Promote

Promotion in this context means making sure that the activity that happens in the community is visible and recognised. The community has a need to promote itself to a variety of audiences and for a variety of purposes. Some of those purposes such as inward investment may have dedicated websites. However, in addition to that, the Connected Community’s digital presence should be a promotional mechanism in itself. If the Local Authority’s websites reflect the activities, connectedness and involvement of the community, then much of the work of promoting the area becomes a great deal easier.

Real-time Information

The power of real-time information to engage citizens is enormous.

It can potentially change the perception of the Local Authority’s data from that of a staid library to a busy TV news station. Some examples of real-time information are: conversations going on right now on the council platform, council-related topics elsewhere or information that is published in response to an emergency.

This shift in perception of the purpose of the Local Authority’s websites from being narrowly focused to a broader remit, engaged with the life of the community, will embed the Local Authority in citizens minds as being a relevant source for much real-time information. It will also act as a tool to help influence changes in citizens’ behaviour.

content subscription/notification

Letting users know about changes to the content they are interested in.

A service should be provided that allows users to subscribe to receive notifications of changes to any content that they have an interest in.  The service must allow the user to specify existing content (a page, or site section) including user generated content (such as a conversation), or a topic of interest where they will receive notifications of as new content of interest is created.

Not only should users be able to manage all of their subscriptions in a single place, but they should also be able to choose an appropriate method of notification from SMS, email, RSS, Facebook, Twitter and IM.

Promotion of the community is about activity

The best promotion of any place is to witness it, to see its vibrancy, to connect to its people.  This is best achieved by the Local Authority’s websites reflecting the community itself rather than being a static and sanitised brochure of the city. This does not preclude the creation of campaign based web properties, but suggests that these should be focused on gaining citizen involvement. Just as the Local Authority website can be the digital echo of the community, that echo should demonstrate the values of the community, by showing in a tangible way what is going on, and what people are doing. Commercial activity by the Local Authority must be seen as beneficial to the body politic.

Embed activity and pledges

Involvement is about activity rather than passive consumption.  In order to generate network effects that will benefit both Council and citizens, all activity on the Local Authority’s websites should be made visible, subject to privacy controls and of course with users’ consent. All activity should be presented in a way that encourages further activity by other users. For example, the site can show that an individual has signed a petition, or showing the number of users who have pledged to attend a community meeting or participate in a neighbourhood cleanup.

This activity should also be visible outside of the Local Authority’s websites (again with user consent and privacy considered) and pushed out to users’ preferred social networking sites.