Public Sector Web Network

The Intranet is not a single system

Carl Haggerty — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 07:22:34 +0000

This post is not about stating anything new…but merely sharing some thoughts…

In my new role I am also responsible for the councils Intranet, which is currently not fit for purpose as the core technology for content, much like our public website is using an outdated technology, it doesn’t support dynamic content and is generally poorly managed.

No one is to blame for that, we are where we are…but it is clear that we need to change the way we operate around the intranet in order to provide more efficient internal communications and better access to internal services and business processes.

One area which is often hard for people to get to grips with is that the Intranet is not a single system…you may have a content management system which presents your content and manages the intranet homepage, but this is only part of your intranet’s ecosystem…So when people refer to the intranet being rubbish or poor, they are generally referring to the top level content and the look and feel of templates…which fortunately is something we can do something about…But the whole ecosystem needs to fit together in order for an intranet to be useful and usable.

I’ve written before on Intranet’s here, here and here and this is an opportunity to get a broader view on the way forward and have a conversation about the core business purpose and not about the underlying technology, which is where my focus in the past has been.

A few weeks back I put together a single side of A4 on the core purpose and some strategic assumptions in order to frame and inform the future direction and creation of an Intranet Strategy, It was kind of quick and dirty but did the job as we now have a collective acceptance to the current picture…which certainly helps when agreeing a future direction.

This is what I wrote:

Core Purpose

The Intranet should aim to be the number one business support tool for all staff across the council.

The ultimate purpose for our intranet (the source) is to contribute to the Council’s strategic objectives by establishing an internal communications network which is able to provide an efficient, internal service-delivery mechanism accessible from anywhere and at any time.

Typical intranet objectives would be:

enabling high levels of employee involvement (2 way dialogue) and productivity.
support collaboration, information sharing and connecting with colleagues (staff directory).
facilitating business efficiency (employee self service tools).
to become a key repository (the source) for information to assist people in their roles.

Strategic Assumptions

The current Intranet platform is no longer fit for purpose.
The Intranet is part of the councils wider web presence which also includes the public website and extranet capabilities and should be seen in this context when considering and planning technology solutions.
The intranet is not a single system, it is an ecosystem of platforms, tools and applications which contribute to the core purpose above. Note: we will need to understand the relationship between the new desktop, extranet and a new redefined intranet.
The intranet should be available to all staff regardless of location.
The intranet should make it possible for all staff to contribute to the knowledge repository through formal and informal routes.
The information structure should focus on the user perspective and not on the organisation structure. As an example, Figure 1 shows a context diagram for intranet services from an end-users perspective.

Presentations from Epic Social Media Scotland

Team PSWN — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 23:14:19 +0000

Here are all the presentations from the event in Glasgow in September. The only one we are missing is Stuart’s about mobile apps, which will be added to this page as soon as possible!

Jo Smith – Argyll and Bute Council

Download the slides.

Corrinne Douglas – Stirling Council

Download the slides.

Dan Slee – Walsall Council

Download the slides.

Sarah Lay – Derbyshire County Council

Download the slides.

Gary McGraw – Scottish Health Council

Download the slides.

Stuart Harrison – Lichfield District Council

Coming soon!

Epic Social Media Scotland – what was talked about

Team PSWN — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 22:48:10 +0000

In this video, various speakers chat about the topics that were under discussion on the day.

Epic Social Media Scotland – the video introduction

Team PSWN — Sun, 02 Oct 2011 22:45:39 +0000

In this video – featuring Dave’s dulcet tones (but luckily no jokes) – we get a flavour of the event last month and a bit of insight into what it was all about.

Sarah’s summary of Epic Social Media Scotland

Team PSWN — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 22:32:26 +0000

Sarah Lay was one of our speakers at Epic Social Media Scotland, and on her blog she published a write up of the day. We’ve reproduced it below:

I had a great time this week speaking at the Epic Social Media for the Public Sector event in Glasgow this week and thought I’d do a quick round-up of the presentations and the thoughts that occurred to me.

Slides and videos for the presentations will be available on the Public Sector Web Network website soon and there is also lots of good soundbites from the day on the #epicsm hashtag.

Here’s a brief overview of the presentations and speakers:

Jo Smith, Argyll and Bute Council
Feel the social media fear and do it anyway

Jo gave an insightful and honest presentation about taking inspiration from a similar, previous event and applying that at her council.

