Thoughts and encounters part 1
I spoke with a few delegates during the day, and some other interesting topics came up in the all-delegate discussions. This and the next post report my reactions to these topics Continue reading
Thoughts and encounters part 2
I spoke with a few delegates during the day, and some other interesting topics came up in the all-delegate discussions. This and the previous post report my reactions to these topics. Continue reading
This post gathers my reactions to the event’s sessions. Click any heading to go to the relevant post. Continue reading
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
Links to all Glasgow CC websites, Facebook pages and twitter feeds can now be found at http://www.glasgow.gov.uk/index.aspx?articleid=5603. The Glasgow CCLO tells me ‘A number of community councils have recently launched new websites using the WordPress platform, for example Mount Florida, at www.moflococo.org, Carmunnock, at www.carmunnockcc.com, Parkhead, at www.parkheadcommunitycouncil.wordpress.com, and Claythorn, at claythorncc.wordpress.com/.
The old CommunityCouncilsGlasgow website is now obsolete and should be ignored.
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 |
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.
My experience of CCs is mostly in Edinburgh and Fife – these LAs regularly supply their CCs with lists of planning applications, in line with CCs being statutory consultees for spatial planning. So I assumed that all LAs did so, and so assumed that lack of planning material on CC websites was due to the CCs themselves – either they chose not to or found themselves incapable of doing so.
I realised I needed a place to store resources about how CCs can use the internet and other interesting things. Then I realised that it would be worth sharing these. So I’ve just created a page to do just that.
The first section is about writing for the web. There’s only a couple of resources so far, but it will grow. The next section will be LA community council schemes and other interesting information culled from LA websites. After that – who knows?
Bruce's IT-ish world 