15 Web Sessions (2005 2009)

Web sessions (April 2005 – January 2009)
Centre for Legal Studies and Specialised Training (Ministry of Justice) and Directorate General for Citizen
Attention (Ministry of Presidential)

Session 1. ‘Internet in the Ministry of Justice: what for?’ Alfons Cornella
An organisation generates added value when we understand it as a system able to receive
information, transform it and offer it as a service. When information is managed well , we
can do more with less.

Session 2. ‘Get to know the new Government of Catalonia website’. Marta
Continente
In the transition to the knowledge society, the Government must make data communication
infrastructures accessible, make information transparent and act as a catalyst for collective
knowledge.

Session 3. ‘Learning in the digital age’. Sergio Vasquez
Communities of practice open up the possibility of joining a network of people with a
common practice and facilitate confidence building. In this field ICT facilitate knowledge
sharing and interaction.

Session 4. ‘From the analogue society to the digital: where are we? what do
we need to do? Antoni Farrés
The knowledge economy shapes the economic and social environment in the 21st century.
Analysis of the situation in Catalonia and how it should position itself in the new context.

Session 5. ‘How do the Government’s CC licences help to make knowledge
accessible to society?’ Ignasi Labastida
Creative Commons (CC) licences are a useful tool to make knowledge gathered by the
Government available to the public by providing a flexible system to manage royalties for
works of all kinds.

Session 6. ‘Internet tools that allow people to interact with the Government’.
Roc Fages
Technology helps us to manage conversation between people to exchange knowledge and
good practice, using tools for interaction on internet such as blogs, wikis and other
resources.

Session 7. ‘Where is training going in organisations?’ Javier Martínez
Aldanondo
e-learning has not fulfilled its promise because it has transferred face to face learning to a
virtual setting. Understanding how we really learn and how technology can help in this
process should enable us to reassess the training model.

Session 8. ‘Can the Government persuade people by internet?’ David
Boronat
Analysis of the government bodies which, adopting the strategies used in the private sector
to build customer loyalty, use internet intensively to raise awareness, communicate and
involve the public.

Session 9. ‘What can the Government do with the knowledge it generates?’
Mario Pérez-Montoro
How to set up projects to manage knowledge through communities of practice and other
resources. The example of the Ministry of Justice.

Session 10. ‘Social networks on internet: the added value of our contacts’.
Albert Armengol
Networking is the technique which shows us how to build and maintain professional
relationships with benefits for both parties, managing the network of contacts strategically.

Session 11. ‘Why do we need to innovate in the Government?’ Joan Majó
The Government needs to adopt an innovative strategy to keep up with the times, using
internal and external knowledge to be competitive and generate value for its services.

Session 12. ‘Is Government 2.0 achievable? Tools and attitudes for
cooperation’. Carlos Guadián
Web 2.0 tools and resources give us opportunities to cooperate in the Government.
Examples and practical cases.

Session 13. ‘The transformation of on-line learning through social
networking and video’. Gregor Gimmy
The social network and video can change the way people learn on line and raise the
question of what can be done in the Government. Sclipo case study.

Session 14. ‘Collective intelligence and web 2.0’. Ricardo Baeza-Yates
Current impact of social networks on internet, known as web 2.0, where the content is
generated by people and the intelligence is collective.

Session 15. ‘Do people need to have a digital identity?’ How to construct it’.
Juan Freire
Having a digital identity is indispensable to make ourselves visible to the rest of society and
it needs to be constructed strategically.

1st web session at the Centre for Legal Studies and Specialised Training
‘Internet in the Ministry of Justice: what for?’

Alfons Cornella i Solans, Director of Zero Factory SL www.infonomia.com, specialist and consultant in
knowledge economy for a number of organisations.
Hall of the Centre for Legal Studies and Specialised Training, 14 April 2005. 190 people attended.

Infostructure (content + services) complements infrastructure (machines + tools)
Although we have technological applications to manage information, technology is not in itself the factor
that makes an organisation competent and stand out from others. An organisation generates added value
when we understand it as a system able to receive information, transform it and offer it as a service.
When information is managed well, we can do more with less (greater efficiency and productivity). Alfons
Cornella illustrated this with slides showing the Ministry of Justice website and the ‘a un clic’ (a click
away) applications on the home page of the Ministry’s intranet.

Googleization + relevance
Googleization (access to information using a search engine) leads to the danger of infoxication. It is
therefore advisable to balance exhaustive searches for information against the criterion of relevance. The
capture of this information is not automatic, however: it calls for method, resources and effort. This
criterion is the inspiration for the structure of the intranet.

Constant innovation
Within organisations a new professional culture is needed, that of innovation. Although there will be
people and units with greater facility for innovating, all members of the organisation need to be
encouraged to do their work in this spirit. This involves proposing ways to improve what one does using
technological resources and providing the added value of information.

