Posted by Semantix

I am privileged to have been asked to do a keynote presentation at the forthcoming Public Health Information Network (PHIN) conference being held in Atlanta, Georgia between 31st August and 3rd September 2009.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), who are sponsoring the event, have been instrumental in the development of PHIN Communities of Practice (CoPs) to support more effective learning and sharing amongst PHIN professionals. The PHIN Communities of Practice provide a participatory environment for PHIN members to learn, share expertise, and collaboratively develop solutions to improve public health’s capacity to electronically use and exchange information.

My keynote will be based on the 3+ years experience I have gained in setting up a CoPs for UK local government and will address some of the issues that I’m sure CDC and PHIN will encounter (if they haven’t already done so) and primarily how to measure the value of collaborative working - i.e. the vexed question of Return on Investment (ROI).  Thus, the title and synopsis for my keynote are as follows:

Discovering the value in social networks and communities of practice

Social networks and communities of practice are becoming ubiquitous in our increasingly connected world, and many people are generally involved in a number of them - whether that is at work, school, home, or in our civic and leisure interests. Many managers and organisations remain sceptical about the value that is being created by such networks and communities. How do we value shared knowledge? What is the ROI for a collaborative network? This presentation draws on the practical experience of communities of practice working in UK local government and will aim to answer the elusive ‘value’ question.

I will make my slides available on Slideshare after the conference.

Posted by Semantix

I will be presenting at the Enterprise Search Summit in New York on 12th/13th May 2009. My session is on Tuesday 12th, entitled Social Search for Knowledge Sharing and will cover the innovative use of a search vendor’s Application Programming Interface (API) to support a personalised web search facility for members of a Community of Practice Platform, enabling better precision and improved relevance of search results when compared with a standard web search. The following is a brief synopsis of the session:

The Improvement and Development Agency (IDeA) for local government has integrated Exalead’s API online search functionality into its Communities of Practice (CoP) Platform. Many online communities have been established by local authority and IDeA staff. Community facilitators can now generate a “favourite” list of websites for members that are used as the basis of their domain-specific online searches. This improves precision and relevance of results, since only CoP member-recommended websites are included in the search. The effect is that members of the CoP platform —all 411 councils in local government in England and Wales—have access to a collectively agreed set of favourite websites to support the knowledge domains of their individual Communities of Practice.

This is an example of the ‘wisdom of crowds’, where a collective membership determine and agree an optimised ‘favourits’ list of websites  that can be dynamically refined on the basis of the precision and relevance of the results to their domain of knowledge.

A discount on the usual registration fee for the event is available or use discount code SPEAK3 when registering.

Posted by Semantix

I will be presenting at the UNICOM conference on 25th February at the Novotel London West, Hammersmith International Central, 1 Shortlands, London W6 8DR.  Agenda as follows:

Stop the Data Rot:
Embedding Robust Information Governance
25 February 2009

09.00 Registration and coffee

09.30 Chairman’s Introduction and welcome
Paul Duller, Chairman, The Records Management Society

09.45 Trends, attitudes and impacts of the changing information management landscape.
Stephen Dale,Semantix (UK) Ltd

10.30 Coffee and networking

11.00 Openess v. Security
Linda Stewart, Information Management Consultant and New Formats of Information Manager, The National Archives

11.45 Managing Information Risk to Gain Information Assurance and Operational Advantage
Elizabeth Lomas, Northumbria University

12.30 Lunch and Networking

13.30 Personal Data: A Toxic Asset?
Lynne Shackley, Data Protection Practice Manager, Information Commissioner’s Office

14.15 Consumer vs Corporate/Government: Whose data is it anyway?
Tom Ilube, CEO, Garlik Limited

15.00 Tea

15.30 Pest Control - Dealing with email infestation
Tim Murray, Departmental Records Officer, Department for Communities and Local Government and Department for Transport.

16.15 Implications for Records Management of the Rise of SharePoint and of the Rise of Web 2.0
James Lappin, Consultant & Trainer, TFPL

16.55 Chairman’s Summary and Close
Paul Duller, Records Management Society

17.00 -
19.00 NETWORKING EVENT (with additional guests)
Drinks, additional presentations and networking evening

Posted by Semantix

For those who may have missed it in the Online Info Brochure, I will be doing a brief session on Thursday 4th December, 13.45 - 14.15 in Theatre A on Communities of Practice, and specifically how Web 2.0 technologies and processes have been used to support the development of virtual CoPs across the local government sector.

The initiative was formally launched in December 2007, since which over 580 CoPs and more than 20,000 registered users are actively engaged in some element of local government service improvement.

During my session I will cover the following points:

1. Introducing a sceptical and mature staff demographic to the concept of virtual collaboration using Social Computing/Web 2.0 facilities
2. Developing a trusted environment in a permiable network.
3. Leveraging Web 2.0 and social media applications for virtual collaboration.
4. What makes a successful CoP and how is success measured?
5. Lesson learnt.
6. What next (future developments)

Whether you’re thinking of developing a CoP strategy, or you you already have one, come along to this session and compare notes.

