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1 comment: |
Anonymous said... |
There is a solution, or rather solutions to inflation. |
Robert Searle |
helenic: (elephant reaching to the moon) |
helenic ([personal profile] helenic) wrote2010-08-10 03:19 pm |
The elephant in the room: web activism and the state |
Below is the text of the talk I gave on Saturday at the dotActivist conference, with added hyperlinks. It was a really good day, and great to meet people and listen to the other talks. I was particularly pleased to finally understand the concept of the Pareto Front, and I thought the visionOntv project looked really in... |
Despite my nerves and the fact that I was the only speaker who didn't use slides, my talk seemed to go okay. I spoke from the below text rather than notes, but found it easier than I'd expected to speak conversationally rather than sticking woodenly to the script (although I did have to refer to it a couple of times wh... |
I'm Helen Lambert, I'm a web designer and developer by profession and have been involved in online activism for a few years. Last year I co-founded Police State UK, which is a civil liberties themed news and commentary site. |
We've already heard about some fascinating and useful web tools and techniques for activists to use. I want to come at the topic from a slightly different angle and talk about the interaction between web activists and the state. What is the role of online grassroots and third sector projects in opening up politics and ... |
The democratising power of the Internet |
Over the last ten years, co-operatives, charities and social enterprises have seen a significant period of expansion, with 55,000 new charities created since 2000. The voluntary sector has seen its income increase by £10 billion over the same period (source). This is partly thanks to the Internet. The web is a uniquely... |
In some cases, the Internet has acted as a direct interface between members of the public and politicians – such as the recent YourFreedom site, or web-savvy MPs making themselves more accessible to their constituents through Twitter or email. But it's also allowed inspired individuals to offer new public services via ... |
Huge numbers of third sector/voluntary projects are springing up online, offering feedback, oversight, or enhancements of public services, tools for activist and reformers, and innovative ways to improve our democracy. People have always been interested in this stuff, but the Internet has facilitated it in a unique way... |
There are a thousand examples of this sort of online, third-sector grassroots project. MySociety, who offer a range of online tools with the aim of teaching the public how they can use the internet to improve their lives and our democracy, are probably the most well-known. At the other end of the scale are projects lik... |
Not all of these are strictly non-profit. Some operate as consultancies or commercial businesses; others as charities or free services. What all these projects have in common is a vision of a service which needs providing or improving, and the freely chosen implementation of that vision by self-motivated people. Activi... |
Advantages and disadvantages of online social enterprise |
This kind of social enterprise has advantages and disadvantages. |
Web-based social projects usually have the advantage of being: |
• truly democratic |
• neutral |
• direct |
• efficient |
• quick and cheap to implement |
• not bogged down by bureaucracy and red tape |
• accessible |
• not biased by party politics or commercial interests |
• able to benefit from the direct advice of experts which government may ignore |
• appropriate, personal and tailored to the user |
• up to date. |
However, they also tend to have the following disadvantages: |
• lack of resources and funding |
• lack of breadth of perspective when the product of a small group |
• difficulty of scaling up, resulting in great ideas which are too thematically or geographically specific to be of use to everyone who is looking for that kind of service |
• lack of government support or sanction - resulting in projects which are ignored, duplicated and overtaken by well-meaning government departments, and sometimes actively squashed by a government that doesn't appreciate the competition. |
Although government is starting to make the right noises when it comes to effective use of the web, state-developed web tools are often wasteful, inefficient and off-putting to end-users. A Guardian article this week revealed that "The NHS spends up to £86m a year on thousands of websites that are difficult to find, ba... |
The web offers a unique environment for third sector innovation in tools which improve the interface between public and state. State projects, on the other hand, have the advantage when it comes to reach, resources and publicity. How can these two extremes find a compromise which makes a efficient use of the energy and... |
Government is an elephant |
Labour's government was the first under which the web became an important vehicle for activists. It didn't have the greatest track record when it came to effective collaboration with third party services. Public Strategist earlier this year wrote an article entitled Government is an elephant, in which it detailed the i... |
This suppression of third party services may be well-intentioned on the part of the government, who want to offer a satisfactory service themselves rather than relying on third parties. A public sector worker or civil servant may even have had the idea first, but the government engine has a notorious lag-time between i... |
• It often results in needless duplication of effort, where government bodies repeat work already done in the third sector at the taxpayer's expense, often less successfully or efficiently; |
• Third parties can be in a position to offer a better service than their official counterparts. The third sector moves faster than the government and tends to be more up to date. Third parties frequently benefit from expert advice which the government chooses not to take, and are better able to offer a neutral space... |
