WHERE NEXT FOR LOCAL
GOVERNMENT?
From Ordnance Survey to Google Street View
Emer Coleman
London Alliances Project Director
June 2009

New Public Communicative
Management Government
Rationalist, Hegel, Marx, Empiricist, Hume,
Philosophical Tradition
Positivist, Historicist Burke, Popper
Problem Solving Technical Adaptive
Critical Philosophy Lifeworld + Communicative
System + Strategic Action
(Habermas) Action
Urban Design Engineered Shared Space
Information Technology Propriatorial Open Source
Market Rationality Animal Spirits and Embedded
View of Market
Chicago School Markets
Communicative Style Broadcast Interactive Web 2.0
credit: Leo Boland, Chief Executive, GLA

Bubbles Takes a Walk in Hamsterdam
There is a high hard ground where practictioners can make
effective use of research based on theory and technique and
there is a swampy lowland where situations are confusing
messes incapable of technical solutions
Donald Schon
Beyond the Stable State

“A broad consensus will be needed to make a sizeable
fiscal adjustment” IMF May 2009
ano n
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vi d A Emot
Da ic +
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Urban dynamics in real time
First, fast, shared intelligence that combines formal and informal, quantitative
and qualitative with ground level intelligence on what’s happening in
different sectors and regions. Clear views on leading indicators and new
ways of handling data”
Geoff Mulgan
The Young Foundation

“Tube strikes…Inconvenience and disruption…Localities and real-time information…Movement
and behaviour of people…All things that fascinate me. It’s got me thinking…
Say hello to the #tweetbike” - Paul Clarke/Social Innovator

Traditional
Data
Maps
Academic Research Evidence Based Policy
Stats (Quantitative)
Demographics
Economic Analysis
Surveys
Consultation
Information
Conversational
Data User Generated
tNew Direction Maps Real Time
Academic Research Social Media
Stats Ethnography
Demographics Social Science
Surveys Best
Economic Analysis Networked
Consultation
Guess
Information

No place to hide