manxman

Recently, manxman...

• commented on Pushing Back Against Web-based Citizen Engagement 11 months ago.

  This is the crucial issue - and it's the dichotomy between "What does the citizen want from Government" - to which I think the answer is absolutely as little interaction as possible, and "What can the citizen contribute to Government" - and I fear that Nick's point about "the absence of brilliant bits of wisdom" is all too true - from my viewpoint, I very seldom see constructive feedback / comment / insight - what I generally see are the naysayers - who will probably continue to naysay whatev...

• commented on Improving Access to Government through Better Use of the Web 11 months ago.

  Thanks for this - as one of my bright people acknowledged - "Wow - that's a goldmine". This is clearly a benefit from The Connected Republic - not only a place for opinion and trend to be posted (and sometimes discussed), but also a repository of very important material arising from a myriad of different places.  Perhaps the challenge is how to make sure it is visible on an ongoing basis, rather than only being retrievable via a thread which was put up some time ago, but has been lost s...

• created At the start of a New Year .... about 1 year ago.

  .... I debate the old question - which comes first - the chicken or the egg - or in our context - emerging technology or emerging need?  And of course, the answer is somewhere in the middle - where need might not be identified, but technology offers real opportunity. Hang on a minute - did I just say "Need might not be identified" - is that because we're standing to close and need to stand back.  As a Public Sector CTO, I stand quite close and look at technology for better public s...

• commented on Us Now: On the Road to Self-Organised Government? about 1 year ago.

  Instinctively I have a couple of thoughts - first is that this self-organising context plays to the desire for absolutely minimal involvement with Government - that's when citizen satisfaction would be at its highest - but .... Surely this is how County / Town / Parish councils came about - they were essentially self-organising communities - and that extends to School Governors etc - so this isn't a new idea - it's perhaps simply a way of seeking to make the process more participative. ...

• created I don't care about the citizen about 1 year ago.

  OK - so that's not entirely true, but sitting in Public Sector, I am acutely conscious that the issue right now is about maintaining / growing the economy - and that's very much about business rather than individual.  Yes, I know business employs individuals, and therefore we've got to make sure that we don't ignore the citizen.  Yes, I know that consumerisation and the citizen's home experience is having an increased impact on the future workplace. But ultimately, the service...

• commented on Organising without Organisations about 1 year ago.

  Paul - in terms of the wisdom of crowds, there is a whole "storming, forming and norming" behaviour.  And it behaves very much like a small community with internal alliances and conflicts. I've been part of a crowd 2.0 that formed with a common interest in 2004 - sitting here in 2008, the crowd still exists, communicates regularly and still shares the core common interest (all things Disney, and especially cruising with Disney)  But at the same time, sub crowds form, new interests ...

• commented on when the going gets tough ... about 1 year ago.

  The interesting thing is that generally the public (i.e. the citizen) want as little as possible to do with Government - it's our belief that the less they have to interact with Government, then the more satisfied they are.  That does of course mean that when they do, they really want it to be as simple, as complete, as convenient and as speedy as possible. If I look at the public as the business community, then again simplicity and use of available knowledge seems to be the demand...

• created when the going gets tough ... about 1 year ago.

  ... so what's the impact of the credit crunch / global recession / global depression - how do organisations prioritise the (no doubt diminishing) pot available for investment?  Do we have to take a fresh approach to our aspirational goals of The Connected Republic 2.0?  Are priorities going to be about survival in the short term, based on real productivity improvement and lower costs?  How do we justify investing for the long term?  It seems to me that the agenda will ste...