Ploddledygook: when the police try to be overly corporate. My favourite was from Lincolnshire Police: "The ambition of Lincolnshire Police is to: focus on the citizen, achieve the highest standards of professionalism, deliver excellent performance and so inspire confidence amongst the people we serve." "Could they have an ambition to Read more…
The Audit of Political Engagement series is the Hansard Society’s annual political check-up of the nation’s health. It includes original poll data from surveys conducted by Ipsos MORI, which allow yearly comparisons to be made about the British public’s attitude to politics and their level of engagement with the political Read more…
Someone told the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham that YouTube is a good way to engage with people. Nobody told them not to use it as a way of distributing spin. This video just invites criticism because of the way it is so obviously spin with the fake newspapers. Read more…
Last night I was chatting with a friend about how straight-talking the Aussies are compared to the English. His example was that if he’s wearing a bad jumper out there they’ll tell him that he looks like a gnome. Then this morning I see the Kick a Migrant site produced Read more…
What do you do if the public vote for the "wrong" name? If you’re Blue Peter you do a cover-up. If you’re Greenpeace you smile about it and be thankful for all the publicity that has been created for your anti-whaling campaign. [hat-tip to The Bristol Blogger and Bloggerheads]
As part of a Ministry of Justice funded Innovations Fund project, we’re involved in giving a presentation tomorrow to a group of Councillors at Norfolk County Council on the ways that are / could be used to engage with constituents via the internet. Here’s the long list I have at Read more…
We first got involved with The Scarman Trust a couple of years ago during the development of CampaignCreator. They were tasked with coaching members of the community on how to campaign and how to use the site.
Since then I’ve got to know them and their work in the South West a little better. At the moment we’re producing a marketing campaign for a series of guides they have produced to help communities help themselves.
Another cornerstone of their work is in dispersing small grants to creative and energetic members of communities to help with community cohesion. It is a programme called Community Champions. Unfortunately the DfES, before it was reorganised, decided to stop funding the programme and The Scarman Trust are working hard to save it. They have started a petition to save community champions on the Number 10 Downing Street site and I’ve signed it. I hope you will too.
The petition copy reads:
Nick Palmer is one of the more online MPs in Westminster. Nothing too flash but he does write a regular email to 2,399 constituents in Broxtowe, Notts. This week he talked about the "niceness" of small town America and compared it to Europe: When I lived in Switzerland, I was Read more…
Hans Rosling has presented at TED again. More statistics, more original views of world poverty and development and an extraordinary way to finish a presentation. It is well worth spending 20 minutes watching. (Hat tip: Andrew Brown)
David Ian has invested a fortune into the stage version of Grease. For the next run of the show he has invited members of the public to choose Sandy and Danny from 16 hopefuls who auditioned. It’s a big risk but it was fascinating on Saturday to watch how he Read more…