She went through the benefits of using social media to listen, communicate and engage as well as giving some practical tips to get the most out of certain tools.

She mentioned in her talk a flow-chart she uses to help make a decision on whether an official response is needed and there was lots of interest in it from delegates. I think the one Jo was based on one by the US Air Force and another version of that I’ve seen mentioned lots before is by Michael Grimes of the Citizenship Foundation – you can see it and download it here. It’s published under a Creative Commons licence so you can re-use it as long as it isn’t for commercial gain.

Following up on this theme Jo took masterclasses in the afternoon about dealing with negative comments online. You can follow her on twitter at @geordiejo-jo.

Corrinne Douglas, Stirling Council
Engagement, engagement, engagement – how to make the most of your social media presence

Corrinne gave some great practical examples of how they’ve been using social media at Stirling Council including Waste Wednesday – a weekly chat curated around a hashtag; Bag It Bin It campaign; and closed Facebook groups for peer and council support in social care.

What was really interesting for me was the measurable outcomes Corrinne had seen as a result of these campaigns – this is the point of using social media for me, not the number of followers on the corporate twitter account but measurable impact on delivery or demand for services.

In the afternoon Corrinne hosted masterclasses on using Facebook. You can follow her on Twitter at@corrinnedouglas.

Dan Slee, Walsall MBC
How real-time social media campaigns can make routine tasks sexy

Dan gave a practical approach to running a real-time social media campaign to raise awareness of the diversity and importance of tasks from public sector organisations as well as build internal engagement in the social media presence.

His own experience was with #walsall24 but he also spoke about online events run by Greater Manchester Police, Water Aid and the #whatwedo campaign which was taking place at the time with 28 Scottish councils tweeting for 24-hours about their services.

Dan ran afternoon masterclasses on using Twitter from setting up a corporate account to running a large-scale multiple-account event. You can follow him on Twitter at @danslee.

Gary McGrow, NHS Scotland
Using social media in NHS Scotland

Gary’s presentation provided some good background stats about how people are using the internet and how the numbers are now stacking up on use of social media.

He then gave some insight into how NHS Scotland are making use of social media and also hosted masterclasses about this in the afternoon.

Stuart Harrison, Lichfield District Council
Rise of the Planet of the Apps

Stuart gave a good overview of the importance of mobile-friendly sites and apps as well as some not-too-technical advice on how to achieve this.

He also spoke about the increasing prevalence of QR codes, their possible applications for the public sector and gave the example of QRPedia as an example of how it’s already being used.

Stuart’s masterclass was about mobile, apps and QR as well. You can follow him on Twitter at @pezholio.

And then there was me talking about – Derbyshire Votes: real-time reporting of local elections 2009

The first time I’ve ever done a presentation like this so hopefully my case study of Derbyshire’s use of social media to present real-time results of the local election back in 2009 was useful to some!

I’ve blogged before in more detail about what we did and you can see those posts here – before polling dayand what we did on results day.

While elections are directly relevant to councils I think the principles of real-time reporting can be transferred to other areas of the public or education sector – colleges may use it around results time for example or other agencies may need to employe this sort of tactic during adverse weather / other crisis comms.

I took masterclasses in the afternoon about elections, blogging and real-time reporting and you can follow me here or on Twitter at @sarahlay.

Other masterclasses

As well as the masterclasses taken by the speakers there were also sessions by Dave Briggs on process and strategy; Andrew Beeken on low-cost video production; sponsor RepKnight on social media monitoring (other sponsors of the event were Jadu and Squiz).

So that was EpicSM Scotland. I learnt lots from the delegates that came along and I’m looking forward to seeing how they develop the ideas they spoke to me about.

Rumour has it the event may be heading to England’s South West next but if you’re interested in attending a future event do pester Dave Briggs or Nick Hill about it.

