Creating a Fairer Scotland – events around Scotland

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I’m sure we all want to live in a fairer society. But who says what this is, and how can we get there? It’s clear that a government can’t just impose a fairer society – there’d be a massive dichotomy between the imposers and the imposees, even if other parts worked. I’m pretty sure that imposees would reject the whole thing anyway, just because it was imposed, even if everything else about it was great.

Fortunately, the Scottish Government isn’t going down that road. As the Scottish Community Alliance puts it, Continue reading →

Digital engagement for community councils – workshops around Scotland

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Following on from the workshop we ran in January at Napier (blog post, outcomes report), I’m running four more this autumn.

All community councillors are welcome – the events are free and your ideas and experience are are the magic ingredients that will make the events work! For example, you might know how to gather great a Facebook audience, or have crowd-sourced opinions on planning matters. Others will love to hear how it’s done!

The events are free to attend, and lunch will be provided, but we can’t reimburse travel expenses. Continue reading →

DREaMing spires and other tall stories

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Well, a lot has happened since I last blogged, so this post is partly about sorting it out in my own head.

DReAM

The data-gathering stage is over, except it isn’t. We closed the survey on Wednesday. We’ve had a very good response rate – over 80%. (This doesn’t include some partial responses which would push the rate up into the high 90s.) Of course I can’t give detail here but it’s clear that for some respondents, DREaM was a career-changing event. Many others have been influenced by DREaM – technique sessions inspired some to use such methods in their own research. Others have passed on their knowledge and inspiration to students they supervise, so you might think of DREaM and a research-grandparent. I’m imagining a Quentin Blake drawing of a 3-year-old in an adult-sized long cotton nightshirt and nightcap, holding an old saucer-style candleholder just now. (DREaM finished in 2012.)

My immediate aim is to get the survey data into our project report as soon as possible, so there will be much consumption of diet IrnBru over the few working hours.

We had a very successful focus group last week – this provided a lot more detail on the ways DREaM influenced LIS professionals and researchers, and goes a long way to answering our research questions. I’ve begun to analyse the data but haven’t yet fully sliced and diced it into the report – that’s my aim for Monday and Tuesday of next week.

So that’s why a data-gathering stage is over. But wait, there’s more! I’ve just finished organising another focus group in Napier for the middle of August and I’ve booked travel for one in London in September. My next task is to draft an invitation to that focus group. That’ll be a fun day – train to London, learn lots more about DREaM and LIS, hop back on the train to Edinburgh and then a final journey to meet up with friends in Stirling over the weekend.

I’ve also been having some fun learning more about UCInet, and how to feed back into it old data so I can be sure I process new data correctly. That hasn’t been so successful yet, but I’m sure I’ll get there.

Others

I’ve also booked (pending budget-holder’s approval) travel and accommodation for 4 workshops I’m running later this year. I can’t say much about them until they are announced to the world next week, but I can say it takes ages to investigate and book travel, especially trying to find affordable accommodation in small towns. I’m a bit disappointed that certain online booking systems don’t allow booking trains more than 3 months ahead, and I’m really grateful to our departmental administrator for her local knowledge. This enabled us to book a hotel which wasn’t over 10 miles from where I need to be – cycling to an event I’m running with laptop, iPad, GoPro, papers, name badges and all the other stuff I’ll need while wearing a suit would not be good.

Before this, I spent what seems an inordinate amount of time confirming and recording details of venues, dates, catering and facilities arrangements with the people hosting the workshops, liaising with potential guest speakers and drafting invitations. This might be my first ever adventure with using Eventbright ticketing – I’m just a bit unsure whether it’s sensible to have four EventBright URLs in the invitation. It may be better to stick to my original plan of asking delegates to email me to register.

The really enjoyable events over the last few days included a presentation on digital ‘story-telling’ by Dr Brian Detlor. As well as being fascinating in its own right, for me there’s a connection with my main interest, in that Community Councils need to to get better at telling their own stories of what they have done and will do to support their communities, so I’ll watch Dr Detlor’s project with interest. The presentation also brought back memories of reading What is History? – which I really enjoyed – and reading On ‘What Is History?’: From Carr and Elton to Rorty and White – for me, this is a load of post-modernist tosh. (Oops, there’s a tautology!)

And finally, thanks to Hazel and Tim for inviting me and my ever-wonderful partner to a highly enjoyable dinner with Dr Detlor and his sister Liz, our Emeritus Professor Lizzie Davenport and her husband and Michael,  and some of the CSI postgrads.

As I read this back, it doesn’t seem like much but I know I have been working. Getting back to it right now!

On your feet, soldier!

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On Wednesday I gave a presentation which was coherent and informative, and yet made up partly while I was listening to someone else’s but mostly in response to questions from the audience as I was speaking. Whenever I’ve given presentations before, I’ve mumbled incoherently as I drowned in my own nervousness. So throwing me in the deep end is perhaps the way to get good presentations out of me. (Peter, don’t you dare!) Continue reading →

Couldn’t have put it better myself!

