by Dave Briggs on February 10, 2010
On 17th February - next Wednesday as I am writing this - we’ve been asked to attend and speak at an LGComms event, entitled The impact of digital communications, which is taking place in Coventry. Here’s the agenda for the day (PDF).
Our session is called Digital Communications - why is it crucial for local government? - which is nice and early in the day and hopefully will provide a chance to set some context around what will be discussed during the rest of the event.
I haven’t written my presentation yet, but the gist will be that the online revolution that’s currently taking place should not be considered purely through the lens of communications and marketing, but rather there are lessons to be learned throughout councils. As I keep saying, the lasting change here has nothing to do with technology, but rather the behaviour it encourages: transparency and openness, collaboration and cooperation.
There are a load of great speakers on the agenda, including Hugh Flouch from Networked Neighbourhoods (and Harringay Online, of course) and Mr Podnosh, Nick Booth. Both will have some real insights for the local government communicators in attendance.
With all 90 spaces already filled for the event, it’s shaping up to be a good one! I only hope that the screen will be a bit smaller than the one I was faced with at the recent Cllr 10 event:
by Learning Pool on February 8, 2010
Many of you will be familiar with the debate raging on the web right now about how rubbish Internet Explorer is. Just in case, here’s a summary of the argument:
It ignores internet standards so when companies develop for the web, they actually need to break standardized code to make sites run on IE6. This is bad for accessibility and takes ages to develop.
It’s absolutely full of holes that make it the most insecure browser available - there is endless research and examples of this.
Lots of people have commented on this in the past including Tom Watson MP and Steve Dale at IDeA.
At Learning Pool I’m always staggered by how long it takes to reverse engineer a web page so that it can work with IE6.
Steve Dale reckons that 12 - 20% savings could be achieved by getting councils to upgrade to a newer browser.
I totally agree that this is achievable and when you consider that this upgrade will cost local government nothing in terms of software, you have to ask what is keeping them?
This came back into my head last week when I read that Google isn’t supporting IE6 from March this year. Surely now is the time for local government shows this antiquated browser the door?
To be fair, the fact that IE6 is now considered rubbish isn’t really anyones fault - IE 6 was released 6 or 7 years ago and was a very welcome replacement for the previous version.
However the web has moved on substantially since then and, given that Microsoft has released two excellent versions of the browser since, I think its time for local government to turn its back on an outdated, insecure and slow browser.
The cost of upgrading to the newest, or even most recent minus 1 version can’t be that significant - most councils have the kit available to do this automatically (unless I’ve missed something fundamental - please comment!).
And if suppliers like Learning Pool passed on this saving in the form of new innovations to local government customers then everyone would win.
I think Learning Pool subscribers could lead the charge on this. Learning Pool folk are generally at the forefront of most positive stuff in local government so why not get cracking by forcing local authorities to tackle this as an issue?
It’s an easy fix, requires minimal investment and there will be all sorts of upsides for the the public sector, for people working in councils and for companies supplying local government.
Its estimated that over 50% of browsers in local government are IE6 so lets get that number down to, say, 2% and we can celebrate the death of IE6 in style!
Paul McElvaney
by Learning Pool on January 28, 2010
The National Association of Local Councils (NALC) is, in partnership with its national stakeholders, updating the existing training strategy for local (parish and town) councils and wants your views!
The survey forms a pivotal element of the National Training Strategy (NTS) review, and was kicked off in December. It is open to anyone, especially those people and organisations with an interest, commitment or role in local government and can be found on the homepage of the NTS website or ‘hub’.
Originally developed and published in 2001, the current strategy for local council clerks and councillors evolved from the Rural White Paper which recognised the important role of the first tier of local government and proposed a number of initiatives to develop their capabilities and skills.
Nine years on and much has been achieved and delivered, but the time is now right to review and refresh the learning and development focus and publish, in the spring, an updated strategy for the most local level of government and democracy.
NALC’s Neil Evans says “I’m hoping for as many people as possible across local government to complete the survey so that we get a varied but comprehensive picture of training and learning needs.”
“As well as the online survey, which is open until end February 2010, we held a number of focus groups with stakeholders and delivery partners such such as county associations of local councils and SLCC (Society of Local Council Clerks).
“This was to get their much needed and expert input on the future training needs of our 9,000 local councils and their 4,000 clerks and 80,000 local councillors in England.
“Most local councillors put themselves forward for election because they wanted to make a difference to their local area. They do a terrific job and to help them keep doing this and being as effective as possible, it is important that they have access to a variety of training and development opportunities.