• Unwitting or not, the outcome of such unintentional government takeovers is to dissuade third parties from offering public services - which is surely detrimental to the health of our society. |
Now, no-one is arguing that the state should avoid offering essential services, or fail to improve simply because a tiny start-up somewhere is already doing somewhere similar. But if the government is serious about encouraging innovation and civil engagement, an obvious first step would be to acknowledge, support and w... |
One example of the "government as elephant" phenomenon which you're probably familiar with is myPolice.org, a grassroots feedback agent for national police forces, created by volunteers with expertise in service design and user experience. It aims to offer a forum for “constructive collaboration” between police officer... |
I was struck by the fact that, at the same time as bemoaning budget cuts and decreased resources, HMIC thought it made more sense to develop their own site from scratch, at great cost, and then fight a lengthy media row over the name - rather than to make use of the resources created by web activists who had already do... |
After a public battle HMIC changed the name of their project, and the mypolice.org.uk domain now leads to a disambiguation page linking to both their own and the original, grassroots project - a happy ending. MyPolice (.org) acknowledge that the two products are different and have different roles in improving service f... |
There are some positive counter-examples – such as the development of Directgov and data.gov.uk, which uses CKAN, a registry of open software developed by activist organisation the Open Knowledge Foundation. These definitely represent steps in the right direction. But when it comes to working with existing grassroots p... |
Web activism and the 'Big Society' |
So how much of this applies to the new Coalition government? Well, so far we don't have much data, but the question is especially interesting in the light of David Cameron's "Big Society" proposals. These would seem to be talking about government encouraging and engaging exactly this sort of grassroots innovation. Is i... |
In his video for the launch of the Big Society, Cameron said that he wants to empower people to run local services such as schools, post offices and transport networks. He said: "We need to create communities with oomph. Neighbourhoods that are in charge of their own destiny." (source) So far, the Big Society rhetoric ... |
There are already some examples of best practice when it comes to marrying locality and technology. FlockLocal, for instance, aims to harness the energy of flashmobs to organise spontaneous community volunteer events, inviting people to create 'flocks' (for instance to help paint a community centre' or search for flock... |
Interestingly, in origin Big Society concept draws heavily for its inspiration on the web, and specifically on some of the key concepts of the Web 2.0 era. I read an article recently on How To Think About the Future which informed me that these concepts were codified in a 2007 essay by Charles Leadbeter and Hilary Cott... |
This thinking must have seemed like gold dust to a government struggling to improve public services without increasing public spending, and perhaps goes some way towards explaining why the state is increasingly offering web based services. Not only does the web offer improved efficiency, but it reflects the Conservativ... |
A generation of innovators and activists had already been acting on this principle by the time government caught up, developing services that are more efficient, flexible and responsive than the unwieldy, centralised, impersonal state offerings already available. Now, on the face of it, this sort of third sector projec... |
One criticism of the proposals is that volunteers require just as much funding support as any professional setup; the idea that encouraging members of the public to innovate will save money is one we need to be careful with. Grassroots projects may be cheaper due to increased efficiency, but they also tend to be smalle... |
One of the big 'problems' which the Big Society seeks to address is the question of how government can stimulate greater civic engagement. It seems to be that this is answering a false question. Cameron would do better to ask how the government can collaborate effectively with the civic engagement which already exists. |
The elephant in the room |
Many campaigns are now advising members to use Big Society rhetoric in their funding bids and grant applications. It has already become a bandwagon for small projects to jump on in hopes of receiving badly-needed state resources and support. Some activists are worried by this developing trend of grassroots organisers t... |
Most social organisers acknowledge that the Big Society proposals seem similar to their own aims, but are cynical about whether it will result in any practical support for their project in practice. There do seem to be some key ideological and practical obstacles: |
• Firstly, all the publicity and commentary about the Big Society to date concerns offline, local community volunteer projects. Web activism and online services seem to be the elephant in the room when it comes to the state's agenda. Despite promising rhetoric concerning tech and open data, this doesn't seem to have ... |
• Third sector projects can offer a unique contribution to society - a non-state-sanctioned voice necessary to provide services, such as watchdog or feedback agent. Neutral third parties often have a unique advantage in avoiding party political or commercial bias. It is unclear to what extent this advantage would be ... |
• Activism, social or political reform movements don't seem to be included in the Big Society mission statement, which is more about encouraging state-sanctioned volunteer contributions. There is an important distinction to be made between grassroots service providers, who seek to enhance the services already offered... |
• Web activism operates independently of the state by definition; as soon as volunteers are pursuing the state's agenda, or are trained, briefed or curated by the state, they are arguably no longer grassroots or activist. While astroturfing and crowdstamping (where the government goes through the motions of consultin... |
