Public Sector Information in Action 2009

William Perrin TAL Talk About Local Empowering communities with simple websites Hyperlocal websites and public sector information PSI In Action Caledonian Club 20 October 2009 William Perrin - william@talkaboutlocal.org Talk About Local (West Midlands) Ltd http://talkaboutlocal.org

www.kingscrossenvironment.com over 700 articles Four volunteer writers – aged 40-65 Small number of authors Campaigns, information, wildlife, events etc

Cemex campaign – long running anti social plant operations

Videos of noise pollution in YouTube – unarguable prima facie case

Send links to CEMEX CEO UKMEA and Council noise officers

Successful resolution – plant restructured

www.digbeth.org Digbeth gritty industrial area of South B’ham Arts, events, positive stories Digbeth is Good redefined image of Digbeth on line Costs - £10/month Wordpress blog

Stoke-on-Trent www.pitsnpots.co.uk Campaigning, challenging style Reflects local frustration at political scene 3 writers, 28,000 comments on local politics Wordpress site £20 a month

www.harringayonline.com Nearly 2,000 members Green Lanes Chatty informal feel Wide range of local issues £15 month

www.sheffieldforum.co.uk discussion forum 3.7 million posts 85,000 registered users Population Sheffield 450,000

www.parwich.org Four or more writers Village life – popn. 400 400 views a day £10 per month Wordpress.com site

TAL(WM)Ltd SME using UK online centre network of trainers for national reach and leverage

UK online centres reach out to engage activists in their communities

Community sites in over 150 places across England

Engage 3,000 people

Give people confidence and support to create local sites using free tools

Online support network and website

Built using West Midlands talent

http://kingtonblackboard.org http://Kingtonblackboard.org UK online centre – Marches Access Point Started August 2009 with TAL Rural town life and news Wordpress site

http://W14london.ning.com Deprived area of West London Started August 2009 – with TAL and local NDC Local discussion and information Over 100 members already Ning.com site – cost £zero

Public Sector Information in action Street light broken for 163 days From snagging to failure Can performance data help hold to account?

Took a lifetime to find relevant information on web Street light repair – Islington average 26.5 days Lever for getting things done Light gets fixed due to this and other factors

Superb local information service – easy to use and comprehensible Abstract information made useful Endangered by post codes madness What does Royal Mail spend £18 million pa on?

Planning - to exercise democratic rights, need to know: Existence Document Meaning of document Route for comment Deadlines Consultation process Meeting timetable Results of meeting…..

Whitehall Townhall Blackhall

New front end on over 300 public service outlets National service layer beyond capability of CLG Radical unified interface for hundreds of often poor services Basic PSI critical – boundaries, post codes, maps, email addresses

Excellent pooling of feeds But Council Information retrieved often hard to understand for machines and people– eg officers powerpoint and meeting minutes @countculture

RSS and other feeds of local information Works with local Lichfield blog Don’t need to be a big unitary to do this

BCC DIY Functional rebuild by volunteers of £2.8m Birmingham City Council site For a while you could even PAY your council tax through the site £38,000 (estimate) Arguably most radical grass roots web project in this space right now

Public bodies need to engage with local sites and offer them your PSI (as Bham are doing here) Find out what they are talking about and see what you have to help them Buy pizza, beer etc – better investment than cost of one day's consultant form an SI

William Perrin TAL If your organisation wants to create local websites for your community(ies) or discuss how you can unlock your local information contact us at talk about local. William Perrin - william@talkaboutlocal.org Talk About Local (West Midlands) Ltd http://talkaboutlocal.org