Presentation by Mike Saunt, Founder, Astun Technology at PSFBuzz North East: Effective Social Networking & Web 2.0 Strategies for Local Authorities - a Public Sector Forums conference, 7 July 2009, Newcastle upon Tyne.

1. Social, AJAX Technologies and with a focus on data & mashups…
Mike Saunt

2. Who is this guy?
This may be a bit of a curve ball
I’m not a webbie per se
Focus on data integration and
publishing
Work in the private sector
for Councils and the Police
(that’s me on the left)

3. Overview
•Twitter - Fad or new media?
•Cool technologies
• AJAX, Google Maps etc
• What about DDA?
•Power of the Desk…
•Its all about the data
• Examples
• Live demo
•Cash saving example
•Summary

4. Web 2.0 – What is it?
 Associated with Social Networking / Collaboration
But it is more than just that…

5. Web 2.0 – What is it?
 "Web 2.0" referred to the
 ongoing transition from a collection of websites to a full-
fledged computing platform
 The forming of online communities and engagement
 From a technical perspective
 computer-to-computer interactions,
 the opening of full machine-readable access to databases,
 the opening of APIs for machine writing to databases
Breaking it down…

6. Is Twitter a fad or new channel?

7. Twitter – some thoughts
 Do people really follow a council via Twitter?
 Would I want Council news via Twitter?
 Councillor activities? Maybe to have contact with…
 What happened to RSS?
 Only around 21% of councils have one
 Of those 21% how many audit numbers registered?
 Who controls the data in Twitter?
 What happens when mistakes go out?
 And Twitter turn off delete functionality?
 What happens if they go bust?
 Who pays for SMS?
Are the ‘old school media’ for it?

8. Twitter – old media against it?

9. Twitter – old media against it?

10. Twitter
Sometimes old views
can be better

11. Twitter
 Great at the Mumbai attacks
 Showed the real power
 With local authorities
 Snow events
 Two way communication, find out what concerns citizens etc
 Internal communication
 From Chief Executive, Director etc?
 Some cool things – TwitterPlan
 Encourage discussions about planning
 Not used solely but as part of everything
 Demographics of Twitter users

12. Twitter
 Twitter is
 Great & Revolutionary
 Some cool things – TwitterPlan
 Encourage discussions
 Not used solely but as part of everything
 Demographics of Twitter users

13. Asynchronous Javascript And Xml (AJAX), Google Maps etc

14. Acronyms all around…
AJAX Asynchronous Javascript And XML
CSS Cascading Style Sheets
RSS Really Simple Syndication; Rich Site Summary
XML eXtensible Markup Language
KML Keyhole Markup Language (Google ‘Earth’ format)
TLA Three Letter Achronyms

15. AJAX…
 Make calls to server without page refresh
 AJAX prominent with Gmail, Google maps
 called it ‘Javascript programming’
 Circa 2004
 AJAX coined by media bods
 Derived from Java applets methods
 Embedded in Internet Explorer by Microsoft
 Outlook Web Edition
 In late 1990’s
 Now standard in browsers etc

16. Cool technologies & Accessibility…
 ‘Normal’ Google Maps
 No Javascript
 But STILL accessible

17. Cool technologies & Accessibility…
 ‘Normal’ Tripadvisor
 Option to go to map (i.e. not essential or restrictive)

18. Cool and leading the way

19. But no Javascript?

20. Cool technologies
 Shouldn’t be the only means of access
 Disability Discrimination Act
 Accessibility regardless of access type
 Different browsers (non windows, text readers etc)
 Different platforms (web, mobile etc)
 Silent Billionaire
 Google / Search engine optimization

21. Take a step back to see what has changed since E-Government and
what else can we do…

22. My experiences…
I’ve worked with lots of Local
Government characters
 Through E-Government
 And T-Government
What has changed over the years?

