The Office or… Transformational Digital Engagement.

Steve — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 00:04:51 +0000

A day in London today for a digital communications workshop at the UK Central Office of Information (COI). The event brought together public sector (mainly governmental) communicators from across the EU and a smattering of hipsters from Google, Facebook, Microsoft and the like. Organised with firm-handed devotion to timing, the workshop was intensive, leaving a vague feeling of shell-shock by the end of the day, but also really rich in content. Phew.

The Office. Yes, appearances can be deceptive

I can’t start without noting however the initial impression the COI makes on the visitor. Having dealt with these people before, I knew they were red-hot, high-tech dudes in comparison with most of their European peer group, so naturally I expected to emerge from Lambeth South tube station to be confronted with some ubercool glass and steel architectural statement of proud modernity. Instead, the Central Office of Information matches its quaintly Soviet-sounding name with an office building strongly reminiscent of the tatty seventies Slough office block accommodating the workers of the Wernham Hogg Paper Company in the TV series The Office. Though on the inside the environment was definitely 21st Century, I have to say the absence of a Wifi network for the assembled communicators, who were to spend the entire day talking about the power of networking and twittering, made a poor opening impression. This was explained by “security” considerations and anyone needing to use the internet was directed to a couple of PCs in the hall. What??? This was so out of line with everything said for the rest of the day that I can only imagine it was deeply embarrassing to have to make these excuses. Yes, it’s the same in the Parliament, but I had really thought the COI was beyond this… Still, 3G took the strain, albeit at roaming rates for the undersigned I prefer not to think about, and that really is my one and only gripe about a superb day.

The Central Office of Information matches its quaintly Soviet-sounding name with an office building strongly reminiscent of the tatty seventies Slough office block accommodating the workers of the Wernham Hogg Paper Company

The COI organisers of the event had rounded up an impressive array of speakers. On the UK government side, I can only marvel at the job titles they revel in these days. The workshop was opened by Alex Butler (she’s on Twitter here), who is the COI’s “director of transformational strategy”. Whoa! Later we met Nick Jones, the COI’s perhaps less remarkably titled “director of interactive services” (though it’s only relative – there is no-one in the EU system with such a groovy title) and Andrew Stott, the Cabinet Office’s “director of digital engagement”, who, moreover, had led a top level “power of information task force”. Gotta give it to them: they have the job titles down to a fine art, at least. What’s more, as far as I can tell, they live up to them, and act with genuine high-level political support for what they do. That came over loud and clear: the UK government is signed up to the whole digital media/social networking thing in an enviably wholehearted way. With good cause, perhaps. I hardly recognise my countrymen: this is a place where – dixit Facebook’s “director of European Public Policy” (now that sounds like a good old-fashioned job title!), Richard Allen – 25 million citizens, well over a third of the population, have Facebook profiles, and 60% of them use their profile daily.

The presentations by (i) Richard Allen of Facebook and (ii) Andrew Stott, the government’s digital enforcer, were undoubtedly two highlights of the day. You can’t listen to these guys and be left with a shadow of a doubt that the social web is the big communications game in town. Their interventions were full of gems, some of which I managed to record on Twitter as the day went by (see below).

The other big highlight for me was a presentation by Dutch public communicator Milko Vlessing, who showed us a Dutch online campaign designed to warn youngsters – and not-so-young sters – about the dangers of cybercrime. In this wildly successful viral campaign, based on the Dutch Hyves social network, every viewer of the video sees their own data (profile photo, friends’ photos, names…) being hacked by the bad guys. This really is so cool. Some “victims” were so impressed they posted their own videos to YouTube, which means I can post a video here. It’s in Dutch, but you’ll get the idea. (Ed. later found a good explanation and demos of the whole thing on a dedicated site in English.)

I won’t go into the event any more now though as I would like to publish this on the same day as the event itself (even if my computer’s clock, still at CET, may indicate otherwise). So in a bit of a cop out I have copy-pasted below my twitter stream for the day. Maybe there’s a titbit or two in there to catch the eye. (Don’t forget, it’s in reverse chronological order.)

So just to wrap up, many thanks from me to the COI people; you will be a tough act to follow.