Managing what the people in the organisation know and experience
People’s experience is a source of greater efficiency and it should be passed on to the rest of the
organisation. The knowledge management model proposed by Alfons Cornella is as follows:

- Work. Reducing the distance between employees and the information they need. The example given
was the search facility for forms on the intranet.
- Learning. Connecting people with questions and the person who has the answers. It was proposed that
the directory of people and identification data on the intranet should include information about the areas
in which they are experts.
- Teaching. Transferring best practice. This was illustrated by the future community of family mediators in
the e-Catalunya project (promoted by the General Directorate of Citizen Attention).

Conclusions
1. Technology x information = information to innovate (an information-oriented organisation is needed)
2. A specific common objective is needed.
3. Driving forces are needed which promote the use of information technologies to improve services.
4. It must be made part of everyday activity (innovation and knowledge management).
5. It needs to become part of the process (the organisation has to work in this way; it should never be
optional).

Corporate Communication Service. Barcelona, April 2005

2nd web session at the Centre for Legal Studies and Specialised Training
The new Gencat and other systems for attention to the public

Marta Continente i Gonzalo, Director General for Citizen Attention, Presidential Department.
Hall of the Centre for Legal Studies and Specialised Training, 24 November 2005, 16.00 h.

Introduction

In the transition to the knowledge society, the Government must make data communication
infrastructures accessible, make information transparent and act as a catalyst for collective knowledge.

New model for internet channels

1. Changing from “all services by all channels” to “each service has its own ideal channel”.
2. The effect of search engines must be taken into account.
3. Importance of push tools (browsers, newsletters, alerts, RSS news syndication, podcasting, blogs,
etc.) as they arouse surfers’ interest, encouraging them to visit websites.

Gencat.net 2005

Process of transformation:

1. Diagnosis: website analysis, usability, surveys and consultancy.
2. To move towards a new model: interactivity, transparency, network databases, transversal structure
by topics and services, multimedia, customising information, relational webs.
3. It has been implemented in certain projects: statistics portal, integration of databases, taxonomy
(classification from the viewpoint of the public), a browser (Google adapted for Gencat), content
manager (Vignette), Citizen Attention System-Information portal and new Gencat.

Citizen Attention System-Information portal

In 2005 migration to a new application took place and work is under way on integrating the Citizen
Attention System with Open Administration of Catalonia on-line transactions.

Information portal: internal consultancy for 012 operators and citizen attention offices (additional
information which is not publicly available).

A cultural change is needed for the internet channel to become an integral part of the Ministry’s
processes (and even become the backbone of systems for providing citizen attention).

e-Catalunya

The Government of Catalonia’s social website, complementing the gencat.net portal. Members of the
public will have access to public information from groups with portals. However, groups will also have a
private area, where they will have substantial storage space for their own content together with free
communication tools (messages, forum, virtual congresses, wiki, social network, etc.). The Ministry of
Justice is a pilot participant – together with the Ministry of Health – with the family mediation group.

Corporate Communication Service. Barcelona, December 2005

3rd web session at the Centre for Legal Studies and Specialised Training
Learning in the digital age

Sergio Vasquez, expert in e-learning and knowledge management, lecturer at the European School of
Management in Paris, and an advisor to communities of practice in the Ministry of Justice.

Hall of the Centre for Legal Studies and Specialised Training, 16 February. 170 people attended

e-learning as a new form of learning
Virtual learning (e-learning) should not mean adding a computer to traditional face-to-face classes. The
aim is for education and training to be more effective.

Success and failure in virtual learning
The speaker mentioned various cases of success (“la Caixa” area communities) and failure (Cisco UNIX
courses, “la Caixa” Virtaula, courses by a multinational auditing firm, etc.) Virtual learning must avoid
technocentrism (relating everything to technology) and infocentrism (memorising content). He thus
prefers to refer to “working with assistance”, meaning that users must be borne in mind when designing
courses: speaking to them and observing them to find out what they need.

Situated learning and communities of practice
Learning must be a social phenomenon, with a location in time and space, and should have everyday
work situations as a source. People can rarely be expected to share their best ideas or practices and will
be reluctant to use the ideas of others for fear of being seen as incompetent. For knowledge management
to be shared there must be a setting, communities of practice, in which people are linked by a common,
recurring practice, and which develop around what is important for its members. The model of teacher
and learner is the best system for learning.

Communities of Practice at the Ministry of Justice
For this purpose at the Ministry of Justice communities of practice have been set up in the areas of prison
services (teaching staff, educators, technical staff, social workers) and the treatment of young offenders.

Conclusions

1. Sharing both positive aspects and problems, feeling part of a common organisation and being able to
communicate with others are features which help to motivate the members of a community.
2. It is important, then, to know what we want to share, establish ground rules and work on what the
members of the community consider to be important.
3. The benefits of communities of practice affect not only their members (learning, solving problems,
sharing knowledge, etc.) but also the organisation (reduction in costs, saving time, incremental
innovation, etc.).
4. Communities of practice open up the possibility of being part of a network of people with a common
practice and, at the same time, allow people to develop confidence and establish links with experts
outside the community, increasing the members’ social resources.
5. Information technologies facilitate the sharing of knowledge and participation and interaction within the
communities.
6. Innovation occurs when the community’s ideas are implemented.

