Following on from part 1 of this post, it's time to talk about the main LocalGovCamp event...
The unconference
I wasn't entirely sure what to expect from this day, but from the tales of attendees of previous LocalGovCamps that I had chatted to, both at work and at the hack day, I was highly optimistic. My optimism was rewarded before the event even began, as the conversations about what people were going to pitch, and discussions about possible cross-council collaborations, started between the group of people that joined our impromptu walking bus from New Street station to the venue (Dan Blundell & myself were staying at the same hotel, so had agreed to walk down together via the station to pick up Emma Rogers, and, along the way, picked up a number of others also heading to the event).
Carl Haggerty, Digital Communications Manager for Devon County Council and Chair of LocalGovDigital, got the ball rolling as the compère for the day, interacting with the crowd and finding out that a large proportion of us had never been to an unconference before (including myself!), and that we had a few councillors in attendance. Then came the pitches - everyone attending had the opportunity to line up and pitch a topic for a session, which, by way of 'cheer-o-meter', was approved and allocated the appropriate sized room for the size of the cheer. Some similar pitches were merged into single sessions.
As the timetable was finalised, we all flocked to see which sessions we would like to attend. Instantly I realised that the day was going to comprise of a series of hard choices, as there were a number of sessions happening at the same time that I was equally interested in going to see. However, I had easily made up my mind on the first session I wanted to attend...
Session 1 - public sector hack days
Following my involvement in the the Hack Day that took place the day before, I was keen to see how this approach could be something we use on a regular basis in the public sector.
Led by James Cattell (although his name badge that morning gave his name as 'Conchita Wurst'), a healthy discussion was had on the benefits of holding hack days.
The themes that rose up time and again during this and the other sessions I attended were that we should challenge our own processes, we shouldn't jump to solutions, and accept that, as web designers/developers, we may know *how* to build amazing things, but it doesn't mean we always know the best way to *do* those things - for that, we really need to involve the customers using our websites.
One of the best anecdotes came from Jason Williams, the Web Manager for Cornwall Council. He told us how he asked his 12-year-old to spec out a website, and found that there were requirements that never crossed his mind, which led him to realise that "things designed by a 12-year-old are often better than something designed by a person who's been doing it for 12 years."
One other, slightly worrying, anecdote quoted a supplier who had told them that "we don't test with real users - they're too unpredictable!"
The verdict: hack days are good, and are a great way of gathering information and resources on projects, and, if you can actively involve the people who you are targeting, it can help you avoid the pitfalls that can develop from relying on stats and personas alone.
Session 2 - social media is not the whole of digital
The decision to go to this session was made by playing rock-paper-scissors with a fellow attendee (I didn't catch your name, sorry!) - although, in retrospect it may have been quicker for us to play the alternative rock-paper-scissors-lizard-spock, as pretty much all of the sessions in this timeslot were appealing.
We started off with a debate on 'What is "Digital"?'.
This was intriguing, and covered how people perceive it as the communications/customer service side of working online, whereas others consider it to be about online transactions, when really it is actually both, and more. It was common sense to those attending, but reinforced the fact that, although we know what we're doing, the public and service managers we work with quite often don't.
Out of this, I learned a new phrase - the 'digital cargo cult'. This describes those managers who attempt to use digital services without actually knowing anything about them, ie they see a fancy website getting a lot of praise and then push for their own organisation to build an almost identical website, without really understanding why it was getting that praise in the first place ("I want something like Amazon..." springs to mind here).
Echoing our research for Challenge 3 of the hack day, we talked about how to address that percentage of the population that can't or won't go online, and how we should involve them in finding the solutions to their problems (most commonly referred to by the terms 'digital inclusion' and 'assisted digital'). Whether it's as simple as sharing your wifi with your neighbours who can't afford a broadband connection, or supporting the local community groups that aim to encourage and educate people in using the internet, such as Get Shropshire Online.
In a roundabout way we got back to the original discussion, which was summed up as this:
'Digital is the potential to do things differently'
We should use all the tools available, go to where the user is, and challenge existing processes... (sound familiar?)
LocalGov Digital Steering Group
During the lunch break there was an open meeting of the members of the LocalGovDigital steering group. The nature of the group and the challenges it faces were discussed, which led to a great comment by Glen Ocsko who said that "We need to grow some digital balls". By that he meant that we should recognise that we are a network of people with influence in this sector, and we should be using that influence to change things for the better, rather than just passively suggesting those changes.
For example, it means standing up to those third-party suppliers we rely on to deliver some of our services, and forcing them to fix the issues we have with them. As an individual who has been in talks with suppliers about shoddy code or accessibility issues in their products, I often get a standard "Other councils have been using our system for years and they don't have a problem...", or "That's a change request - we'll have to charge you" response. Being able to take these concerns back to the group and having them collectively stand up and fight back with a hundred voices behind them would hopefully make those suppliers rethink their position and their products.
We also talked about keeping the momentum going, and that each one of us could do something on behalf of the group in our area. For me, that means arranging a hack day - watch this blog for more on that later!
All in all, I think it is safe to say that everyone involved in that meeting came out of it feeling empowered and proud to be part of that group.
Session 3 - 5 points of failure
This session appealed to me as it was being run by a representative from Goss, one of the sponsors of the day, and summarised findings from a review of a large number of local government websites.
The titular "5 points" can be found on their website, and the discussions that arose from those pointed to areas of improvement, and, once again, highlighted that some of these points lay within systems from third-party suppliers, who we need to actively encourage to address those issues. Once again, a few of the points raised highlighted where some councils had just directly mapped an existing process onto their website or eform, rather than challenging it and relating it to the customers' needs (are you picking up the common themes again here?)
Session 4 - CMS comparison framework
I had a bit of an incentive to take part in this one - Sarah Lay had discussed it with me over Twitter a few weeks prior to LocalGovCamp, and, as we had both forgotten to pitch it that morning, she volunteered to put it onto the session board as a late addition.
The aim of this session was to talk about the various CMS options available to local government. Recently there's been a trend for moving to open-source solutions (either as a result of budget cuts, or the appeal of being able to build the website you *want* to build rather than the website you can *afford* to build with a supplier), which has led to councils contacting each other with the same questions over and over again.
As users of WordPress and strong advocates of Umbraco (we love it!), we have had a fair number of other councils contact us with requests for this type of information over the last few years, so it made perfect sense for there to be a central spreadsheet capturing those most common questions, along with everyone's responses for the various flavours of CMS that are out there.
We had a few representatives from Jadu take part, which was pretty handy, as they were able to give their input on the questions their customers have asked them about their own product.
Sarah has written all of this up on her blog - http://www.sarahlay.com/2014/06/a-cms-comparison-framework/ - which contains a link to the spreadsheet itself. It's a work-in-progress, so if there are questions that you want answering, but they aren't on there, let us know or add them yourself!
What I've learnt
- Unconferences are fun!
- Don't be afraid to talk to people you don't know - everyone is there to learn something and to speak to other people, so you've already got a common topic to talk about
- If in doubt, play rock-paper-scissors-lizard-spock to figure out which of the many interesting sessions you want to attend
Themes from the day
- The best way to build something for the public is to involve them
- Challenge existing processes - just because it works, or is the way it's always been done, doesn't mean it's the best way
- Third party suppliers are holding us back, but we are able to challenge them as a group, if not individually
Big thanks go to…
- Sarah Lay for organising the event
- The staff at The Bond for the venue and the plentiful (and tasty) food & drink
- Everyone who took part - I didn't get to chat to all of you, but those I did were amazing!