Cultural Change

In order to embrace the changes enabled by technology Local Authorities need to adapt themselves.

Local Authorities must learn how to talk with citizens, rather than to them, and understand how to communicate with one voice rather than talk with one mouth.  This is also true of learning to work with citizens and businesses, and understanding how to tap into networks rather than just interacting with the existing aggregators of large organisations and pressure groups.

These new skills will be required widely throughout a Local Authority rather than being concentrated or siloed into specific functions of the Council.

Push and pull news

Local Authority activity must be consumable by individuals, content aggregators and publishers they way they need it.  Content curators should push relevant news up through the site’s hierarchy. This activity in itself can be hierarchical. Pull news should be provided by providing generic and specific news feeds, email subscriptions and other notifications. Tools should be evaluated to provide these services in tandem with event and press release information in useful formats and with the maximum re-use of relevant content.