Corporate Communication Service. Barcelona, February 2006

4th web session at the Centre for Legal Studies and Specialised Training
From the analogue society to the digital: where are we? what do we need to do?

Antoni Farrés Sabater was Mayor of Sabadell from 1979 to 1999, is a member of the Cercle del
Coneixement, has taken part in the programme “Els matins de Catalunya Ràdio”, and is a specialist in the
use and application of ICT in business and society in general.

Hall of the Centre for Legal Studies and Specialised Training, 13 June 2006. 90 people attended.

Industrial society
- Catalonia’s development in the 20th century came about through its rapid integration in the industrial
revolution, alongside leading countries such as England.
- Industrial society saw the convergence of the steam engine, mechanical engineering and the science of
materials.
- The industrial economy shaped the economic and social environment for much of the 19th and 20th
centuries.

The knowledge society
- Today another convergence is shaping a new economy: information technology, telecommunications
and the technologies of content.
- The knowledge economy shapes the economic and social environment of the 21st century.
- The European Council in Lisbon (23-24 March 2000) stressed the need for a radical transformation of
the European economy.

Current situation
Farrés supported his explanation with data and graphics from Spanish and European programmes.
- According to the World Economic Forum report, Spain ranks 31st in the world (its position has been
falling), while Catalonia does not occupy a strong position in the Spanish context.
- This is the starting point for his talk: how to stimulate growth in Catalonia.

Challenges for Catalonia in the knowledge society
1. The education of its people, especially the young
2. Adapting production to the new network models.
3. Catalonia’s incorporation in world knowledge and innovation networks as a node generating value.
4. The implementation of policies designed to preserve the quality of life and welfare.

Electronic Government
- Spain and Catalonia are in a stronger position in European rankings in this area.
- However, priority has been given to transactions which transfer money to the Government (tax
authorities, etc.)
- All transactions between the Government and the public, employees or companies should be
conducted electronically (with support services for the public).

Conclusions
1. The philosophy behind the change to the knowledge society should be explained to the public.
2. A comprehensive strategic agreement is called for to promote the full incorporation of Catalonia into
the knowledge society, involving not only political parties but also the public and private sectors.
Paraphrasing Torres i Bages, he concluded that “Catalonia will be digital or it will not exist.”

Corporate Communication Service. Barcelona, June 2006

How do the Government’s Creative Commons licences help to make knowledge accessible to
society?

Ignasi Labastida i Juan, Doctor of Physics from the University of Barcelona. Responsible for the
promotion and implementation of Creative Commons licences in Catalonia and the rest of Spain.
The event was chaired by Joan Turró, Secretary General of the Ministry of Justice and it was introduced
by Marta Continente, Presidential Department Secretary for Telecommunications and the Information
Society.

Hall of the Centre for Legal Studies and Specialised Training, 19 October 2006. 120 people attended.

Introduction
One of the challenges of the new economic era is to make knowledge available for innovation in products
and services. Creative Commons (CC) licences are a useful tool to achieve this by offering a flexible
system to deal with royalties for all kinds of works. The idea is to authorise some uses of the work instead
of restricting and banning them from the outset. The classic notion of “all rights reserved” is thus changed
to “some rights reserved”.

What are Creative Commons licences?

Creative Commons is an American non-profit making organisation founded in 2001. At the end of 2002 it
launched a project for licences, offering them to anyone who did not want to reserve all rights for their
work but were prepared to cede some rights under certain conditions.
The licences are free and works do not have to be registered. They are legal texts which allow the author
to grant the rights corresponding to the work for purposes which are considered suitable. Copying,
reproduction, distribution and public dissemination are always allowed when acknowledgement is given to
the author in credits, but limitations may be placed on commercial use or the possibility of producing
derivative works, or these may be subject to the terms of the licence for the original work. The six
standard licences currently available are the result of combining these conditions.

The iCommons project dates from 2003 and was introduced to adapt licences to the requirements of each
state in the USA. This year the University of Barcelona became the Spanish affiliate institution for
Creative Commons. The licences are now adapted to Spanish legislation on intellectual property and are
available in all the official languages.

Different government applications of Creative Commons licences

The conclusions of the study by the British consortium Common Information Environment on the
application of CC licences to the public sector show that the dissemination of public resources using
these licences is viable. Examples already exist, such as the Governments of Brazil and Mexico,
institutions such as the British Council, policies on research by the National Health Institutes in the USA,
etc.
In Catalonia we also find examples, such as Recercat (Catalonia Research repository), RACO (Catalan
Open Access Reviews), Zona Clic (Dept. of Education). It should also be noted that on 27 June 2006 the
proposal to apply CC licences to all Government of Catalonia publications was approved by the Editorial
Board.

