Apple devoured at Microsoft HQ – by icerunner 

So I’m picking up on the third of @curiousc’s 20 things from #ukgc12, namely that “at some point soon GovCamp will need to reconcile its relationship with ‘the suits’ and accept that it is difficult to get stuff into the mainstream without it being diluted.”  I guess, reflecting back on my experience of the weekend, I did feel like one of those ‘suits’.  For all my enthusiasm for tech solutions and social media, not to mention a worryingly fast-growing interest in shiny things with bits of fruit engraved on them, I am much more the mainstream corporate Council bod than the agile digital disrupter.  So, my 20 things come a bit from that angle, and it is offered in the hope that it’s all grist to the mill…

1.     There was a fair amount of confusion between ‘structure’ and ‘culture’ in some of the sessions I joined, and mixing up the two leads to long (frustrating) conversations about the wrong starting point. Govcampers are not going to change structures in public services in any meaningful timescale. We just need to find ways to make stuff happen, chip away at cultures, and have faith that the structures will begin to flex at some point further down the line.

2.     Facebook is not Twitter is not Posterous is not Wordpress. Obviously.  And yet there were lots of conversations that implied my Council is the same as your Council, is the same as that govt department, is the same as that quango, etc…  Too much ‘the public sector is…’ and ‘Councils are…’ - losing sight of plurality and differing contexts also loses sight of how, when and where a bit of govcamp genius might gain some traction.

3.     On that note, the vast majority of people in positions of influence in public service are there because they are committed to the services they deliver. The implication to the contrary (see point 2) was dismissive and will not help us make a difference.  Yes it’s tough to convince some, but it’s one of the fundamental tasks for the innovator once the bright idea’s been had.  Let’s work with it more, rather than railing against it.

4.     I hope there’s a localgovcamp this year – consider that as me volunteering to help if help is wanted…  Note to self to get someone from our IT joint venture to come along and join the tumult.

5.     We need more (and more varied) gov people at these events.  If there is a localgovcamp, it would be good to try and target a couple of bigger suits than me to get their contribution – there are some that would bring some fantastic practical challenge to the discussions.  And I'd echo the call for more Elected Members.

6.     Crowdsourcing is dynamic, energetic and creative. Structured agendas have their strengths as well. By the second of the two days I was properly ‘underway’, and it does make me wonder whether there isn’t some value in thinking beforehand (crowdsourced naturally) about what goes into just those opening slots – so that we arrive at 9.30am with just a hint of a jumping-off point for those of us whose brains work that way. I hope that’s not heresy!

7.     On that note, if people have suggestions for sessions that they would want to run on the basis of a bit more advance preparation, then perhaps some prior encouragement to them to expect that they’ll get a slot would help (with debate taking place online in advance, naturally). Again, I’m not trying to overturn the fluid, crowdsourced, ‘on the day’ spontaneity, but @demsoc gave a great intro presentation to kick the session off, and some of the others might have been helped by that sort of prep.  Just a thought.

8.     I should stop burying myself in my smartphone to avoid having to open up conversations with people in the ‘downtime’…

9.     I want to know more about this ‘agile’ business: I’ve been going on for ages about getting over the obsession with classically ‘planned’ strategies, favouring more ‘emergent’ approaches, and this sounds like a project management equivalent. Anything that can get me away from someone saying ‘do you have a PID?” sounds worthy of exploration to me.

10. I don’t do enough facilitation and working with groups any more – watching Lloyd Davis and Dave Briggs in action was energising and inspiring.

11. I need to get out more. Professionally, that is. Well, now that I come to think of it…

12. I know more about social care than I think I do, and I now have more confidence in my ability to get under the skin of this new job – thanks to Shirley Ayres and @ermintrude2 especially! And I’m seeing the many little chances to bring some govcamp enthusiasm into the new job. Maybe I’ll make a digital disrupter yet…

13. Microsoft are jolly good sports. They even put apples in the lunch bags [see picture!]

14. Did the ‘building’/’doing’ day work? As a day of continued stimulation and ideas, sure it did. Not sure I could engage with the doing bit very easily though. I think the suggested split between ‘Day 1 – think’/’Day 2 – do’ is a bit more reliant on the serendipity of finding something to which you can contributethan that stark distinction suggests.

15. Next time I won’t try and fit a fairly intense opera into the evening in between the two days – I’ll go drinking. After all, it seemed to set everyone up so well for Saturday morning…

16. I’d have liked more user experience and voice in the discussions. Tech and gov people playing off each other is great, but we’re not creating stuff for us, we’re creating it for users and citizens. We can talk ourselves into a service user’s place, drawing on a vast range of experience – and we’re all, of course, citizens – but a bit more disruption of both of our respective thinking would have added yet another layer.

17. No-one likes Sharepoint, seemingly. My organisation is going headlong for Sharepoint. I think I need to understand that a bit better.

18. I need to put time aside to keep thinking this stuff through…

19. See 18.

20. Blimey, this 20-point thing is hard. Oo, finished. Yay. Major thanks to all who organised a fantastic two days.