23. What has changed?
10 years ago there were lots of data silos with ‘data owners’
(Bureaucrats)
Now data is more shared & centralized with ‘data custodians’
(Civil Servants)

24. Power of the Desk…
Bureaucrat -> Civil Servant
 Bureaucrat from the French “Power of the desk”
 Bureau – “desk”
 Krat – “power”
 Civil Servant (or public servant)
 Servant - “to serve”
 Civil - “consisting of citizens”
There is a difference…

25. Power of the Desk…
 Historically citizen interactions were made via a desk
 Application form filled out and passed over the desk
 Civil servant passes receipt or license back over the desk
 The desk was the medium
 For a bureaucrat it is about CONTROL
 For a civil servant it is a means of COMMUNICATION
Bureaucrats keep information safe FROM the public
Civil Servants manage information FOR the public

26. Information Age
 We’re no longer in a paper based world
 People want access to information at any time
Government,
along with all industries,
has tried to address this,
with varying success

27. Information Age
 Government stopped printing
as many of these…

28. Information Age
 and produced more of these…
But has it all been successful?

29. Information Age
 Some companies get the web

30. Information Age
 and some companies not as much

31. Information Age
How can we change?
but the way that you do it…

32. Information Age
 The Internet is a new MEDIUM of
communication
 When a new medium arrives
 communication strategies need changing
 which means the provision of information needs to
change
New medium = new rules

33. The Power of Information
Independent review for Central Government...

34. Power of Information Task force
 Report Published
 Already driving change
 Ordnance Survey has new strategy
 Report promoting Government data sharing
 i.e. data feeds for mashups…

35. Data mashups – the fun stuff

36. Data Mashing
 4 quick simple examples
 PlanningAlerts
 FixMyStreet
 BBC Travel News
 Cleveland Police localising content

37. Data Mashing
 Planning Alerts
 Alerts around Manchester
 Live Demo of a basic mashup
 Pros
 you can access this data easily
 Cons
 you already have it (most of you)
 you don’t control it

38. Data Mashing
 Fix My Street
 RSS feed from FixMyStreet
 Live Demo of a basic mashup
 Pros
 you can access this data easily
 Cons
 you have it sent via email (manual entry?)
 you don’t control it / audit it

39. Data Mashing
 BBC Travel News
 Obscure XML format and mashup
 Breakdown just for Manchester
 Pros
 You can access this data easily
 You don’t have it
 It comes from a reputable source
 Cons
 Not sure – can you think of any?

40. Data Mashing and Going Local
 Cleveland Police
 Very simple to implement
 Simple drop down boxes in CMS
 Localising RSS and how used
 Good means for Councils to share data
 Districts with Counties?
 Neighbourhing?

41. Data Mashing
 Planning Alerts
 Re mashing council data that has been already
scraped
 FixMyStreet
 Emails sent – why not collect yourself direct?
 BBC Travel News
 Great stuff – enough said
 Cleveland Police
 Example of localising RSS – simply!

42. A CASH SAVING example…

43. Considering all channels
 Common enquiry is Refuse & Recycling
 More so since alternate week collections
 One clients has
 Around 15,000 unique visitors per year to ‘My
Council’ page
 Over 700 people registered for localised Alerts
 Attribute up to £5,700 PER MONTH for ONE
SERVICE via web

44. Considering all channels
Some numbers!

45. An example…

46. Why does this save money?
 What can we see from these graphs?
 November – people can see via website but not sure
 December – starting to gain more trust
 January – have trust ( nothing wrong!)
 February – as January
 So back to the numbers
 Reduction from around 3000 calls to 1500-2000
 1000 * (£4 - £0.17 = £3.83) = £3,833 PER MONTH
or
 1500 * (£4 - £0.17 = £3.83) = £5,745 PER MONTH

47. Web 2.0 requires a new approach…

48. “Web 2.0” it requires a new approach
serve online communities
remove policy barriers
provide open access to your data
expect re-use, encourage mashups
use standard formats
Don’t just be on but become part of the internet

49. Contact details
mikesaunt@astuntechnology.com
http://www.linkedin.com/in/mikesaunt
0788 7777 680
www.isharemaps.com
Download Scripts for BBC Travel News processing to KML