from the workshop was that most of the CoP’s across local government have a 10% contribution rate, which is well beyond the ‘1% rule’.

Dave Briggs, who facilitates the Collaboration and Social Media CoP, and the LGNewmedia site summed the day up very well in saying:-

“We’re trying to sell two very ambitious concepts with this [IDeA CoP] platform.
Firstly, we are asking people to tear down silos and start working
together and sharing our knowledge – something that is an anathema to
some elements of local government culture. Secondly, we are asking them
to do so using the web, with blogs, wikis and forums!”

It was apparent to me that there is a close relationship between effective CoPs and effective facilitators - i.e. you can’t have one without the other.

The Cabinet Office have commissioned a report - The Power of Information - from Ed Mayo (chief exec of the
National Consumer Council) and Tom Steinberg (the man behind mySociety and
PledgeBank) to look into the ways government can benefit from user-generated
sites, particularly with a view to creating APIs to allow mash-ups with public
sector data (like the Ordnance Survey). Press announcement here.

Good to see the that the power of Social Media has penetrated to the heart of UK Gov. But can they resist the urge to regulate it?!

I’ve recently seen a number of conversations in the blogosphere from people asking about corporate blogging policies, since I assume their companies are getting nervous about what their employees might  be saying via the cyber medium. Sun met this issues head on about 3 years ago, and actively encouraged their employees to blog by providing them with dedicated server space. Their blogging policy is as good as any I’ve seen.  Pity that all companies don’t encourage this level of transparency (I’m not a Sun employee by the way!). 

As a closet fan of all that is ‘Google’, I was wondering when I should make the final step in my transition from Bloglines to Google Reader. I’ve been using both for some time now, which is bit of a pain when I have to add and categorise a new feed since I end up replicating the process twice. However, I think the recent announcement about Google Gears is the tipping point I needed. So, sadly, it’s goodbye to Bloglines, but loyalty only goes so far.

Basically, Gears is a browser add-on that enables web-based applications to run locally whilst off-line. The product is in Beta at the moment, and only supports the Google Reader (RSS feed aggregator). However, we can expect to see support for Google Docs & Spreadsheets, Google Mail, Google Blogger, and in fact any of their applications where there is value to be gained by working off-line and on-line.

Looks like another killer app to me!

Thanks to my friends over at Studio 501c I was alerted to another excellent video presentation from the Common Craft Show, this time explaining clearly and simply what a Wiki is. I thought the  RSS  presentation  was a one-off, but  I realise I need to look out for new stuff from these folk.  Definitely worth a subscription.

Google - you either love ‘em or hate ‘em it would seem, reading the article from yesterday’s Sunday Times. Google are saying they need more information about us, and their competitors are saying they already have too much. The trigger for this latest pouring of outrage is - apparently - Google’s announcement that they  had invested almost $4m in 23andme, a fledgling biotechnology company co-founded by Anne Wojcicki (Sergey Brinn’s significant other half), that is interested in the human genome.  Interestingly, ordinary users (and I count myself in that category) are saying very little. I find that the Search engine does what is says on the tin; Google Reader is the best RSS  reader, and I make the most of all the other freebies (Notebook, Calendar, Documents, Spreadsheets, desktop  toolbar , screen saver, personalised search etc.)  that they make available via their web site. Their argument that by getting to know more about me and my search habits will improve the relevance of their search results sounds believable - to me anyway.

However, one interesting quote attributed to Todd Cochrane of Geek News Central,  with reference to Google’s pending (?) purchase of Feedburner (a company that tracks subscribers to all kinds of on-line content providers):

"Have people really thought about the ramifications of this? Google will not only know what you search for, what ads you click on, but they will also know exactly what you are subscribed to at a very intimate level…..they are going to know more about some people than their own family members may".

Perhaps it’s the fact that I come from a country that has more CCTV cameras per head of population than any other county in Western Europe (or the world), or my naive belief in the Google motto ‘Don’t do evil‘, but I believe that Google’s ultimate objective is to stay ahead of the game in providing a  search service that everyone wants to use because it finds what they are looking for!