Introduction to Public Sector Digital Engagement LONDON & SE

Team PSWN — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 09:23:54 +0000

Tuesday 25th October 2011

Feedback from previous Digital Engagement workshop

The workshop provided me with a better understanding of the advantages & pitfalls of social media - Tourism Development Officer, Ceredigion County Council
The workshop was informative and lent itself well to interaction with well thought out activities - PR Officer, Coleg Morgannwg
Useful insights and experiences shared. Very knowledgable and practical. - Information Systems Consultant, Newport City Council
Dave is very engaging and informative - E-Communications Officer, Mid & West Wales Fire & Rescue Service
Very engaging and knowledgable - Head of Consumer Strategy, Remploy
Interesting. Good use of examples. Relaxed interactive discussions. Good mix of activities & discussions - PR Officer, Coleg Morgannwg

We are delighted to announce this workshop introducing Public Sector organisations to the opportunity offered by the web and social media to enable effective engagement with citizens and communities.

Facilitated by Kind of Digital’s Director, Dave Briggs, who has a wealth of experience advising government on digital engagement at all levels; from small local authorities to 10 Downing Street – attendees will come away with a full grasp of the background and potential of this work as well as a practical toolkit to get underway.

The agenda, a blended mixture of engaging talks, group discussion and practical exercises, will include the following sessions:

How local authorities can use the web and social networks to engage citizens and communities
Case studies of good practice use of emerging technology to engage by those involved in local government
How to develop a digital engagement strategy for your work
Choosing the right tools and approach to meet your objectives
Getting around organisational barriers to implementing your plan
Further support

As well as the training on the day, attendees will benefit from post-event support and learning. This includes exclusive access to a follow-up web conference and an online support forum.

Click here to book your place.

AGENDA

9.30am: Registration

10.00am: Introductions and housekeeping

10.15am What is digital engagement, and why is it important?

* The background to digital engagemen
* The opportunities it offers for local government

10.45am: Introducing the digital engagement toolkit

* What are the key tools?
* How have they been used across the public sector

11:15am: The importance of a strategic approach

* Why having a strategic approach to social media activity matters
* The best way to balance strategy and experimentation

11.30am: Coffee break

11.45pm: Strategy development workshop – writing your own digital engagement strategy

* Objectives
* Implementation
* Evaluation
* Risk management

1.00pm: Lunch break

1.45pm: Overcoming barriers

* What are the blockers in many organisations for getting social media activity going?
* How to manage them

2.15pm: Planning a social media campaign exercise

* Group exercise to design effective social media projects, using the right tools and involving the right people

3.45pm: Coffee break

3.55pm: Social media question time

* An opportunity to ask questions of the group and facilitator to work out issues in more depth

4.25pm: Close and next steps

* Further online support: webinars and forum

4.30pm: Workshop ends

Delegate Costs : If you book your place before 19th August, you receive the benefit of an early bird discount, so don’t delay!

Early bird price – £200 + VAT
Standard price – £250 + VAT

Address:
CCT Venues Smithfield
2 East Poultry Avenue
London
EC1A 4PT
Map and Directions

Start Time: 9:30 am
End Time: 4:30 pm

Click here to book your place.

The Role of the Facilitator in Building and Sustaining Communities of Practice

Stephen Dale — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 15:04:48 +0000

I have the honour of being invited to present at the XIII Seminari Compartim L’e-moderador i altres nous agents de coneixement a les organitzacions on 21^stSeptember 2011. The event is sponsored by Generaliti de Cataluña, centre d’Estudis Juridics, I Formacio Especialitzada.

This post is a brief preamble to my presentation.

Background

My experience of knowledge sharing in organizations stems mainly from my involvement in setting up Communities of Practice (CoPs) for UK local government. This was part of a broader Knowledge Management strategy that I was commissioned to deliver for the Improvement and Development Agency (now part of Local Government Group -LGG). An online collaboration platform was launched in 2006 to support self-organizing, virtual communities of local government and other public sector staff. The purpose was to improve public sector services by sharing knowledge and good practice.

Over the past 5 years, the community platform has grown to support over 1.500 CoPs, with more than 100,000 registered users. This has lead to many service improvement initiatives, from more efficient procurement and project planning to more effective inter-agency collaboration in delivering front-line services, such as health and social care. It has also provided some useful information on the dynamics of social collaboration and community management, e.g. the factors that influence the success of a community.

What does a successful CoP look like?

Success will of course depend on the purpose of the community. Some CoPs have been set up as networks for learning and sharing; others have a defined output, e.g. developing new practice for adult social care. It is clearly more difficult to establish success criteria for a CoP dedicated to knowledge sharing than it is for – say – a CoP that has a tangible output. Success for the former will rely on more subjective analysis than for the latter, where there will probably be more tangible evidence of an output, e.g. a policy document or case study.

