Social, AJAX Technologies and with a focus on data & mashups…

Mike Saunt

Who is this guy?

This may be a bit of a curve ball

I’m not a webbie per se

Focus on data integration and

publishing

Work in the private sector

for Councils and the Police

(that’s me on the left)

Overview

•Twitter - Fad or new media?•Cool technologies

• AJAX, Google Maps etc• What about DDA?

•Power of the Desk…•Its all about the data

• Examples• Live demo

•Cash saving example•Summary

Web 2.0 – What is it?

Associated with Social Networking / Collaboration

But it is more than just that…

Web 2.0 – What is it?

"Web 2.0" referred to the ongoing transition from a collection of websites to a full-

fledged computing platform The forming of online communities and engagement

From a technical perspective computer-to-computer interactions, the opening of full machine-readable access to databases, the opening of APIs for machine writing to databases

Breaking it down…

Is Twitter a fad or new channel?

Twitter – some thoughts

Do people really follow a council via Twitter? Would I want Council news via Twitter? Councillor activities? Maybe to have contact with…

What happened to RSS? Only around 21% of councils have one Of those 21% how many audit numbers registered?

Who controls the data in Twitter? What happens when mistakes go out?

And Twitter turn off delete functionality?

What happens if they go bust? Who pays for SMS?

Are the ‘old school media’ for it?

Twitter – old media against it?

Twitter – old media against it?

Twitter

Sometimes old views can be better

Twitter

Great at the Mumbai attacks Showed the real power

With local authorities Snow events Two way communication, find out what concerns citizens etc

Internal communication From Chief Executive, Director etc?

Some cool things – TwitterPlan Encourage discussions about planning

Not used solely but as part of everything Demographics of Twitter users

Twitter

Twitter is Great & Revolutionary

Some cool things – TwitterPlan Encourage discussions

Not used solely but as part of everything

Demographics of Twitter users

Asynchronous Javascript And Xml (AJAX), Google Maps etc

Acronyms all around…

AJAX

CSS

RSS

XML

KML

TLA

Asynchronous Javascript And XML

Cascading Style Sheets

Really Simple Syndication; Rich Site Summary

eXtensible Markup Language

Keyhole Markup Language (Google ‘Earth’ format)

Three Letter Achronyms

AJAX…

Make calls to server without page refresh AJAX prominent with Gmail, Google maps

called it ‘Javascript programming’ Circa 2004

AJAX coined by media bods Derived from Java applets methods Embedded in Internet Explorer by Microsoft

Outlook Web Edition In late 1990’s

Now standard in browsers etc

Cool technologies & Accessibility…

‘Normal’ Google Maps No Javascript But STILL accessible

Cool technologies & Accessibility…

‘Normal’ Tripadvisor Option to go to map (i.e. not essential or restrictive)

Cool and leading the way

But no Javascript?

Cool technologies

Shouldn’t be the only means of access Disability Discrimination Act Accessibility regardless of access type

Different browsers (non windows, text readers etc) Different platforms (web, mobile etc)

Silent Billionaire Google / Search engine optimization

Take a step back to see what has changed since E-Government and what else can we do…

My experiences…

I’ve worked with lots of Local

Government characters

Through E-Government

And T-Government

What has changed over the years?

What has changed?

10 years ago there were lots of data silos with ‘data owners’

(Bureaucrats)

Now data is more shared & centralized with ‘data custodians’

(Civil Servants)

Power of the Desk…

Bureaucrat -> Civil Servant

Bureaucrat from the French “Power of the desk”

Bureau – “desk”

Krat – “power”

Civil Servant (or public servant)

Servant - “to serve”

Civil - “consisting of citizens”

There is a difference…

Power of the Desk…

Historically citizen interactions were made via a desk Application form filled out and passed over the desk Civil servant passes receipt or license back over the desk

The desk was the medium For a bureaucrat it is about CONTROL For a civil servant it is a means of COMMUNICATION

Bureaucrats keep information safe FROM the public

Civil Servants manage information FOR the public

Information Age

We’re no longer in a paper based world People want access to information at any time

Government, along with all industries, has tried to address this,

with varying success

Information Age

Government stopped printing as many of these…

Information Age

and produced more of these…

But has it all been successful?

Information Age

Some companies get the web

Information Age

and some companies not as much

Information Age

How can we change?

but the way that you do it…

Information Age

The Internet is a new MEDIUM of communication

When a new medium arrives communication strategies need changing which means the provision of information needs to

change

New medium = new rules

The Power of Information

Independent review for Central Government...

Power of Information Task force

Report Published

Already driving change

Ordnance Survey has new strategy

Report promoting Government data sharing

i.e. data feeds for mashups…

Data mashups – the fun stuff

Data Mashing

4 quick simple examples PlanningAlerts FixMyStreet BBC Travel News Cleveland Police localising content

Data Mashing

Planning Alerts Alerts around Manchester Live Demo of a basic mashup

Pros you can access this data easily

Cons you already have it (most of you) you don’t control it

Data Mashing

Fix My Street RSS feed from FixMyStreet Live Demo of a basic mashup

Pros you can access this data easily

Cons you have it sent via email (manual entry?) you don’t control it / audit it

Data Mashing

BBC Travel News Obscure XML format and mashup Breakdown just for Manchester Pros You can access this data easily You don’t have it It comes from a reputable source

Cons Not sure – can you think of any?

Data Mashing and Going Local

Cleveland Police Very simple to implement Simple drop down boxes in CMS

Localising RSS and how used Good means for Councils to share data

Districts with Counties? Neighbourhing?

Data Mashing

Planning Alerts Re mashing council data that has been already

scraped FixMyStreet

Emails sent – why not collect yourself direct? BBC Travel News

Great stuff – enough said

Cleveland Police Example of localising RSS – simply!

A CASH SAVING example…

Considering all channels

Common enquiry is Refuse & Recycling More so since alternate week collections

One clients has Around 15,000 unique visitors per year to ‘My

Council’ page Over 700 people registered for localised Alerts Attribute up to £5,700 PER MONTH for ONE

SERVICE via web

Considering all channels

Some numbers!

An example…

Why does this save money?

What can we see from these graphs? November – people can see via website but not sure December – starting to gain more trust January – have trust ( nothing wrong!) February – as January

So back to the numbers Reduction from around 3000 calls to 1500-2000

1000 * (£4 - £0.17 = £3.83) = £3,833 PER MONTH

or 1500 * (£4 - £0.17 = £3.83) = £5,745 PER MONTH

Web 2.0 requires a new approach…

“Web 2.0” it requires a new approach

serve online communitiesremove policy barriers

provide open access to your dataexpect re-use, encourage mashups

use standard formats

Don’t just be on but become part of the internet

mikesaunt@astuntechnology.com

http://www.linkedin.com/in/mikesaunt

0788 7777 680

www.isharemaps.com

Download Scripts for BBC Travel News processing to KML

Contact details