Conclusions
1. We do not need to perpetuate the traditional model of “all rights reserved”.
2. Only necessary reservations should be made.
3. It should be made easy to access and reuse information for which we have all paid.
4. What is allowed must always be made clear, applying minimum restrictions.
5. A full study of the possibilities and applicability of the licences should be carried out.

Corporate Communication Service. Barcelona, October 2006

Internet tools that allow people to interact with the Government

Roc Fages, consultant journalist specialising in the Internet. He writes regular commentaries on
electronic government in the broadest sense in his cyberdiary www.goldmundus.com. The event was
introduced by Joan Xirau, Director of the Centre for legal studies and specialised training.

Hall of the Centre for Legal Studies and Specialised Training, 30 January 2007. 175 people attended.

Introduction
Technology allows people to exchange knowledge and good practice through interactive internet tools,
such as blogs, wikis, and other resources, especially using interactive web 2.0 tools.

Interaction and blogs
Blogs are personal or collective on-line diaries where information on different topics appears as articles or
posts. They follow a chronological sequence which is regularly updated, allowing readers who visit the
blog to add comments. There are various tools for creating blogs: Blogger, e-Catalunya, etc. RSS content
syndication also means that we can receive a notification when the blogs that interest us are updated,
using local applications such as Feedreader or web access applications such as Bloglines (like Roc
Fages’ own blogline).

Blogs have become a tool for both private and public participation. Ministers, mayors and other politicians
have created their own blogs to comment on measures which have been adopted or to reflect on
everyday life in a city and gather the opinions of those who read them (e.g. the blog by the Mayor of
Mataró Joan Antoni Baron, the blog by Government workers Alberto Ortiz de Zárate and Iñaki Ortiz).

Some companies use corporate blogs to maintain contact with their staff and interact with users or
customers (IBM, Microsoft).

Interaction and web 2.0

Web 2.0 includes tools which allow quick, easy, real time cooperation on the net. The e-Catalunya
platform is an example of the way in which different professionals can work together with others in the
same field, taking part in discussions and taking advantage of each other’s contributions. The platform
makes available to members tools such as wikis and blogs, and the storage of all types of files to interact
and share knowledge. Leadership plays an important part in its use.

Participation can be enhanced through interaction from mobile phones: the e-lens project, based on a
tagging system with chips which allow information to be received and modified on a mobile phone (pilot
scheme in Manresa), and Zexe.net, a website about accessibility in Barcelona where people with
disabilities take photographs of places which are not accessible and publish them on the web.

Conclusions
1. Interaction goes beyond internet. Now we need to look at tools (blogs, wikis, RSS, etc.) and integrated
platforms for interaction (computer, TV, mobile phone, PDA).
2. Interactive tools should be explored and exploited to encourage participation.
3. We should use interactive tools which are useful and user-friendly.
Blogs and wikis are the ideal tools for interaction between users and the Government. Used internally, by
staff, they encourage reflection and cohesion within the organisation. Used externally, they promote the
institution’s brand by encouraging participation in the generation of ideas.
Corporate Communication Service. Barcelona, January 2007

Where is training going in organisations?

Javier Martínez Aldanondo, Head of the Knowledge Management Division of Catenaria, is one of
the leading figures in e-learning and knowledge management in the Spanish-speaking world. The
event was introduced by Joan Xirau, Director of the Centre for legal studies and specialised training.
Hall of the Centre for Legal Studies and Specialised Training, 21 March 2007. 120 people attended.

Introduction
Normally we do not remember knowledge passed on in a conventional face-to-face course. However, we
do remember experiences, stories and what we learn from making mistakes. To learn we need to
remember: we don’t need courses or content, but someone who knows how to teach and how to do what
they are teaching. In training, there are 3 revolutions which are pending:

1st revolution: training linked to the organisation’s results
Training objectives should be part of the strategic objectives of the organisation. Training is intended to
change behaviour, so it is necessary to find out what doesn’t work, what staff do and what the
organisation would like them to do, what problems they have, who the experts are, what are the main
mistakes they make, etc. Indicators are also needed to assess the training.

2nd revolution: learning by doing

Practice is needed to learn: if what we teach cannot be practised, it may not be worthwhile teaching it.
Mistakes are the most important part of learning, as we learn from our mistakes. The aim of this learning
is to store experience which we can take advantage of in the future.

3rd revolution: learning with technology

flexibility mustn’t be the only advantage of e-learning: it must offer things we cannot get from a face-to-
face class. It is people who are intelligent; technology is only a means. The problem of e-learning is that
it has transferred face-to-face teaching to the virtual context without adapting it: often we just read on the
screen what we used to read in a textbook, but the computer is an instrument that allows us to practise,
get feedback, work in a network, etc.

Conclusion
There are two basic problems in training:
1. We tend to teach things that nobody needs, we don’t teach the things people really need, and when we
do teach them it isn’t when people need them.