However, rather than argue and debate the criteria for assessing the “success” of a CoP (or other organizational learning system), I’d prefer to consider how we monitor and assess the “health” of a CoP. For this approach I think we have to consider the analogy of a CoP to a living and breathing organism.

A healthy CoP will show clear signs of life; this can be assessed using various quantitative indicators, such as:

Number of members
Rate of growth of the community
Number and frequency of documents uploaded.
Number and frequency of documents read or downloaded.
Number and frequency of new blog posts
Number and frequency of forum posts
Number and frequency of comments
Number of page views per session
Time spent on the CoP per browser session

…etc.

Not that any one of these indicators in isolation will indicate the good health of a CoP, but taken together they can give a general perspective of how vibrant and active the community is.

Continuing with the analogy of a living, breathing organism, different CoPs will have different metabolisms, some may be highly active; others may be fairly sedate. Understanding the community ‘rhythm’ is a key aspect of knowing when any intervention is required in order to maintain this rhythm. Not all CoPs are going to be vibrant and active all of the time; there may be periods of relative inactivity as a natural part of the CoP lifecycle. But it’s important to know the difference between a CoP that is going through a regular period of inactivity and a CoP that is moribund.

A point to note: inactive CoPs may not necessarily be a cause for concern. One reason for inactivity could be that the CoP has served its purpose and its members have moved on. In which case the knowledge assets of the CoP need to be published and celebrated and the CoP either closed, or (with the agreement of the members) re-purposed to a new topic or outcome.

So, understanding the vital life-signs and metabolism of a CoP is a fundamental part of ensuring the continued good health of the CoP, and therefore more likely to achieve its goals. And the key to the continued good health of a CoP is knowing how and when to intervene when one or more of the life-signs begins to falter. Without wishing to labour my analogy of the living, breathing organism too much, it’s the equivalent of knowing when someone is not feeling too well and administering the appropriate medicine. [See concluding section for symptoms and potential cures for an ailing CoP.]

The Online Facilitator/e-Moderator

Where does the CoP facilitator or e-moderator come into all of this? Well, I mentioned earlier that over the 5 years since its inception, the Local Government CoP strategy has provided some useful information on the dynamics of social collaboration and community management. For example, there is clear evidence that the CoPs that have full or part-time facilitation/e-moderation are much more likely to succeed than those that rely entirely on self-organization, and/or where there are no clearly defined roles or responsibilities.

The most successful CoPs (and I should clarify here that I’m using “success’ to mean “in good health”) are those where there is more than one facilitator/e-moderator and where interventions by the facilitator/e-moderator are frequent and predictable. This may take various forms, such as regular polls of the CoP members; regular e-bulletins or newsletters; a schedule of events (face to face or virtual); regular input to Forum posts and threads, seeding new conversations; back-channeling to make connections between members of the CoP; etc.

In other words, show me a good and effective CoP facilitator/e-moderator and I can show you – in all probability – a healthy and successful CoP (or similar organizational knowledge sharing community).

The Role and Responsibilities

I’ve often been asked “what makes a good community facilitator/e-moderator?” This is a difficult one, and I’m of the opinion that it is more of an art than a science. The technical administration functions of the role can be taught, but the good facilitators/e-moderators that I have met bring another dimension to the role, i.e. empathy with, and understanding of, human behaviours and personalities. Something that I suspect comes with experience rather than a pedagogical approach. What I do think is important is having some knowledge (not necessarily ‘expert’ status) and enthusiasm for the topic or theme of the CoP (also referred to as the ‘domain of knowledge’). This will help where interventions are necessary, and the community members are more likely to appreciate the facilitator/e-moderator as one of their own.

There have been various papers and blogs published about the role and responsibilities of an online CoP facilitator or e-Moderator, but maybe the following diagram captures the essence of the role.

Facilitator Role

(click to enlarge)

(Diagram re-worked from an original by Dion Hinchcliffe)

Conclusion

In conclusion, and continuing with my theme of ‘health’ in relation to organizational knowledge systems, such as CoPs, the following is a summary of the symptoms and suggested interventions for an ailing CoP . This has been adapted from some original work by Patti Anklam, and informed by Michael Norton at Local Government Group (see Acknowledgements).

