Daveslist Volume 3 Issue 4
Hail, folks!
Part of the work I am doing with Lambeth is helping them to figure out what their technology for delivering online services ought to look like.
My general approach to this for the last decade or so is to look through the lens of what I called ‘capabilities’ - things like book, report, pay and so on. This was to try an focus minds on what we need our technology to do, rather than on the technology itself (for instance, CRM).
However, during this work, I’ve realised that I have been missing a step this whole time and that talking about a ‘capability’ needed on a technology platform being something like ‘reporting’ or ‘booking’ isn’t all that helpful. One could ask a supplier, “Does your tech do reporting or booking?” and they are likely to say yes, but how they do it is pretty important, and the whole point of mapping out technology components like this is to ensure the bits and pieces align with each other, don’t overlap too much, and definitely meet the needs of users.
Instead I am breaking things down further - taking those ‘capabilities’ (not sure this is the right word any more - ‘needs’?) and breaking them down into… ‘components’ (?).
So, reporting is a capability / need. To enable reporting, you need to be able to publish web pages, put forms online, allow for documents (including images) to be uploaded, a way to manage cases to follow activity, a way to notify the reporter of progress, a means for the reporter to track progress and update from their end, and perhaps an integration to a back office system to get the thing that’s been reported checked and fixed.
Breaking it down into the technology components in bold feels more comprehensive, and more useful to me. The abstraction up to the capability / need level makes it understandable to a service owner, and the breakdown into technology gubbins is useful for the techies - hopefully facilitating a better conversation.
I’m working my way through all these capabilities / needs and documenting the different technology components needed to deliver them. I’ll share it when I am done.
This issue’s links
Ben Unsworth, from Essex County Council, talking about digital transformation in local government. What's not to like?
Stockport Council asks "How can we use data to help support people to leave hospital when safe and appropriate to do so?"
The Digital Inclusion Toolkit is looking for sponsors. If you can, you should: https://digitalinclusionkit.org/digital-inclusion-news/sponsor-the-digital-inclusion-toolkit/
Ooooooh: "Open Working 101" https://medium.com/we-are-cast/open-working-101-f8fa10385061
This is good from TPX Impact - feels like we need a lot more of this kind of analysis across local gov: https://www.tpximpact.com/knowledge-hub/insights/harnessing-potential-social-housing-technology/
It's almost like we need something kind of Gartner-esque but focusing on the technology and services providers working with local government. We ask why the same old vendors are so successful, but really, why wouldn't they? Where's the independent advice coming from?
I really agree with Terence Eden on this https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2023/07/discord-is-not-documentation/ - and not just because I personally find Discord impossible to navigate!
I think this is true of a lot of online communities too - there's that concept which was spoken about a lot 15 years ago (remember Wikipatterns?), but now not so often, of online community 'gardeners' - people who'd tidy conversations up, retrieve and keep the good stuff where everyone could find it, and not allow knowledge to be lost or forgotten. It’s important!
I used ChatGPT to build myself a simple flat file homepage to point to the various places I exist online. It's remarkably easy to just feed it a few prompts and then tweak as necessary. Am sure I will keep fiddling, but it's a start, and was so easy!
Viola the Bird is quite a strange thing https://artsandculture.google.com/experiment/nAEJVwNkp-FnrQ
That’s it for this issue. Don’t forget to hit reply if you have any feedback, or forward this on to anyone you think may enjoy it.
Until next time,
Dave ❤️