2. We need to change the way we teach because it is doomed to failure. There are three pillars on which
the learning process is based:
a. People learn by doing, practising things they are interested in. If you don’t practise, you don’t learn.
b. Mistakes are the most important part of learning.
c. Stories are a vehicle for the transmission of knowledge whose value is incalculable: we learn from
others, with others and teaching others.
Learning (and doing it faster than our competitors) is an indispensable skill for survival in the present
system, where change is a constant. Organisations can only last if they help workers to adapt to these
changes, i.e. to learn. The change calls for cooperative working practices, intensive use of technology,
innovation, and, above all, a focus on people.

Corporate Communication Service. Barcelona,March 2007

Can the Government persuade people by internet?

David Boronat is an Internet specialist and a founder member of the company Multiplica. He writes
regular comments about persuasion skills on the internet at www.persuabilidad.com, a website which
discusses the role of persuasion in turning users into customers. The event was introduced by Joan
Xirau, Director of the Centre for legal studies and specialised training.

Hall of the Centre for Legal Studies and Specialised Training, 27 March 2007. 130 people attended.

Introduction
Governments should be aware of developments in the private sector in the use of strategies to capture
the attention of users and turn them into loyal customers. They should use the internet more intensively to
raise awareness, communicate and involve the public emotionally, to project local culture or to promote a
high standard of management.

The private sector on the internet
Businesses have users, with whom they need to establish dialogue and whose emotions they must
engage. Challenges for companies on the internet:
- Saying things differently, speaking the users’ language and explaining things simply and visually.
- Recognise the importance of e-mail addresses and make intelligent use of e-mail. Multi-channel
facilities are also important as is getting to know users without asking them for too much information
(e.g. using cookies)
- Offering favourable conditions for customers who are willing to operate electronically with them.

The Government on-line
The Government on-line:
- It must be attractive, persuasive and promote certain local values.
- Like businesses, it must explain things to users and the public in the simplest, most visual way, in
familiar language. It should also encourage people to contact it on-line.
- It has to sell its programmes and its on-line services (and make sure that the public use them), but it
also has to be transparent (explaining Government action, its strategic priorities and its objectives, and
publishing their results).
- Push services should be promoted and lessons learnt from success stories (e.g. a high percentage of
visitors to the Barcelona City Council website go there to look at the streetguide and this page could be
used to draw attention to important information).

Conclusion
The Government has a genuine ability to use the internet to persuade people. Currently there are many
examples of the persuasive use of internet by Governments:
- Chilecompra (Chilean Government): on-line system for purchases and public contracting.
- My eCitizen (Government of Singapore): privatisation of institutional information.
- One Cent Now (Toronto): raising public support for regional projects (cyberactivism).

The Government has, then, to be able to make use of strategies and resources from the world of
business to approach the public and other customers and establish a relationship based on trust leading
to loyalty.

Corporate Communication Service. Barcelona, March 2007

9th Web session at the Centre for Legal Studies and Specialised Training
What can the Government do with the knowledge it generates?
Mario Pérez-Montoro, holds a doctorate in Philosophy and Educational Science from the University of
Barcelona (UB) and is a lecturer in the Faculty of Librarianship and Documentation at the UB. The talk
was introduced by Joan Mauri, Secretary General of the Ministry of Justice.

Introduction
In the knowledge economy, information is the main source of activity for organisations and is the value
added to goods and services which gives them a competitive edge and makes them attractive to users
(these are the prerequisites of innovation). Organisations are structured round knowledge and see
learning as a way to improve and thus adapt to processes of change.
Managing knowledge in organisations
Type of knowledge:
- Tacit (personal and difficult to transmit) and explicit (can be verbalised and transmitted).
- Individual (each person’s tacit and explicit knowledge) and corporate (belongs to institutions).
- Internal (critical knowledge which allows an organisation to fulfil objectives) and external (to relate to
other organisations and people).

Knowledge management consists in designing a system that incorporates all the types of knowledge in
the organisation and transforms it into corporate knowledge in order to to achieve its objectives.
Corporate knowledge suffers, however, when staff leave and when knowledge becomes outdated.
Traditional learning and other forms such as virtual learning, cooperative learning, experience, etc. help to
compensate for the knowledge lost in this way.

The cost of knowledge and what we can obtain in exchange
Obstacles: resistance to change and to sharing, lack of time and incentives, need for technological
training and for group work, lack of a common organisational culture, intolerance of mistakes, etc.
Personal benefits: solving everyday problems, improving decision making, greater flexibility, access to
new forms of learning, gaining professional recognition, etc.
Collective benefits: increasing the organisation’s effectiveness and efficiency, reducing the knowledge
deficit, avoiding duplication of knowledge, benefiting from investment in training, greater commitment to
the organisation, creating an ecological context for knowledge (only useful knowledge remains in the
organisation).

Schemes to implement knowledge management: the Ministry of Justice model
- Strategic stages in the project: 1. Identifying potential communities. 2. Providing logistics. 3. Assessing
the contribution to the organisation.
- Community of practice: e-moderators (leaders) + 15 groups working according to the project’s
methodology. 190 people working on the project and approximately 900 associated with it (outside
groups, etc.)
- Working pattern: face-to-face meetings + collective work via the e-Catalunya platform.
- Presentation of problems, proposal of standardised solutions and development of products (models for
documents, standard procedures, etc.)
- Dissemination of the project: intranet (knowledge portal), website, e-moderators’ blog, digital review.
- Assessment: activity indicators (no. of activities per group and tool), production (no. of face-to-face
sessions and no. of products developed) and impact (related to efficiency and experience).