Community Health Checks

As mentioned earlier, the life cycle of a community will be subject to a particular rhythm, which can vary from CoP to CoP. Understanding this rhythm will help inform if and when specific interventions are necessary.

Participation can wane; the number of posts slow down; fewer people show up; only a few people are generating plans for the next activity. But not all lapses in content and contribution mean a community’s life is over. In many cases, some specific diagnosis and actions can reinvigorate a community.

Identifying the Symptoms

The “actions” in the table below are suggested primarily for community facilitators/e-moderators but in fact any CoP member can take the initiative to rejuvenate the community.

Symptom	Actions
No participation or activity. No new documents or links posted. No new discussion threads, announcements or news.	Post new content, requesting feedback and comments to elicit new conversation.Remind people to set alerts for the site. Talk to members to find out what people are working on and ask people what they would like to see on it.
Activity only by a few people.	Call or email members who haven’t participated for a while; find out why they haven’t been participating. Use those conversations to elicit new content and encourage contribution.Also be sure that the people who are not contributing understand how to use the tools. Never assume that tools are “intuitive” to everyone, or that everyone understands how to use them.
People use email instead of posting questions and discussions on the CoP.	The email habit is a hard one to break. If the goal of the community is to capture all the relevant discussions for future use, then the community facilitator needs to take a strong stand with members.One way to do this is to make a public statement that no questions sent by individual email will be answered, but that questions posted to the community will always be answered in set time. Another approach is to respond to all email questions by asking the requestor to post the question in the forum.
Sudden drop in discussions where there was previous activity.	If there was a lot of active discussion and then it quickly dies out. Review the postings for potential “flaming”. Edit the discussion threads to remove inappropriate comments (and state that you have done so). Speak with the people who have posted and clarify the norms for participation of the community.
Another community is focused on the same topic.	If the members of the other community are current or previous members of your community, talk to them about why the community isn’t meeting their needs. If they do want to take a specific focus, then be sure that you have set up cross-linkages to the other community sites, and are referring people back and forth as needed.If the new community consists of people who are not participating in the current community, ask some of the same questions. See if there is sufficient overlap that the new community might be better managed as a Sub – CoP of the current site or a merger between the communities.

Reinvigoration

Community facilitation/e-moderation is about creating and sustaining relationships, not just the facilitators’/e-moderator’s relationships with the individual members, but the members’ relationships among themselves. Reinvigorating the community involves restoring “social capital” to the community in a way that motivates and encourages people to re-engage and commit. The table below lists some practical interventions – things you can do to alter the current dynamics – that can have a positive impact on the community.

Reinvigoration of Communities

Intervention	Potential Impact on Community
Request sponsor support.	Talk to the sponsors of the community.If the sponsor expects the community to be collaborating and operating as a community, ask them to show some visible support to the community, invite them to participate, or to spend time with the community reviewing the community site and making suggestions and providing resources to support it.
Informal get-togethers (face-to-face or virtual).	Face to face (or online or phone) meetings can range from very informal to highly formal and structured. It’s important to give people a reason to show up – but once people are together they have the opportunity to make or renew acquaintance, find topics of common interest, and share recent experiences.
Communicate more frequently.	Create a “newsletter” that consists of items describing what may (or may not) be happening in the community, but also what different community members may be doing. You may need to call or get in touch directly with a number of individuals to elicit their “news.”
Back channelling.	A personal phone call (or a meeting) is a good way to connect one-on-one to find out people’s concerns or to hear what might be in the way of participation. For example, a community member may not be getting support from his/her manager to participate.
Invite new members.	Often the way to move a community from a “stuck” to a state of activity is to introduce new members who are more outgoing, or who will ask a lot of questions of existing members.New members introduce new ideas, alter some of the behaviour patterns and bring new connections and knowledge into the group
Have a guest speaker (Hotseat).	Bringing new ideas from outside speakers often helps a community to shift its thinking and generate new ideas. This idea can be adapted into an online event in which people from multiple disciplines are invited to contribute to a topic over a period of time.
Change the community purpose.	If a community has “run out of steam,” it may be time to retire the community (with celebration!), and move on to something new.Often if a community has built a lot of social capital and wants to stay together, they can decide on a new topical area to focus on, and create a new community or repurpose the existing community.
Develop facilitation/e-moderation skills.	If a goal of the community is to engage in discussions and there is little activity, it might be good to find out how others facilitators/e-moderators go about this. Join one of the growing number of groups and communities of facilitators/e-moderators, or do a bit of ‘crowd sourcing’ on Twitter, Facebook or other social networks for answers to specific questions. If you can’t find a suitable community of facilitators/e-moderators, consider starting one for your organization!

