Local Democracy Notepad

Further to the occasional series here looking at ways that people are using open data and visualisation tools to help clarify complex issues, here is the ‘where does my money go‘ application:

The authors say that it’s not finished yet and you can look at their underlying data – they’re looking for feedback.

paxil prescription

In terms of the delivery, for an alpha release, it’s very good. My minor beef is the same one that I have with ‘They Work For You’ – the notion that politicians work for us, or that government spending represents ‘spending our money’ is on that is allowed to go unchallenged too often. Framing an argument along these lines is, however, a good weekend’s work at least.

Just a short observation, in the light of Matthew Taylor’s post about the RSA’s work in Chelmsford that is being launched today.

“….a vision for the town centre must be based on a rich understanding of how people see and use the area and how they might be willing to change that view if the centre itself changed. We need to explore what could the town centre’s identity could be, and from that answer to develop ideas for embedding this identity in the physical and social fabric.”

It’s interesting that democracy is often understood to mean an engagement in party / pressure-group politics, or the clash of ideas and opinions. Local authorities will shortly have a statutory obligation to ‘promote democracy’ – which we are expected to understand as voting in elections. It means a promotion of the work of councillors and our right to participate in their decisions (and sometimes, our ability to force things onto the agenda with petitions).

We are told that we have a right to be consulted more often in more creative and professional ways. In other spheres, we see decentralisation and even the very word ‘democracy‘ conflated with the promotion of local councils. The democratic innovations are often around ‘citizens juries’ or ‘participatory budgeting.’

Most of this is, of course, a good thing. But it seems to me that the most valuable expression of democracy is our ability to shape our immediate environment. Our streets, housing, hospitals, schools and so on. The one where every one of us has something valid to say, and has experiences of having done so. Where the process of shaping our surroundings has created conversational networks that we can return to in order to solve new problems. Where there is less of a legitimacy gap between the general public and the professional or the expert practitioner.

It’s the one area where we can be guaranteed to know things that the experts don’t. Where we can bring them great ideas that they would never dream of, and that we can add the caring dimension that – with the best will in the world – town planners and architects will never have.

There’s my argument in a nutshell: Town Planners. Architects. See what I mean?

The RSA are looking for a number of other local areas to work with them in this way – it’s a great idea, and one that I hope will shape the whole question of ‘democratic renewal’ more than it does currently.

In preparing for a session at PICamp / Reboot Britain on Policymaking in the future, my friend Logan Wilmot (who I’m attempting to persuade to speak) sent me these YouTubes – examples of how the scale of change can be rammed home to an audience that may not be able to conceptualise what is being talked about.

I don’t know about you, but there were things in there that have changed the way I look at some questions. The ‘exponential world’ one is particularly interesting. Read the rest of this entry »

If you’re hanging around Westminster between 7 and 17 July, pop into Westminster Hall to check out what sounds like a fun exhibition. The Royal Institution of British Architects have run a competition for schools to design a new Houses of Parliament. The nine shortlisted entries will be on display in the oldest part of the Parliamentary estate.
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Providing an understanding of data by the creative use of graphics is a great way of improving the quality of public deliberation.

Here’s a load of graphics that show the way that we consume media has changed.

Click on the image for more.

Look what is forcast for 2015.

(hat tip: Kathryn on Facebook)

Richard Pope, Francis Irving and Julian Todd have developed a site – The Straight Choice – that allows you to upload election leaflets as they come through your door – with the intention of promoting consistency and honesty.

It’s an interesting idea. And – as you come here partly because you often get unpopular arguments, let me suggest another one:

That the demand for consistency from political parties often has the unintended consequence of promoting political centralisation. Surely it’s a good thing if Lib-Dems in Truro are saying something different to Lib-Dems in Anglesey?

(hat tip: Kathryn on Facebook).

When it comes to technology start-ups there’s a nine out of ten chance that the idea will fail. Far from being considered a problem it’s recognised that doing something different is a risky strategy. But it is also one that can lead to enormous rewards if you get it right.

True failure only happens when the lessons learned aren’t carried forward into future projects.

Although itself notoriously risk averse, central government is starting to heed the message. Cabinet Secretary Sir Gus O’Donnell told the civil service to become innovators because,  “we have no choice but to innovate.”

So what of local government? The barriers are high; accountability and the use of public money stifle an innovation culture but, countering this, innovating online with new social media tools is fast and, above all, cheap. Working with the tools that citizens are already comfortable with makes sense too.

From 'Worstword Ho' by Samuel Beckett

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Here’s a bit of music made using assistive technology to cheer you up. It was sent to me by my old mate and colleague Amanda – the best usability consultant and website project manager that I’ve ever worked with.

[youtube=http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=gtuna2AWvqk]

What’s this got to do with local democracy? Well, I’ve worked with a large number of local authorities / voluntary sector / membership organisations that aim to promote a greater standard of inclusive policymaking / responsive communications / organisational interactivity.

A well designed set of interfaces is fairly critical to the success of projects like this. Un-useable interfaces … well … don’t get used.

If you are a non-techie, and you are going to work with techies on a web-project in this area, you have to understand the very basics about accessibility. It helps you to avoid the classic cause for IT project management failure: You tell the IT department what you want. They don’t understand you properly and give you something that they think will do, without disrupting their wider set of objectives. They are behaving rationally in doing this – it usually means that they get a slice of your budget to put towards their pet-project.

Even when they do understand what you want, it’s often not good enough…

Left to their own devices, they will give you something that they can deliver saying “I think this will just about do the job.”

For this reason, I’ve found that a discussion of web accessibility between the technical staff (who are often – unnecessarily – the gatekeepers on projects such as this) and the people who are doing the including / communicating / interacting is usually a very valuable way of getting everyone on the same page for the following reasons: Read the rest of this entry »

Firstly, this is a lovely idea about how design can be used to improve the quality of communication at a local level. Here’s the original site, and here’s an image to whet your whistle:

And secondly, totally unrelated, here’s a list of the petitions that have gone before the EU petittions committee.

Just for the avoidance of doubt, visitors to this blog will routinely get ‘ignore petitions / discrourage petitions’ posts on a fairly regular basis.