Facilitating Community Engagement

A bit about what I think:

I’m passionate about community engagement and public participation in decision-making, both face to face and using the Internet and social media. People in communities locally and nationally ought to be able to  interact with decision-makers at all levels of power, if they want to be more involved in the decisions that affect or matter to them and theirs. In addition, I’m interested in social marketing using social media. With experience of working in the public, private and community sectors, I’m now available to offer advice on engaging and empowering people to participate meaningfully in the things that affect them.

Background:

Some years ago, I did a  PhD that looked at how online community networks could support partnerships between community and voluntary organisations and help them develop local communities, both socially and economically. It was a real indulgence for me, and I learned a lot about interaction in local communities.

After that, I worked as a researcher in academia, monitoring and assessing the new ePetitioning system set up for the Scottish Parliament by BT in partnership with the International Teledemocracy Centre in Edinburgh. Subsequently, the Parliament took the ePetitioning system in-house, re-branded it, and it has been in operation ever since. One of the recommendations in my report, ePetitioner: A Monitoring and Evaluation Report (2001), based on what people told me during action research, was that an ePetitioning system would be useful at local level, so that people could petition their local councils about the things that concerned them.

I’m currently working some of the week with a local authority in Cumbria, developing community engagement and consultation strategy and practices. I also spend some of  my week as a consultant and writer.

I am exploring how local authorities can use the Internet and social media alongside face to face and other kinds of offline interaction to engage communities about the things that affect them. I plan to add information and comment here about things that interest me.

Consultation Officer (2006-present) Local Government

• I currently work with Eden District Council part-time and recently used social media to help me run a youth consultation about a local economic development with long term signficance for the area. Working with Steve Thompson, who also works with the Digital Innovation Unit, Teesside University, I set up a website called Eden Media and put together a short video so that Councillors could listen to what some young people felt about the development. I’m also currently involved in initiatives with Cumbria County Council, the other District authorities, also local Parishes, communities and schools. A year ago, after looking at different systems, Delib installed their Consultation Finder database on the Council website. Then began  the process of culture change, motivating and encouraging Council officers and Councillors to adapt to using new procedures. I’m currently developing  a ‘toolkit’ to support implementation of the Consultation and public engagement strategy. I have also developed a ‘Have your Say’ section on the council’s web-site, and am in process of setting up an Intranet training section for staff and councillors.

Itech-Research, Dublin. Senior Research Consultant. (2002-2004).

• I worked collaboratively with Susan O’Donell, then of Irish partners, Itech Research, on a research project, eInclusion: Expanding the Information Society in Ireland,  for the Department of the Taoiseach (the Irish Government), to provide them with advice on the issues at public policy level that needed to be addressed to ensure an inclusive information society in Ireland. Our work led to the development of a series of recommendations to the Irish Government. The approach to the study was based on the idea that citizens from all demographic groups in diverse communities should have opportunity to participate using ICTs. Interviews were an important element of the research and the team heard from or discussed priorities for an inclusive information society with more than 60 people from Government departments and agencies, public authorities and bodies working at national, regional and local levels, also community and voluntary sector organisations, social partners and others.

International Teledemocracy Centre (ITC), Edinburgh. Research Associate. (2000-2002).

• Working as a researcher with the ITC, I was involved in organising action research and evaluations of ICT designed to support e-democracy. The remit was also to widen understanding of the societal significance of ICT and implications for democratic practice; developing higher level insights into mechanisms that need to be built into management procedures for e-democracy; researching best practice for delivery of e-government public services; presenting research findings at international conferences; writing reports and peer reviewed academic publications; and writing a variety of proposals for new funding to support human centred approaches to e-democracy research.

• While working with the ITC, I was lead researcher in an evaluation of ‘e-Petitioner,’ an innovative electronic petitioning system set up by Napier University and British Telecom in collaboration with the Scottish Parliament, to stimulate and support electronic participation, and allow ordinary people to petition the Parliament on-line. Funded by Joseph Rowntree, the deliverables of the project included a framework for the management and delivery of electronic petitioning services and an evaluation report on the uptake and use of electronic petitioning. An important part of the research was not only to outline management procedures but also to gather the views of people in local communities and assess their perceptions. The study interpreted their views and opinions about e-petitioner and noted their thoughts on new opportunities to interact electronically and in a more participatory way with the Scottish Parliament. Such information fed into on-going development and helped to improve the system. Following dissemination of the final report, the Public Petitions Committee of the Scottish Parliament invited a more thorough integration of e-petitioner with their work. Thereafter, steps were taken to re-brand and merge the e-petitioning system into the Scottish Parliament’s official web-site. It is now a central ‘in-house’ tool supporting the Public Petitions Committee.

National Grid for Learning (NGfL), Scotland. Consultant (2002-2004).

• Building case studies and working collaboratively on NGfLScotland communities initiatives and training modules to build knowledge of e-democracy and civic participation.

CCNS Board of Directors (2003 – Present)

• I sit on the Board of Directors for The Centre for Community Networking and Information Policy Studies (CCNS), an independent research centre (NGO) based in St. Petersburg, in the Russian Federation. The overall mission of CCNS is to help people in countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) to use ICTs to improve their lives, and to develop civil society through research, networks, and information and scientific/professional events. CCNS is also involved in studying the effects of policy decisions and international development activities in the field of ICT use.

Honorary Research Fellow (2005 – Present)

• I am an Hon. Research Fellow with the University of Dundee. One objective is to strengthen future collaborations in research, practice, learning and writing in the area of ICT enabled community education and community development.

Ph.D Community Development in Cyberspace (2001)

• For my doctoral thesis, I studied the background, development, use and significance of a local electronic community network, set up primarily to help regenerate a deprived neighbourhood in Edinburgh, Scotland. Key aims were to critically assess the community network’s relationship with community development practice as well as perceptions of its social, cultural, political and economic significance for the community and broader society. Reviews of policy, reports and other literature helped to weave contextual, conceptual and theoretical frameworks to assist in the research and the analysis. The field research consisted of qualitative interviews with key players and observations of development and use both on and off-line. The analysis of field data highlighted many similarities and differences in the viewpoints of different people and groups in relation to network use and community development.

Community Informatics Research Network (CIRN) (2004-Present)

• I am involved in Community Informatics (CI), a paradigm or way of thinking that is centrally concerned with the application of ICTs in community practice, learning and research. CI is associated with strategies and techniques for managing community use and application of ICTs to benefit local communities.  In academic terms CI draws from multi-disciplinary fields, helps connect theory and practice and is linked to community development, local economic development, adult learning, life-long education, health informatics, community service delivery and community action. CI recognises that different local communities require tailored approaches to build social and human capital and improve routine daily lives. In addition, CI supports innovative action to strengthen culture and identity, facilitate civic empowerment, and support local economic development. CI also fosters connections and stimulates partnerships between ICT practitioners, academic researchers, social entrepreneurs and other groups who have an interest in designing community based technologies to enable community action and promote community change for the better.