Originally published 21 April 2009. This article is retained from the tCI archive. Law, policy or practice may have changed since publication.
Two apparently unconnected news stories in the past few days illustrate how the world is changing around us.
By now, the number of people who will have watched the Susan Boyle video will have run into tens of millions. In one period of 24 hours last week, the number rose from 1 million to 5 million. Her appearance on Britain’s Got Talent led to instant stardom – indeed international celebrity. A few years ago, even with the power of television and tabloid press, it would have taken months to become truly well-known. What this week’s unprecedented phenomenon shows is that technology can compress timescales in a truly remarkable way. Where, outside the sports field has a reputation been created so quickly? And what can be created can, of course be as quickly destroyed. Ask Damien McBride! The second story is the continuing saga of police tactics on the occasion of the G20 demonstrations.
Large areas needing a police presence have always been difficult to oversee. Press reporters can only be in one place at one time; teams of observers cannot easily cover every street. Only with the advent of closed-circuit cameras has it been possible to see everything. But last week’s story was that unfortunately there weren’t any cameras overlooking the point where one of the critical incidents took place. Then someone said there was. And then it all became irrelevant because a passer-by had filmed it on his phone anyway! Suddenly there is no hiding place ... anywhere.
What’s the connection? Social networking.
In the first case, the headlong rush to admire Susan Boyle was aided and abetted by Facebook and its cousins. In the second, the user-generated content that broadcasters find valuable and was first sent to the Guardian soon became available on YouTube and any number of other websites.
What the internet has done is dramatically shrunk both time and space, making a nonsense of many of the assumptions that have underpinned our approach to public engagement for years. If people can engage so quickly what need have we for 12 week consultation periods? If boundaries are becoming an irrelevance, how do we focus engagement on small geographical areas?
In a local context, there’s no need to go to the Council meeting; stay at home and watch it as a webcast. Post your comments or ask a question in real-time if you like. Use Twitter to tell your ‘followers’ what you’re doing. Or go onto Facebook and call your ‘friends’ to action. Maybe kick off a petition – something that the Government’s empowerment agenda encourages. Again, no need to leave home; the Local Democracy Bill obliges all Councils to offer an ePetitions system!
Now watching paint dry may be more interesting than some of our municipal meetings. But consider a more newsworthy example.
Since the ghastly revelations of mismanagement in the Mid-Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust, local people have mounted a strong campaign for a Public Inquiry. Supposing this is granted, its proceedings are webcast, and available for everyone to follow. Watch the ratings soar! They won’t all be local people. For the camera overcomes the physics of local space. The gory details, and lessons learnt from manifest screw-ups become all too visible to the whole world.
New technology changes the equations of accountability forever. Somewhere there will be authoritative experts that can see what goes wrong; there will be Managers elsewhere working in similar environments that will fear for committing the same mistakes. And, of course there will be a public that may feel let down, and want to do something about it. If we talk of public engagement, we ain’t see nothing yet!
Few people fully understand the dynamics of the brave new worlds of online engagement and social networking, or the ways these will impact established internet consultation processes and even more traditional methodologies. Yet, within the next five years, public bodies as well as commercial firms and third sector organisations will all need to get to grips with these new realities. A new Boyle’s law may help us understand the changing physics of time and place.
Trigger points
- Just on the off-chance you haven’t see the video .... click here
- Consider a new technology audit of your public engagement activities; employ independent specialists if appropriate
- Join us in a one-day event on Technologies for Participation in London where a number of the themes explored in this Topic will be considered
This is the 134th Tuesday Topic; a full list of subjects covered is available for Institute members and is a valuable resource covering so many aspects of consultation and engagement