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Wise words from Angus Hardie of the Scottish Community Alliance:

I see community empowerment and ‘local’ democracy as two sides of the same coin with something akin to our system of community councils (albeit properly resourced, probably restructured and with effective national representation) as the bridge between the two.  So while some might take issue on the detail, if the purpose of empowering communities is not about working towards genuine local democracy, could someone let me know what it is?

(emphasis added)

Here’s the full article, including a message from Marco Biagi MSP and pieces on ‘Caltongate’, the Big Lunch, community growing, euro-funding, Iceland’s financial crisis, COP21 and Comrie Development Trust

Digital proxies – your online representatives? (update)

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(This is a update version of this post, to go on the Manifesto for Digital Messiness website. Huge thanks to my ever-wonderful partner for suggesting inclusion of digital estates.) 

canstockphoto10436563What is a digital proxy?

A digital proxy would be someone who undertakes someone else’s online affairs because he or she cannot use the internet for some reason. This would include participating in digital democracy and other online interactions with government and other institutions, analogous to being a traditional voting proxy or holding power of attorney, and potentially managing your digital ‘estate’.

Where did this idea come from?

It crystallised at Democratic Sector Day (thanks Oliver and colleagues, Christian and other people at the Digital Participatory Democracy table!) from several sources:

  • My sister isn’t able to deal with government and bureaucracy. So, with her permission, I do her tax returns, applications for state benefits, and any other tasks requiring digital, numeracy or literacy skills.
  • I also complete our father’s tax return.
  • Our mother won’t go near the internet.
  • In many elections, people can nominate proxies to vote for them if they cannot get to their polling stations.
  • I am very able to take part in digital democracy – I’m almost never away from at least one internet device. But what about
    • Those who can’t even afford a roof over their heads, let alone the most basic feature-phone?
    • People living in not-spots? (My prime example is friends who farm on the west coast of Arran. They can only get very patchy dial-up connections. It’s hard enough for them to do necessary tasks such as filling in DEFRA’s online forms. I doubt whether they have the time or patience for anything else online.
    • Disabled people who cannot afford screen-readers etc. Being disabled tends to lead to low income, so the people who need extra services and equipment tend to be those who can least afford them.
    • Any other people who cannot use the internet to interact with the ‘digital-first’/’digital by default’ state? Online voting isn’t that far away. In fact it was an option in Edinburgh’s 2013 community council elections. Most Universal Benefit claims will need to be made online.

So I think we digirati need to consider the sort of society we may be foisting on others who potentially cannot benefit from it. That concern isn’t new – the digital divide (wikipedia) has been around for years. But perhaps digital proxies could help mitigate this chasm.

So what is that idea again?

With your permission, and following your instructions, your digital proxy would represent you online, by voting for you online, acting for you in online participatory democracy (e.g. emailing your councillor, commenting on government consultations, taking part in participatory budgeting etc). Your digital proxy could also manage your digital estate: social media accounts, music bought from and stored in the cloud. This is distinct from traditional power of attorney, where an attorney is empowered to act on your behalf to manage your finances and tangible property. It’s also distinct from traditional proxy voting, where a proxy is empowered to vote in a specific election, often in a specific way.

Some questions (aka What could possibly go wrong?)

  • How would DPs be procured? Not every family has someone with the skills and time to be a DP. In Scotland, the Office of the Public Guardian registers powers of attorney and monitors guardianships. Could it and its equivalents elsewhere handle DPs – an extra task when government budgets are rapidly shrinking?
  • Would DPs need to be paid? If so, how would this be arranged? By results (e.g. tax refunds)? By time spent on the tasks?
  • Who would pay DPs?
  • How should the DP act if you have not instructed them? For example, what if you’ve not told them how to vote, or how to respond to a change in benefits legislation? Should your DP act as he/she believes you would act – or not act all without specific instructions?
  • Where should the boundaries be set? You might be able to take part in some online activities but not others, or might be able to do so intermittently. (Maybe more than 20 minutes in front of a monitor brings on migraines. Should your DP be able to take over after 15 minutes? Is that even practical?)
  • What if your DP and your other representatives disagree?
  • How would you know to trust a DP?
  • What happens if your DP doesn’t do as you instruct?

No doubt there are many more potential issues.

It’s possible that existing facilities from the analogue age could apply to digital matters. For example, I could give my partner power of attorney, i.e. a specific instrument allowing her to control my finances and property when I no longer have mental capacity to do this. If I lose mental capacity before I grant her power of attorney, she could seek guardianship over me. There’s no automatic limit to the channels attorneys and guardians can use, so my partner would be able use my online banking, instead of needing to visit my bank in person. Similarly, I believe it would be facile to extend proxy-voting legislation to cover online voting.

To the best of my knowledge, neither of these specifically cover my other interactions with government and other significant institutions, or automatically covers my digital estate; these are where my digital proxy would step in to represent me and safeguard my digital estate. But, to the best of my knowledge, the legal, technical and governance frameworks around our digital existences and estates are not in place. I think we need to start  safeguarding our digital futures now.