Conclusion
“Where culture and knowledge are concerned, you only lose what you keep, you only gain what you
give.” Antonio Machado

Social networks on internet: the added value of our contacts.

Albert Armengol holds a degree in Medicine and Surgery from the Barcelona Autonomous University
(UAB), an MBA from ESADE and is founder of eConozco www.econozco.com, the world’s first on-line
Spanish language contact network. The event was introduced by Joan Xirau, Director of the Centre for
legal studies and specialised training.

On a face-to-face level, networking is the development and dissemination of good management of our
networks of personal and professional contacts.

On-line social networks
Together with forums, wikis, e-mail, instant messaging and blogs, social networking programs are tools
which help to construct an organisation’s knowledge through cooperation.
It is interesting to observe the differences in the graphic representation of contact networks in
organisations: organisational relations, corresponding to the hierarchy, and inter-personal relations, which
are those we refer to as social networking.

What is networking?
Networking consists in developing and sharing our network of contacts; it is, then, a very suitable
resource for developing cooperative work projects. There are two types: personal and professional.
Within networking we can distinguish between strong links (contacts with whom we share a group of
contacts similar to our own) and weak links (people we have just met). Strong links provide a framework
of trust while weak links provide diversity and it is desirable to strengthen them through network projects.

What is on-line networking?
On-line networking (social networking software) involves a network of professional contacts which can be
extended to the contacts of our existing contacts. In this way an extensive network of relations can be
built up.
Through on-line networking we can find people whom it would be very difficult to contact otherwise. On-
line networking thus allows us to be in the right place at the right time.
The concept of on-line networking first appeared around 2002 on open websites. To join a social
networking website, we first need to post a good professional profile or CV, so that we will be accessible
to people who may want to contact us (passive visibility).
Within on-line networking, there are social and professional networks. From a geographical perspective,
networks range from local (such as e-Catalunya http://ecatalunya.gencat.net, with communities promoted
by the Government of Catalonia or which are Catalan in scope) to others which are international, such as
the German Xing (which has bought eConozco and Neurona and is the leader in Europe) and Linked-in
(leader in the English-speaking world).

Conclusion. “Dig the well before you are thirsty” (Chinese proverb)
Just as we can determine specific uses for other internet tools (forum = discussion; blog = expression of
implicit knowledge, conversation; wiki = joint production of final document), social networking
programmes help us to manage and extend our network of contacts efficiently and facilitate the
structuring of collective intelligence.


Why do we need to innovate in the Government?

Joan Majó Cruzate. Doctorate in industrial engineering and Director of the Catalan Broadcasting
Corporation. He has worked in the business world and for local and international institutions related to
telecommunications, research and science. The talk was introduced by Joan Mauri, Secretary General of
the Ministry of Justice.
Hall of the Centre for Legal Studies and Specialised Training, 23 January 2008. 175 people attended.

What is innovation?
In the business world innovation is understood as the ability to turn knowledge into profit. In the non-
commercial world, including government, innovation is the ability to turn knowledge into value to improve
services. Innovation is always a tool to achieve goals and not a goal in itself.
Rather than developing a better product, innovation means thinking of a new one which people can
clearly see the usefulness of.
The ability to innovate is a general characteristic of a country or a region. It is part of a culture, it is in the
people and spreads from them. There are four indispensable requirements for innovation, its
development and implementation: educational and professional system networks, business models and
government policies.

Innovation in economic processes

The objective of companies is to be competitive and make profits. Business development involves three
areas: being competitive in cost, quality and innovation. Today western countries can only be competitive
through innovation, as other countries are more competitive regarding prices and they have the same
technological capacity to make quality products.

In the European Union the capacity of different countries and regions for innovation has been monitored.
Based on 17 indicators, such as the number of graduates in science and engineering, the percentage of
the population aged 25 to 64 with higher studies or undertaking institutionalised retraining, the percentage
of GDP devoted to research and development, etc., the progress of European countries towards
innovation is measured. The figures show that in recent years Catalonia’s position in innovation has
dropped.

How can we innovate in Government?
It is difficult in government to accept innovation and overcome inertia. Things are done well but we
continue doing the same things. In the public arena, rather than exchange knowledge, we need to
exchange experience and always bear in mind the need to improve service to the public. For example, to
innovate we need to provide services which fit in with the public’s new habits (internet, mobile phones,
etc.)

Conclusion
Innovation is a change in consumer habits in response to people’s needs. A good example of an
innovative product which has been widely accepted is the mobile phone and the associated applications
which allow the user to access a range of content and services.
Innovations in procedure lead to improvements in the quality of service. We must be imaginative and
anticipate people’s real needs in the future to plan our activity in this area.

