Organiser Jeremy Gould reflects on BarcampUKGovweb. Added: January 27, 2008 About 1 and half mins.
About the event[]
What? includes "about creating a shared vision for UK government web activity", and Who should attend? includes "all who work in the UK government digital media community..., supporters, observers, and critics." Follow the external link above for more information on the what, why, etc.
Involvement[]
from the point of view of Sustainable Community Action
Public sector information 'worth billions'. Michael Cross: Revaluation of data 'should be cue for fresh thinking' including making the archive largely free, The Guardian, November 15 [3]topic
"The question now is how do we re-establish rules of the game that make it fair, make it meaningful to provide real efficacy for people - that's where we need to be thinking now - not shall we do it, but how do we do it. For me that has to be about a contract between the public and politicians that sets out very clear standards of engagement." Professor Stephen Coleman, November 2007 [4]topic
Less than 2% of charitable grants in the UK are directed to environmental charities and less than 5% of the £8bn of private donations in the UK go to environmental causes, despite growing public concern about the natural world. Source: Green Philanthropy, report by New Philanthropy Capital, October 2007
Futures for civil society, October 2007 [5] included a possibly surprising finding: "The application of technology has great strengths and has energised many parts of civil society, increasing the ability of associations to broaden their scope and the richness of connections. It was also seen as a good organising tool for collective action. However, technology was also seen by participants in the Inquiry workshops as a source of fragmentation and atomisation."
37 per cent of people feel they can influence decisions affecting their local area. 20 per cent feel they could influence decisions affecting Great Britain. Source: 2007 Citizenship Survey, Communities and Local Government. Both measures have fallen since 2001 where they were at 44 per cent and 25 per cent respectively.
"Our central recommendation is that communications should be redefined across government to mean a continuous dialogue (...) with all interested parties, encompassing a broader range of skills and techniques than those associated with media relations. The focus of attention should be the general public" - Recommendation no. 1 of the Phillis report, January 2004. (My emphasis). The Phillis report can be accesssed via Cabinet Office news