I’ll also be happy to meet up during the conference, or answer any questions before, during or after the conference.

Posted by Semantix

I will be running a tutorial session at the Public Sector Online 2008 event on 28th October at Inmarsat, London.

My session will cover the development of Communities of Practice in the UK local government sector and how Web 2.0 tools and techniques are supporting greater collaboration and knowledge sharing across and within local councils. The session will provide an in-depth account of:

• How a knowledge and learning culture was successfully developed using Communities of Practice
• How virtual Communities of Practice are delivering innovation and improvement to local government services
• How to create, develop and grow trusted communities of practice in the public sector
• How social media tools (wikis, blogs etc.) and Web 2.0 technologies can facilitate more effective networking and collaboration across the public sector.

We will also be having a practical demonstration of the IDeA Communiy of Practice platform.

Posted by Semantix

The Cabinet Office have announced the launch of a joint project by Office of the Third Sector and the Improvement & Development Agency (IDeA) to support local authorities and their partners in delivering increased participation in volunteering and an environment for a thriving third sector in their area. To quote an abstract from the article:

To support local authorities and their partners, OTS and IDeA will be establishing an on-line Community of Practice and linking with work of the Government Offices in the regions and Regional Improvement & Efficiency Partnerships. The on-line Community of Practice will allow members to share good practice and ideas, discuss challenges and solutions, and to identify and explore ways of working together.

The online Communities of Practice (CoP) environment forms a key part of the knowledge and learning strategy that Semantix (UK) Ltd was commissioned to develop for the IDeA back in 2005, and which was formally launched in September 2006. Since then it has attracted over 15,000 registered users across local and central government and supports over 430 CoPs, with regional, cross-regional and national representation for improving and innovating in council/public services.

There is clear evidence from many of the existant CoPs that collaboration between local authoriries is leading to better/smarter use of resources, and encouraging more effective partnerships with private sector providers.

The CoP Platform is an example of how Web 2.0 technology, social networking and social media tools can be used in a professional working environment - sometimes referred to as ‘Enterprise 2.0‘.

Further details of the CoP for Third Sector Indicators in the CoP for Third Sector Indicators.

Posted by Semantix

I will be facilitating one of the sessions at the Public Sector ICT 2008 event scheduled for 4-5 November 2008. Details of the event from the organiser’s flyer:

A two-day retreat dedicated to powering government modernisation through technology.

Public Sector ICT (PSICT 2008) is an exclusive event designed to help government decision-makers harness technology to generate cost and carbon efficiencies while improving citizen service levels.

This two day event has been produced specifically to help you:

� Meet and learn from the heads of ICT of organisations that are at the leading edge of government modernisation
� Hear first-hand accounts of successful ICT implementations in the public sector
� Understand the latest services and solutions
� Gain an insight into the most effective management strategies
� Network in relaxing surroundings

I will be facilitating a session on the second day of the conference on the topic:

Examining the role of web 2.0 technology and social networking tools in public administration

• Incorporating social networking tools into citizen-facing websites

• Managing identification and authentication for access to secure personal information on government websites

• Determining your approach to the use of social networking by your employees; can social computing be managed computing?

• Corporatising Facebook; creating internal expertise locators

• Overcoming the digital divide: engaging the mature staff demographic

More details on the website, or you can register here.

Posted by Semantix

I will be presenting at the LGC sponsored “Fundamentals of Information Management” Conference tomorrow. 17th June 2008. The presentation will cover:

Posted by Semantix

I will be presenting at the Limehouse software user’s group today, 10th June, on the topic of Web 2.0 and the issues that local authorities face in bridging the digital divide.

Posted by Semantix

I will be running one of the Open Space sessions at the Web 2.0 Strategies event being held at the New Connaught Rooms, Covent Garden, London on 12th June.

I believe this will be stimulating discussion, and of particular relevance to any public sector delegates who are currently using or thinking of deploying Web 2.0 collaborative technologies in their workplace.

We will explore some of the lessons learnt and tangible outcomes from a case study example of a Web 2.0 strategy to build a network of Communities of Practice across the public sector.

Some of the key points to be explored include:

• Social media applications as a means to effective networking and knowledge sharing
• Building a collaborative culture in the workplace.
• Communities of Practice (CoPs) in local government - from 0 to over 320 CoPs in 18 months.
• Policies and governance for use of social media applications in a highly regulated environment.

I hope this session will appeal to anyone currently grappling with the world of Web 2.0 and how the benefits can be safely deployed and exploited in the public sector. I look forward to seeing you there!

Please Note: There is a special rate for public sector attendees of £350 plus VAT bookable by calling 0207 316 9126 - you cannot book this rate online.