Corporate Communication Service. Barcelona, January 2008

Is Government 2.0 achievable? Tools and attitudes for cooperation.

Carlos Guadián Orta www.k-government.com, consultant specialising in internet communication and
content. The event was introduced by Joan Xirau, Director of the Centre for legal studies.
Hall of the Centre for Legal Studies and Specialised Training, 16 April 2007. 200 people attended.

The web 2.0 concept is changing the mentality of users and of the Government

Internet, and in particular web 2.0 provides channels for communication which affect the way we relate
socially, our learning and acquisition of knowledge.

With web 2.0 the net is like a big conversation which allows the formation of communities with common
interests and maximises each member’s contribution. The user goes from a purely receptive role to being
the centre, as everything is two-way. This is how the global conversation is shaped.

In this new setting a cooperative attitude is essential, an interest in producing knowledge and sharing it.

How to integrate the web 2.0 model in the Government

The Government must manage the change carefully, ensuring that the attitudes of directors and
managers are positive and that proper training and technical solutions are provided. It is important for
Government staff to gain confidence in this new cooperative system so that they can contribute
professional knowledge and learn from the system.

The Government’s role is not to control people but to cooperate with them; the public add value to
services.

Tools and resources for cooperation on internet: blogs, RSS, bookmarking and social filters for
news, social network, wikis, etc.
Various tools and resources which help users managa this change are available on the internet. They
include the Wordpress and Blogger blogs, RSS (Bloglines, Google Reader, Thunderbird), social
bookmarking, such as Del.icio.us, social news filters (Digg, Menéame), browsers for news or posts
(Wikio, Blogsearch), social networks (Linkedin, Facebook), wikis, etc.

Experiences with web 2.0 in the Government

There are Government departments, such as the Ministry of Justice, which are already fully committed to
web 2.0. The Compartim program is a good example.

This and other experiences (like the e-Catalunya platform) treat the service they provide as a platform on
which a network of relationships is built among their staff and with the public.

Conclusion

Web 2.0 makes it easier for everyone to participate in a free medium. To reap the maximum benefit from
this new system it is essential for organisations and individuals (including Government bodies and their
staff) to adopt a cooperative attitude which favours the development and sharing of knowledge. There
have already been valuable experiences within the Government. We need to extend our knowledge of the
tools which facilitate work in this new environment (blogs, RSS, bookmarking, browsers, social news
filters, wikis, etc.) and our confidence in using them.

Corporate Communication Service. Barcelona, April 2008

The transformation of on-line learning through social networking and video

Gregor Gimmy www.sclipo.com, founder and CEO of the Sclipo company. The event was introduced
by Joan Xirau, Director of the Centre for legal studies.

Traditional education suffers from certain shortcomings in its infrastructure, as it is limited to a certain
place and time, and lacks interaction. Web 2.0, and in particular social network technology, video and
webcam, offer us new opportunities to improve learning, because they enable us to learn from the best,
wherever they may be (delocalisation), know who and what is the best, reduce the cost of assessment,
facilitate the learning of any subject, however uncommon it is, and find and store relevant audiovisual
material and interaction.

Web 2.0 and social networks

With web 1.0 people could receive information, shop and search, while web 2.0 also allows them to
create content (texts, photos, audio, video) without having knowledge about programming. As there is
interaction between users, content can be assessed and shared more easily.

The common features of web 2.0 are that users have a public profile (public area), they can create and
share content, and interact publicly and privately. This interaction raises users’ profiles and promotes the
content they create.

Web 2.0 can be used in different ways, according to users’ objectives: suggesting and finding content
(digg, Technorati), establishing their presence on the net (Blogger, Youtube, Flickr, MySpace), developing
friendships (Facebook), teaching and learning (Sclipo), professional networking (Xing).

Social network+education = Sclipo: social education

The combination of the social network with the objective of teaching and learning has made Sclipo a
pioneer in social education.

Sclipo is a social network where anybody can publish an indefinite number of videos (there are no
restrictions) to facilitate the learning of any content, including subjects of minority interest. Assessment of
content is very extensive because participants give direct and indirect assessment (number of views,
forwarding to friends, voting, comments). Choosing the best material is easier on Sclipo because the
users themselves choose the best content, which reduces the cost of assessment.

SclipoLive is a pioneering service which provides synchronic teaching via a web camera and records
teaching content and chats (notes indexed to the video of the class), as well as saving audiovisual
content and relevant interaction so that they can be found easily later. In the near future there will be a
new version, in which there will be one teacher for several students, and it will be possible to add texts to
complement the video.

Conclusion

The internet’s main value is for learning. On-line learning is a wonderful opportunity with great potential to
improve education through social network technologies combined with an audiovisual support.
Customised solutions can also be provided for companies and government bodies so that good practice
can be shared by all staff.


Collective intelligence and web 2.0.