Acknowledgements

Patti Anklam: http://www.pattianklam.com
Michael Norton: http://mik0ton.wordpress.com/
Dion Hinchcliffe: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hinchcliffe

Steve Dale
Director
Collabor8now Ltd

Make users happy by focusing on top tasks

Team PSWN — Sun, 18 Sep 2011 20:50:51 +0000

Continuing the debate about top tasks (or not top tasks), Michele Ide-Smith from Cambridgeshire County Council outlines her views in a post on her blog.

Now as a local gov web manager, I am painfully aware of the constraints we all work under as Council web teams. Resources and budget can be limited and Council websites can be sprawling, monstrous beasts to control, maintain and improve. And then there’s the governance issues and organisational politics we all have to deal with. Politics with a small ‘p’ and a big ‘P’. But with a bit of determination and a focus on top tasks, I think we really can improve the experience of citizens who have no choice but to Council websites to access certain public services.

She goes on to list some important points to bear in mind:

Don’t believe what users say, observe what they do through regular, remote user testing sessions
Get control of your content
Re-design your information architecture so there is just one way to navigate to top tasks
Don’t let the tiny tasks get in the way of the top tasks

Interesting stuff and everything is dealt with in more detail in the original post.

Trimming the long tail

Dave Briggs — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 10:21:55 +0000

James Coltham recently published a great post on the stripping back of content on corporate websites, with a focus on local authorities.

Now is not the time to be cutting back our websites – quite the opposite. We’re seeing huge cuts in print and comms budgets meaning less posters, leaflets, adverts and other means of getting information to people. We’re seeing a huge rise in the request for information, informally or through time-consuming FOI requests. We’re seeing the public increasingly demand corporate accountability and openness. We’re seeing web or mobile web access hitting unprecedented new heights, empowering more and more citizens to reach out and grab the information that they need, when they need it.

Well worth reading the whole thing, where there are some really interesting comments too.

BRILLIANT: A new Flickr group for local government

Dan Slee — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 08:21:28 +0000

It’s quite mad to think that there wasn’t a Flickr group for local government.

Snow ploughs? Yes. There’s two groups. There’s more you can shake a stick at for libraries and museums but there was nothing for the overall umbrella institution of local government.

So, after a bit of messing about there’s now the Local Government Does Brilliant Things Flickr group. Feel free to have a nose around and explore it.

What’s there? A whole array. This Japanese election poster with a man and a lapdog is stunning. So is Brian doing the bins. And as for the Korean school dinner… that’s about as far away from the pink custard of my school days as it’s possible to get.

Amazingly, after two weeks there’s now more than 400 images posted to the new group from several dozen Flickr streams. The excellent US blogger, Gov 20 Radio host, Flickr user and advocate for Nation Builder Adriel Hampton has got behind it too with this blog post which is rather great to see.

What is Flickr?

It’s a social photography website that people, clubs and organisations have been using in growing numbers. Or six billion to be exact. That’s the number of images uploaded so far.

You join and upload images and you can post them to an array of different groups with a common theme.

Yes, local government can be a frustrating institution at times and when it’s done badly it can be as horrid as the little girl in the story. But even it’s fiercest critic must admit that local government does some really good things. It’s by celebrating them that we ensure it’ll be around in the future.

Celebrate the routine stuff…

I’m becoming increasingly interested in the routine things that local government does. We’re hopeless at shouting about the day-to-day things that get taken for granted. That’s the play equipment, the park, the roads we drive on the school bus or 700 other services.

It’s fascinating to look through what’s been posted to the local government Flickr pool so far to see shots of routine tasks being done elsewhere in the world.

Yes, there’s a place for the set piece media ribbon cutting shot. But the routine shots of people just doing everyday things for me are what really stand out. All to often what we think is everyday is actually a really vital service to someone else’s parents.

So, you’re no David Bailey. What can you do?

It would be really fantastic if you could post some too. They really don’t have to be a staggeringly good quality. A camera phone will do.

Just so long as there’s something of local government in them.

Originally published on Dan’s own blog.