Ah, it has gone from the home page but the direct link still works http://www.scambs.gov.uk/CouncilTaxAndBenefits/Fi...

You're right, it has now been taken down. I hope that is because the consultation had run its course rather than because of this post .

Thanks for pointing that out Paul! Too late for me not to look a berk, sadly.

I think this is where my idea of social individualism comes in. The web makes me free to be able to post whatever I want using the medium that I want. I can also find information about whatever I want, down to a really granular level, if I so choose. This can then be made social by the magic of bumping into other people on Google, or in comments, or on Facebook or wherever and enabling some collaboration.

I agree with the filter failure idea because people use the infobesity argument as an excuse to do nothing. If people are, instead, shown how to use the tools to reduce the burden of information flow, and on techniques on how to scan and be ambiently aware of what is going on, then they can get involved and make the most of this. I don't think we should be encouraging people not to post stuff, certainly at this early stage.

@Neil - I appreciate that some of the slides are less than illuminating! I guess that's the consultant in me trying to hold a little something back ;-)

I hadn't thought of doing this at the Barcamp but I will float the idea on the network. Also, there were a couple of public sector folk at the BCS event who asked if I could come and perform at their places of work, which I'd be happy to do for you too, if you'd think it helpful.

I'm also working on some sort of ebook, pamphlet thing which goes through some of these issues.

@David - absolutely. My message really is that people have to change to accomodate the new ways in which people want to interact. Librarians are still needed, they just need to do things a little differently. I do think though that this is something that everyone is going to have to 'get' eventually, just as everyone has had to learn how to email, or text (and going further back, use a telephone, etc).

'Roles' is definitely a slide that needs to be added to the slide deck, though ;-)

Hi Hilary - try this blog post which is about a year old, but still stands up, I think: http://davepress.net/2008/01/13/a-social-media-so...

Slides! Of course, I knew there was something I had forgotten to do!

Will get them on slideshare as soon as they are done!

Thanks Simon - god knows what intensedebate does with pings - I think I'm going to get rid of it soon.

Here's my comment on Simon's blog post that he links to in his comment (is that right?):

Thanks for the link Simon and I am pleased that my rather throwaway inspired some creative thinking!

I think that things like live streaming of meetings is actually barking up the wrong tree as they don’t help solve the actual problem, which is that the form and process of council business is tricky to understand, and that if I can’t make a meeting, it’s also going to be unlikely that I can make the live stream - being able to view it afterwards is also no help as by then the decisions have been made.

You are right to point out that consultative meetings are most appropriate for this, and one suggestion that I have received from a UK local authority is to apply this approach to the planning process, which obvious happens over a longer period of time. This will give people a chance to submit content to the process through social media, whether blogging, highlighting related web pages through bookmarking, sharing photos (which I think would be *very* cool for planning stuff) and video etc.

I am writing a quick proposal for how this might work for the authority that got in touch, and I am sure they wouldn’t mind me sharing it with you!

Steven - fair enough if the content isn't really your bag! As Ingrid says, though, do please pass the link on to others who might be interested.

One other problem with ID is that I don't think the Email subscribe to comments plugin works anymore, which is a shame.