Talk About Local
Modern web tools empowering communities
William Perrin TAL(WM) Ltd – #PCW09 15 July Olympia
www.talkaboutlocal.org

•www.kingscrossenvironment.com
•700 articles
•four authors
•budget £8/month
•opens up democratic engagement
•empowerment is about information

•Cemex campaign – long running
anti social plant operations
•Video of noise pollution –
unarguable prima facie case
•Send links to CEMEX CEO UKMEA
and Council noise officers
•Successful resolution – plant
restructured

•Sheffield forum –biggest web
estate in Yorkshire?
•3.4 million posts
•76,000 registered users
•Population Sheffield 450,000

•‘Hi, as a local businessman in
Digbeth and vice chair of The
Digbeth Business Association
l would like to thank you for
your articles and interest in
our sometimes wonderful
district of Digbeth with all our
input and continued efforts it
can only get better.’

•Stoke-on-Trent Pits’n’Pots
•Campaigning, challenging style
•Reflects local frustration at
political scene
•Opens up public dialogue

@willperrin: Speaking to 300 council web
managers tomorrow what should i say? #pcw09
@willperrin #pcw09 I know what I would like you to @willperrin Stop blocking useful stuff!
say to my local council web manager but it is before
the watershed!!
@willperrin 1) stop posting info in .doc etc @willperrin ask more of them to provide feeds to
2) use permalinks 3) go talk to MySociety planningalertshttp://www.planningalerts.com/geti
about how to make themselves more open nvolved.php (some do already)
@willperrin what's on your about us @willperrin Council web managers: Their
page and where are your values? success metric seems to be traffic volume
@willperrin have them publish the xml file hence emphasis on being one-stop shop not
they give to directgov. Encourages reuse opening up data
of data by people who will use it well :)
@willperrin "Organisations can't be
'social' but the people in them can - give
them the tools and guidance then trust
them to get on with it
@willperrin Stratford-upon-Avon DC was awarded
Beacon Status for Digital Inclusion for their
Community websites #pcw09 http://bit.ly/3Db79

Talk About Local - creating community
sites in over 150 places across England
• UK online centres engage
3,000 people in their
communities
• Support to create local sites
with free tools
• LA’s can buy TAL sessions
for target areas e.g. NI4
laggards
• National roll out Q4 09
• william@talkaboutlocal.org