Ricardo Baeza Yates www.dcc.uchile.cl/~rbaeza/spanish.html, Director of Yahoo! Research, Barcelona
and Santiago de Chile. The event was introduced by Joan Xirau, Director of the Centre for legal studies.

The web 2.0 concept. Impact on today’s internet

It is currently estimated that between 1 and 2.5 billion people have internet access and the number is
expected to reach 5 billion by 2015; internet traffic has increased 20-fold in the last 5 years and there are
over 181 million web servers. The main characteristics of web 2.0, which consists of social networks or
social media, are the fragmentation of the ownership of content and the fragmentation of access.

Characteristics of web 2.0: content generated by people and collective intelligence

The main ingredient of web 2.0 is the community dynamic: in its new products the distinction between
creators, synthesisers and consumers is blurred. For example, let us consider the case of Flickr
www.flickr.com: the users themselves generate the content, organise it, distribute it, and develop new
uses for it. The web 2.0 ecosystem consists of blogs; social networks like MySpace www.myspace.com,
Facebook http://ca-es.facebook.com, Friendster www.friendster.com; the sharing of favourite links
http://delicious.com; instant messaging; sharing photos (Flickr) or videos www.youtube.com; participation
in groups http://es.groups.yahoo.com and individuals answering questions from others
http://es.answers.yahoo.com. South Korea is the most advanced country in social networks.

Data mining on web use
In 2004 the journalist James Surowiecki published the book The wisdom of crowds. On web 2.0 data
mining based on people’s wisdom improves the user’s experience through the data collected: it is a
essential for improving web searches (browser rankings), the content and the structure of information
(based on the anchor text).

Digital community systems, the new emerging science, and people’s implicit wisdom

Digital community systems are a new way to participate, belong and share: the web today reflects the
economy and society in general, it is scientifically young and intellectually diverse. People’s implicit
wisdom can be seen at work in folksonomy (collective classification through tagging) and knowledge
networks, resulting in implicit social networks, such as the Open Directory Project www.dmoz.org or
Wikipedia www.wikipedia.org. On the governmental level digital communities have also been set up in a
number of countries. In Catalonia the Compartim programme is of particular interest. Knowledge is
managed and the programme’s annual conference prepared through the social blog
http://compartim.socializame.com.

Conclusion

On web 2.0 the content is produced and shared by the users themselves, which has a great impact on
internet and also on society, the economy, the world of publicity, education, etc. Consumption becomes
an implicit act of production, with no added effort required. It is a matter of capturing people’s experience,
allowing people to be tagged as trustworthy sources on an ongoing basis.


Do people need to have a digital identity? How to construct it.

Juan Freire http://juanfreire.net, expert in innovation and strategy in networks and organisations. The
speaker was introduced by Jordi Graells, Coordinator of Content and Innovation for the Directorate
General for Citizen Attention (Presidential Department).

Hall of the Centre for Legal Studies and Specialised Training, 18 February 2009. 194 people attended.

Digital identity

Nowadays the intensive use of web 2.0 tools, especially social network services, calls for the availability
of a digital identity through which we make ourselves visible to other people: our identity which appears
on the internet needs to be controlled and it is preferable to manage it ourselves, rather than not be
involved and have others manage it for us.

Learning about and constructing digital identity

Constructing one’s digital identity is part of the learning process in the digital culture. We are heading
towards a situation in which we will have a hybrid identity (physical and digital); this does not mean we
will have two identities, as our identity is unique, although it is sometimes difficult to separate the personal
from the professional.

Adolescents nowadays only perceive one identity. A study carried out in the USA in 2008 on the use
made by adolescents of digital media concluded that adolescents relate to each other in two types of
community: a) local networks of friends, as an extension of physical contact, through phone calls, sms,
instant messaging and b) interest networks, global in scope, where they relate to other people with similar
interests, and it is through these networks that they develop their creative skills (writing blogs, publishing
videos, etc.), become visible and gain a reputation.

Adolescents use the network in three different ways: 1) just spending time (hanging out); 2) looking for
information without any clear purpose (messing around); and 3) specialised independent use of the
technology (geeking out).

There are two ways to view the internet: as a big space full of rubbish (games, inaccurate information,
publicity, etc.) or as a space for learning and socialising. According to our own learning process we will
adopt one position or the other.

To construct our digital identity the tools we use are not as important as the purpose for which we are
going to use them. The concept of digital competences has evolved: it has moved from a technological
focus (1990s to early 2000s) to a social and participatory communicative focus (since 2003).

Conclusion
- There are no rules for constructing and controlling digital identity; it is an individual learning process.
The rules still have to be defined.
- We should be careful about the information we publish; it may not be significant in itself but it may be
mined for data and a pattern established.
- If we do not have a digital identity, identity theft is easier.
- Digital identity affects organisations; the Government also needs to construct its own digital identity and
must know what it wants to transmit to the public. The Administration should also train staff so that they
know how to construct their digital identity for the benefit of the organisation. This is particularly
necessary for organisations involved in projects with social networks and work done jointly.

Government of Catalonia. Barcelona, February 2009

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