(I can’t yet promise that no-one has thought of this before, but I hope it’s an original and worthwhile idea.)
A digital proxy would be someone who undertakes a citizen’s online affairs, principally around digital participatory or elective democracy, because the citizen cannot use the internet for some reason. Continue reading
I’m very tired but I’m happy because good things have happened today. Continue reading
I have the following actual and potential work-streams.
| Title | What is it? | Funder | Status, dates and notes |
| Longitudinal Information literacy for democratic engagement (LIL-DEM) | Further research into factors affecting community councillors’ information literacies | Edinburgh Napier University | to start, February to April 2017 |
| Information literacy for democratic engagement (IL-DEM) | Research into factors affecting community councillors’ information literacies | CILIP‘s Information Literacy Group | finished, October 2016 to January 2017 |
| DigiCC workshops | How can community councils improve their digital engagement with citizens | Edinburgh Napier University, Scottish Government | finished, January 2015 to January 2016 |
| Delivering on DREaM | researcher/practitioner knowledge-sharing in Library and Information Science, supervised by Professor Hazel Hall | CILIP | finished, June to July 2015 |
| Workforce Mapping | mapping the workforce in the Libraries, Archives, Records, Knowledge and Information Management sector | CILIP, ARA | finished, summer 2014 to summer 2015 |
| Hyperlocal government engagement online | Social network analysis and Communities of practice research around 3 Edinburgh CCs | CCN+ | finished, summer 2014 |
| Community Council Location Finder | a searchable map of all Scottish Community Councils | Improvement Service | finished, spring 2014
My version is archived here, and the current version created by the Improvement Service is here. |
| 2014 survey of community council internet presences | How well do CCs use the internet to engage with citizens?
What are the lessons and consequences from the findings? |
Edinburgh Napier University | finished, spring 2014 |
| 2012 survey of community council internet presences | duplicate! | Self-funded | finished, summer 2012 |
| Communities of Practice and Knowledge Management around CC digital engagement | 2-year main research project, to extend CCN+ seed-project and other relevant previous work | TBC | funding application in progress, TBC |
| Writing paper(s) based on my MSc dissertation, to further updates of technology models | to report on local aspects of CC digital engagement | TBC | to start, TBC |
| Visualisation of hyperlocal data | to extend Community Council Location Finder | TBC | to start, TBC |
| 2017(?) survey of CC online presences | to build on 2012 and 2014 surveys | TBC | to start, TBC |
| Digital Proxies | Who guards vulnerable peoples’ digital presences | TBC | idea crystallised, TBC |
I’ve just been chatting with a CC member – let’s call him ‘Fred’ – who is setting up a wordpress.org-based site for his CC. Among other things, we touched on a continuity issue – basically, what happens if the CC webweaver suddenly becomes unavailable? I believe that many CCs have a single ‘IT member’ who is responsible for everything digital – including setting up email accounts on his or her colleague’s devices, administering websites, communicating via any social media or ‘traditional’ digital channels the CC uses (that is, the CC’s main email account) and so on. Continue reading
Yesterday was great. During the day, I was at the Democratic Sector Day, a day ‘for participation practitioners to share ideas, projects and ambitions, and hopefully develop a better understanding of this ‘community of practice’ in Scotland. The objectives were:
Lots and lots to do. I’m blogging about it just now to help me prioritise.
This survey is to gather data from delegates at the digital engagement for CCs workshop held at Edinburgh Napier University on Friday 30th January, and those who wished to attend this event. We wish to
This event, funded by Edinburgh Napier University’s Institute for Informatics and Digital innovation and supported by Scottish Government, the Improvement Service and the Democratic Society, turned out to be a great success. We were quite optimistic – there was a waiting list. However, I was full of trepidation – as it turns out un-necessarily!
A paper about our 2012 survey of Community Councils’ online performances has just been published. Links to all of our publications are on this blog’s Publications, contacts and research blogs page.
Bruce's IT-ish world 