TWITTER STREAM 19 March 2010

#COI workshop ends. Richard Allen from FB was great and all were blown away by NL Stanislav campaign, but great level always. Best CoV event yet
Stott: Secret of govt online project success: no big IT project, no consultants! Use band of guerillas in depts. Use political will. #COI
UK initiative led inter alia to iPhone app ASBOrometer – gives stats for ASBOs issued in area you are standing. Watch your iPhone! #COI
Re last tweet, see http://data.gov.uk/ . #COI
UK govt wants UK to take the lead in creating Berners-Lee’s “web of data” in public sector sites. Public data for the public. #COI
UK Cabinet Office has “director of digital engagement”. On now at #COI on “power of information task force”. UK has good titles at least
Over 30% of leisure time in UK spent online. Stat presented by Google speaker at #COI Yelp! Link with obesity issue?
Are public officials using social media professionally actually out there on their own? Good discussion at #COI
Website is base camp. So needs to provide info users want, not message you want to get out. Message is in social engagement.Van Maele #COI
Allen: the big next thing on the web is web content generally “going social”. #COI
Allen on future competition in social networks: existing services will increasingly “go social”. That’s the competition. #COI
Photographer v photographed on FB: US and EU audiences take different views on relative rights to freedom of speech and privacy. Allen #COI
Legal frameworks for privacy mainly designed for “big organisations and small people”. But now it’s small people and other small people #COI
“Internet is now too important in our lives for anonymous one-to-one contacts online to be sufficient” Hence role of SM. Allen at #COI
News sites are getting 5% of referrals from Facebook. Richard Allen, director of public policy in Europe for FB at #COI
Taste of great Stanislav camaign here http://bit.ly/doyu0f #COI
Why are governments frightened of losing control on social media? They have ALREADY lost control SM might even bring some back #COI
Check out Dutch “Stanislav” video campaign v cybercrime on Hyves social network. Users see their own data being hacked by bad guys. #COI
Head of Sky News says the ONLY newswire he ever reads is Twitter. Cited at #COI
Many “old scarred warhorses” of govt press offices don’t get it, says #COI guy. No good putting press releases on website. No one sees.
Guardian guy at #COI says media are really interested in open data from governments and public sector.
Nice quote at COI: “If you let police walk the streets with a gun, surely you can trust them to use Facebook”
Despite explanations about “security”, you can’t have a social media workshop without wifi, surely?
Rules on moderation. There ARE common accepted standards, but they must be adapted to mores of community addressed.
COI’s London HQ bears striking and somewhat surprising resemblance to building in TV comedy The Office.
Lund: Over one third of UK population is on Facebook and 60% of them use it every day.
COI chief exec Mark Lund (paraphrasing Rutherford) “There’s less money now, Good. We have to think”. Time for digital media.
Saw Facebook connect used to create comment stream of FB users on CNN website alongside Obama speech. Interesting possibilities for EP
Got hands on Microsoft “surface” technology at COI. Touch sensitive table top bit like a giant iPad? Very slick and lots of possibilities
COI has a “director of transformational strategy”. Cool job title. She is @Alex_Butler on Twitter
In UK at Central Office of Information (COI) for workshop on “Digital strategies for public comms”. Things that strike me in day coming up.

Sex, porn and Britney Spears

Steve — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 21:12:44 +0000

Fear not, you’re still on the irreproachable collective blog of the EP web editors. But you are also on the internet, and I was much struck a few days ago by the information, from the impeccable source of one of my co-workers, that the three most commonly searched terms in Google are the three that constitute the title of this post. I suspect the latter may soon be overtaken, but equally that the former two are secure in their primacy.

Another memorable snippet of internet insight which stuck in my mind a while back from an “Online PR” course I did (yes, training works at least to that extent), was that: “On the internet, there is a God, and he is called Google.” Disconcertingly, however, it would seem that we are dealing with a divinity pandering to the basest impulses of mortals. (Note: I discover that this Google/God notion seems actually to be taken quite seriously in some quarters)

No-one knows what Google’s “algorithm” is. It is a Mystery worthy of medieval theology, beyond human understanding. Ours as mere mortals indeed not to understand, but merely to please the divine whim.

To push the metaphor a bit further, how do we mortals (web-users) demonstrate our devotion? Search engine optimisation, of course. We turn to the internet gurus (you see? religious imagery abounds in this area) to seek enlightenment: how do I please Google so people will come to my site? And before I move on from the religious metaphor, of which the reader is doubtless tiring, I cannot but note one nice little point: the Mystery. As the gurus invariably point out, not without a geekily admiring frisson, no-one knows what Google’s “algorithm” is. It is a Mystery worthy of medieval theology, beyond human understanding. Ours as mere mortals indeed not to understand, but merely to please the divine whim.

Which is, as I say, disconcerting, given that this deity seems to have a predilection for sex, porn and Britney Spears.

“God vs Google’s trademark lawyers” Flickr by zimpenfish

Where do we fit in all this? Simply that my mind has turned to the question of how it is that people end up looking at a site, ours specifically. According to our figures for the new elections website, just over half of the visits to the site are via direct links, just over 30% come from referring sites, with the rest coming from search engines, a.k.a., for practical purposes, Google. This blog, with much lower traffic, sees about 60% direct visits, 37% referrals and just under 4% from search engines. It goes without saying that in both cases we need a dose of search engine optimisation.

Or does it? A new breed of gurus are telling us that it’s not about scattershot supplication on the big bad internet, but about networking, interlinking (which itself helps with Google, of course) and the “quality” traffic of participants in the Great Conversation. Others still – shall we call them Wise Men, will tell you that all that hocus-pocus is all very well, but what really matters is Content. If it’s good, they’ll find you, and when they find you – neglected point this – they may also read you.

Your regular web-editor Everyman, undersigned, can only see as through a glass, darkly. As ever, I suspect that all are right, from tricksters to sages.

Meanwhile, I am just curious to see whether an article titled and tagged as this one is, especially when these terms appear in tempting conjunction with “European Parliament”, gets any bump in traffic.

Writing for (y)EU » google

The Office or… Transformational Digital Engagement.

Sex, porn and Britney Spears