“I hope as many people as possible complete the survey and I’m very excited about reading the results,“ says Neil.
by Learning Pool on January 25, 2010
The C’llr. 10 Conference is the first ever major national conference specifically for councillors and Learning Pool will be there!
Organised by the Local Government Information Unit, producers of Cllr Magazine, in conjunction with Ingenium Strategic Events, Cllr 10 will be held at The Emirates Stadium, London N5 on 4th February 2010.
Learning Pool are among the supporters of the event, as we have two great offerings for local politicians – one around the support we can provide helping them get to grips with the opportunities provided by online tools for communication and collaboration.
The other is with our Modern Councillor package of e-learning – providing all the training a councillor needs in a format where they can do it whenever it suits them.
Learning online has a huge number of advantages for councillors, both in terms of flexibility of access, cost effectiveness, the sheer range of learning available, and of course the fact that it can be completed without needing to leave the house!
Here’s a bit more information about the event:
The conference will provide a unique opportunity to hear at first hand some of the most influential voices in and about local government, and to engage in debate on what is important to local communities.
The wide variety of workshops will help you to develop your practical skills as a Councillor and your understanding of what key policy challenges, such as the ageing population or environmental change, will mean for your ward and what you as a Councillor can do to give a lead.
During the day there will also be opportunities to network with colleagues from all over the country to share your experiences and ideas. In addition to Councillors, the conference will also be very useful for council officers and others who support or work closely with elected members.
Learning Pool’s Community Evangelist Dave Briggs is on the agenda to speak. His speech is titled, “Leadership 2.0: why local authorities need to be learning organisations”.
What we will be talking about is that despite all the talk of the online revolution and the growth of social networking, the interesting bit remains the implications of the technology rather than the technology itself.
The session will explore the opportunities for improvement and efficiency that the new culture of openness and sharing brings – and how councillors can make sure their councils make the most of them.
Well done to LGIU and partners for arranging a great looking conference.
You can book your place using this link.
by Learning Pool on January 22, 2010
Things can get a little hectic working on the administration for Learning Pool. So I’ve been on the lookout for some simple apps to help me manage my time and become more productive.
Here are a few of the best I’ve come across so far and they’re all free!
1. Google Calendar - Everybody needs a good diary and Google Calendar is a simple, free online version.
You’ll need a Google Mail account to signup (that’s free too) and after that, Google Calendar will then send you email alerts before you appointments and can even remind you by SMS (text message).
The best part is that there’s nothing to download - you can access Google Calendar on the go from any computer, all you need is internet access.
2. LastPass - LastPass is a free password manager that allows you to set a single, secure password to login to your profile or account on any website.
It means you can use a really strong password for security but only have to remember one for logging in.
There’s a premium (paid) version with a few more features but the free version looks fine.
3. Evernote - The point of Evernote is to “give everyone the ability to easily capture any moment, idea, inspiration, or experience whenever they want using whichever device or platform they find most convenient, and then to make all of that information easy to find.”
In other words, Evernote lets you drag and drop anything you find online (text, images, video) and store it for easy reference in future. It’s like an online notebook/scrapbook.
4. NowDoThis - NowDoThis is a ridiculously simple online ‘to do list’.
You don’t have to set up an account or download anything. Just type your list of tasks into the box on the screen, click save and then tick them off as you go.
It’s not fancy but it works.
5. RescueTime - Once you’ve downloaded RescueTime, it monitors how you spend your time on your computer and then provides you with reports.
This is a great way to find problem areas of wasted time and things you can cut out to become more productive.
But, of course, working at Learning Pool there’s no wasted time at all!
What are your favourite apps?
by Siobháin O’Reilly
by Learning Pool on January 20, 2010
On Monday 25th January, Paul McElvaney, Director of Learning Pool and Alison Stott, Project Manager at Essex Strategic HR will be hosting an online hotseat on the commissioning of Open, Distance and E-learning.
This will be taking place in the Leadership Development Community of Practice, using the IDeA’s CoP platform. You need to register with the platform and join the community before you can get involved.
The way this will work is that a special forum has been set up inside the CoP in which questions can be left ahead of, and during, the day of the hotseat.
Paul and Alison will then answer as many questions as they can before the end of the day. It’s like a day long asynchronous online Q&A session.
Subjects you might want to ask about include:
- How to promote collaboration and sharing between organisations
- How to save money and make efficiencies by working differently
- When to consider commissioning e-learning and what criteria should be considered?
So go ahead and sign up with the community and start posting your questions!
Alternatively leave a question in a comment to this post, or email it in to hello@learningpool.com and we’ll make sure it gets posted.
You can also get involved in the discussion using Twitter – just use and keep an eye on the tag #CoPEL.
