This document discusses how hyperlocal websites empower communities by providing public sector information. It provides examples of successful hyperlocal sites across the UK created with support from Talk About Local. These sites range from village sites with a few hundred views daily to large city discussion forums with tens of thousands of users. They cover topics like local campaigns, events, wildlife and community news. The document advocates that public bodies should engage with and support local sites by providing access to public sector information to help local communities.

1. William Perrin TAL
Talk About Local
Empowering communities with simple websites
Hyperlocal websites and public sector information
PSI In Action
Caledonian Club
20 October 2009
William Perrin - william@talkaboutlocal.org
Talk About Local (West Midlands) Ltd
http://talkaboutlocal.org

4. www.kingscrossenvironment.com
over 700 articles
Four volunteer writers – aged 40-65
Small number of authors
Campaigns, information, wildlife,
events etc

5. •Cemex campaign – long running anti social
plant operations
•Videos of noise pollution in YouTube –
unarguable prima facie case
•Send links to CEMEX CEO UKMEA and Council
noise officers
•Successful resolution – plant restructured

6. www.digbeth.org
Digbeth gritty industrial
area of South B’ham
Arts, events, positive
stories
Digbeth is Good
redefined image of
Digbeth on line
Costs - £10/month
Wordpress blog

7. Stoke-on-Trent
www.pitsnpots.co.uk
Campaigning, challenging style
Reflects local frustration at
political scene
3 writers, 28,000 comments on
local politics
Wordpress site
£20 a month

8. www.harringayonline.com
Nearly 2,000 members
Green Lanes
Chatty informal feel
Wide range of local issues
£15 month

9. www.sheffieldforum.co.uk
discussion forum
3.7 million posts
85,000 registered users
Population Sheffield 450,000

10. www.parwich.org
Four or more writers
Village life – popn. 400
400 views a day
£10 per month
Wordpress.com site

11. • TAL(WM)Ltd SME using UK
online centre network of trainers
for national reach and leverage
• UK online centres reach out to
engage activists in their
communities
• Community sites in over 150
places across England
• Engage 3,000 people
• Give people confidence and
support to create local sites using
free tools
• Online support network and
website
• Built using West Midlands talent

12. http://kingtonblackboard.org
http://Kingtonblackboard.org
UK online centre – Marches Access
Point
Started August 2009 with TAL
Rural town life and news
Wordpress site

13. http://W14london.ning.com
Deprived area of West London
Started August 2009 – with TAL and
local NDC
Local discussion and information
Over 100 members already
Ning.com site – cost £zero

14. Public Sector Information in action
Street light broken for 163 days
From snagging to failure
Can performance data help hold to
account?

15. Highway authority BV 215b - average time
taken to repair a street
lighting fault, where
response time is under the
control of a DNO
Enfield 7.74
Ealing 9.35
Tower Hamlets 12.31
Harrow 13.40
Barnet 16.98
Hounslow 17.27
Southwark 17.43
City 19.00
Hammersmith and Fulham 20.21
Wandsworth 20.76
Hillingdon 20.81
Richmond 21.09
Waltham Forest 21.93
Haringey 21.96
Kingston Upon Thames 22.00
Barking and Dagenham 23.34*
Merton 23.53
Havering 24.95
Kensington and Chelsea 25.88
Islington 26.50
Croydon 27.06
Redbridge 27.28
Newham 27.46
Sutton 27.89
Brent 30.54
Hackney 32.16
Lambeth 32.84
Camden 32.94
Bromley 35.69
Lewisham 38.77*
Westminster 39.84*
Transport for London 42.40
Greenwich 70.99
Bexley 77.45
Took a lifetime to find relevant
information on web
Street light repair – Islington
average 26.5 days
Lever for getting things done
Light gets fixed due to this and
other factors

16. Superb local information service – easy
to use and comprehensible
Abstract information made useful
Endangered by post codes madness
What does Royal Mail spend £18
million pa on?

17. Planning - to exercise democratic
rights, need to know:
Existence
Document
Meaning of document
Route for comment
Deadlines
Consultation process
Meeting timetable
Results of meeting…..

18. Whitehall
Townhall
Blackhall

19. New front end on over 300 public
service outlets
National service layer beyond
capability of CLG
Radical unified interface for
hundreds of often poor services
Basic PSI critical – boundaries,
post codes, maps, email
addresses

20. Excellent pooling of feeds
But Council Information
retrieved often hard to
understand for machines and
people– eg officers powerpoint
and meeting minutes
@countculture

21. RSS and other feeds
of local information
Works with local
Lichfield blog
Don’t need to be a big
unitary to do this

22. BCC DIY
Functional rebuild by volunteers of
£2.8m Birmingham City Council site
For a while you could even PAY your
council tax through the site
£38,000 (estimate)
Arguably most radical grass roots web
project in this space right now

23. Public bodies need to
engage with local sites and offer
them your PSI (as Bham are
doing here)
Find out what they are talking
about and see what you have to
help them
Buy pizza, beer etc – better
investment than cost of one day's
consultant form an SI

24. William Perrin TAL
If your organisation wants to create local websites
for your community(ies) or discuss how you can
unlock your local information contact us at talk
about local.
William Perrin - william@talkaboutlocal.org
Talk About Local (West Midlands) Ltd
http://talkaboutlocal.org