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Journalists that want to contact Socitm should get in touch with vicky.sargent@socitm.gov.uk via email or on 0845 094 5641.
The Socitm Insight Website take-up service is to be enabled from January to provide an automated means of capturing the information about website transactions that local authorities will need to make as part of their NI 14 (avoidable contact) returns required from next April.
This year's Graham Williamson Challenge - a learning through travel award - has been awarded to Frances Kettleday, a Technical Project Manager with Cambridgeshire County Council. Frances was presented with her Award by Socitm President Richard Steel at the Society's annual conference held in Newport 12-14 October.
A vote by members attending an Extraordinary General Meeting of the Society held on 13 October during Socitm 2008 has resulted in the replacement of all existing categories of membership with two new categories, Member and Senior Member.
Digital exclusion could become a new driver of inequality in the 21st century, Deputy Digital Inclusion Minister and junior Wales Minister Wayne David MP has warned. Speaking to delegates at the Socitm conference (Newport, 12-14 October) the Minister said that digital exclusion has a major impact on many key policy areas across government.
The newly appointed Deputy Minister for Digital Inclusion, Wayne David MP, will replace Paul Murphy MP, Minister for Digital Inclusion, in the opening slot on Monday 13 October at Socitm 2008.
Socitm has reached an amicable settlement with a communications consultancy that infringed its copyright by quoting extensively from Better connected in a consultancy report commissioned by a leading local authority. The consultancy was not entitled to access the subscription-only report because it was not a subscriber to Socitm Insight.
Senior public sector managers should overcome their natural scepticism about Web 2.0 and embrace this latest revolution. So says the new report Web 2.0: what it is and why it matters — a briefing for public sector managers published by Socitm Insight on September 10.
Details of eleven parallel sessions to be presented at Socitm 2008 (Newport, 12-14 October 2008), as well as plenary session updates are now available on this website.
The new service, which launches with an initial workshop on 17 September, will help councils identify the costs of providing access to services through their web, phone and face-to-face channels. In doing so it will also enable them to see whether their ‘costs-to-serve’ are in line with those experienced by other, similar, councils, and to assess whether active channel management – for example encouraging customers to ‘self-serve’ via the web – could save them money.
The Socitm Board has confirmed Adrian Hancock (pictured, left) as Managing Director, a role he has occupied on an interim basis since January. Adrian joined Socitm in 2004 as policy officer and programme manager for the SIAG (now called Socitm Futures).
A number of organisations have told us they need a little bit longer to finish and return the Socitm 2008 IT Trends survey than the end of June deadline published on the website. We have therefore decided to extend the deadline to 1st August.
In a rare UK appearance, international web usability guru Gerry McGovern will be the keynote speaker at the third annual Building the Perfect Council Website event presented by Socitm Insight and Headstar in London on 16 July. Considered by many to be the world's leading authority on effective web content, Gerry McGovern will speak on what drives people to council sites, and how to ensure they get what they want.
Survey forms for this year’s IT Trends report are now available. Organisations featured in last years report should have already received a copy of the form populated with the last recorded data to make it easier to complete. Others can download the form from the IT Trends page.
Socitm is supporting Innovate 08, a Microsoft initiative that will showcase and develop ground-breaking ideas in local government that may have a technology element. The competition will identify and support teams with innovative approaches to tackling some of the biggest issues facing councils today, including social inclusion, place-shaping, community engagement and environment.
Bookings are now open for Socitm 2008: Serving the instant access society. The annual conference will be held this year at the Celtic Manor, Newport on 12-14 October.
Winners of the SPIN-Socitm 2008 website awards were announced at the SPIN-Socitm conference held at The British Library on 24th April 2008.
Richard Steel, CIO at the London Borough of Newham has been confirmed as President of the Society of Information Technology Management (Socitm). Confirmation of his election took place at the Society’s AGM held at The British Library on 24 April.
Socitm Insight has produced a supplement to Better connected 2008, its annual survey of all local authority websites, that analyses how accessibility can best be assessed and looks in detail at the results of accessibility testing for that report.
Socitm has held the first meeting of the Local Government CIO Council, following an invitation from Government Chief Information Officer John Suffolk (pictured, left) to set up the body to represent the views and interests of local government to the main CIO Council.
The tenth report from Socitm Insight’s annual survey of council websites is available now. As well as revealing the top ranking websites and a wealth of information about council’s progress in this area, Better connected 2008 reviews the last 10 years’ of local authority web development and includes a series of expert predictions about developments we can expect to see in the next 10 years.
The new Local Government Delivery Council will play an important role in joining up central and local transformation initiatives including clearing obstacles to local public services sharing front offices.
The NI 14 indicator, one of 198 new national indicators for local authorities announced as part of the Comprehensive Spending Review and also one of two key progress measures set out in the Service Transformation Agreement, fails to follow advice set out in the Varney report on the role of the web in reducing ‘avoidable contact’ with citizens and businesses.
Following the Revenue & Customs data loss debacle the security of personal information is once again in the spotlight. The latest edition of Socitm’s annual survey, IT Trends 2007, provides some highly topical data and commentary on security issues.
Members will have noted publication on November 9 of the DCLG document containing proposals about how councils will report progress on reducing ‘avoidable contact’. The proposals are now out for consultation until 21 December with responses being invited on the ‘technical descriptions of the national indicators and the method of measuring and reporting on the indicators.’
Members are being invited to participate in the group response being organised by Socitm Insight to the current CoI consultation on website accessibility. The consultation concerns the CoI paper Delivering Inclusive Websites which has created headlines for its proposal that all government websites should meet Level AA of the W3C guidelines by December 2008 – or risk losing their .gov.uk designation.
This year’s Graham Williamson Challenge – a learning through travel award – has been awarded to Shey Cobley, an online communications officer at Oxford City Council. Shey was presented with her Award by Socitm President Rose Crozier at the Society’s annual conference, held in Belfast 14-16 October.
IT managers still hold the key to public service transformation, Sir Michael Bichard told delegates at the Socitm Annual conference in Belfast (14-16 October). In a speech based on findings from research with IT managers and chief executives, he said that development in the profession since his address to the Socitm conference in 2004 was positive across most areas examined and IT managers are increasingly able to engage with those in power.
Socitm Insight has launched a DVD that explains the need for websites to be accessible to people with disabilities. The DVD’s message is targeted at senior decision-makers in the 80-90% of organisations that have websites inaccessible to people with disabilities using adaptive or alternative technologies, as well as those with common visual impairments, reduced mobility or dexterity, dyslexia and other issues.
Senior decision-makers in local authorities are being advised that one of the ways they can respond successfully to pressures to cut costs arising from CSR07 will be to shift a greater proportion of the service delivery burden to websites. The advice comes in Channel management, take-up and efficiency: a 20pp pre-CSR07 briefing for elected members, chief executives and senior managers published by Socitm Insight at the beginning of August.