• Liam Barrington-Bush of Concrete Solutions has argued that the biggest thing missing from the Big Society idea is trust. Enforcing and regulating grassroots projects does not encourage innovation, and any attempt to control activism will inevitably put people off. The government apparently does not trust society to... |
• Few social innovators would say that the best way forward is for grassroots enterprises to replace state-curated public services entirely. It cannot be denied (despite attempts from the Coalition) that the Big Society agenda is being developed at the same time as a frightening level of public sector cuts. Fears tha... |
Certain aspects of the Big Society proposals, then, seem to be missing the point. Firstly, the complete absence of web services from the dialogue seems a worrying omission for a government ostensibly committed to improving the use of technology in public services. Secondly, the point of some third sector services is no... |
Contrary to the implications of the Big Society rhetoric, web activism and grassroots social enterprise does not flourish only when the government disengages. Instead, as journalist Hopi Sen argued recently, innovators should be able to use government as a tool to help develop public services: "you won’t get a big soci... |
Here is the sort of state engagement which social innovators have said would be useful to their project: |
Abi Broom of MySociety told me: "Our project FixMyStreet interacts with local authorities on a daily basis - some of them love the idea, some think it's an annoyance because they have an existing system that they'd prefer everybody used instead. But it's not just about us badgering the state – My Society would love the... |
Simply Understand has a more campaign-oriented goal for institutional change. Corinne Pritchard said: "Eventually, I'd like this idea of speaking plainly and clearly to be the first thing a government thinks about when it gets out of bed in the morning! We need to strip away this idea that authority comes from your ab... |
Richard of edemocracyblog, which offers in-depth commentary on how government can be improved using techonology, said: "I think the big thing is really a basic point about using the Internet for engagement. Any number of experts will say that the point about discussing things online is that you don't ask people to come... |
Despite the rhetoric, then, government still has a way to go when it comes to effective collaboration with online activism. The Big Society proposes that citizen volunteering should close the gap that currently exists between public service demand and resources. It seems to me that it's up to government to close a diff... |
simont: (Default) |
[personal profile] simont 2010-08-10 02:43 pm (UTC)(link) |
(Markup glitch: <a href="<a href="http://www.mypolice.org/">">MyPolice</a> should read <a href="http://www.mypolice.org/">MyPolice</a> .) |
Wednesday, March 17, 2010 |
Do you Ring? |
I was doing a little research for a friend on wedding rings, symbolism, history - and I came across some FASCINATING information that I'd like to use somewhere in a WIP. |
Check this link out for the website + info that inspired me... |
It was a while back that I paid a visit to the Henry Ford Museum in Detroit with my family. That museum isn't just about cars. They have a lot of stuff there, sharing the history of peoples who lived in this area. Some of it is history you can touch. Others are enclosed behind glass cases with information posted nearby... |
It was here I realized that people did not always exchange actual rings upon getting married. Only the wealthy or upper classes had money to purchase gold rings (or such) for their brides. Some people were more into hair and brooches - something that really grossed me out at the time, actually. |
During the recent research too, I discovered - |
1. Guys only recently started wearing wedding rings. They did so during WWII, as a reminder of the gals back home while they were fighting. Historically, only women received that particular item as a part of the wedding. Guys DID wear rings for other reasons, just not to show they were taken. |
2. The wedding ring used to symbolize ownership - as in, the woman was property of the guy who wed her. |
3. The ring's circular shape symbolizes eternity, which is why it came to be used as a particular symbol of marriage. <- This despite the fact that divorces DID happen during ancient times, particularly Rome. |
4. The EGYPTIANS were the first to begin wearing wedding rings. I know I shouldn't be surprised, but still, I didn't expect that. |
More to the point, the above link had two items which almost caused a FLASH for me - |
The Greek and Roman bridegroom often gave a ring to the bride's father-a practice that was probably a survival of primitive bride purchase. In the second century B. C., the Roman bride was presented with a gold ring. But this she wore only in public. Such a ring was much too precious to wear while tending to household ... |
I was thinking - WOW. Can you imagine receiving a ring that is really a key that opens something special? Yes, I know this has been done before, but I'm still thinking about the possibilities here. |
And elsewhere, I came across this: |
To Obey |
Although the Ancient Romans placed a ring on the fourth finger of their wives hands, the practice had little to do with love and devotion. Rather, wives were a possession to the Romans and the ring was a sign of ownership. Ancient Roman women had no voice in this decision; there was no proposal. Once the women were cap... |
The above was taken from here. |
And also this: |
Some 2000 years ago, Asian puzzle rings were commonly used as wedding bands. It is said that sheiks and sultans required each of their wives to wear one as a pledge of fidelity while he was away. |
If for some reason, the woman removed her ring, it would fall apart and be very difficult to put back together without knowing the answer to the puzzle. |
The first is a historical romance writer's DREAM. Heheh. And it could work in fantasy too, especially if you are trying to get away from earthian (and Christian) influences. |
The other one - |
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