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What
is content?
Wired up Communities consider that
relevant content is anything that
is topical, timely and accurate. It
can be for example news, advertising,
or reports abut decisions that have
been made. Users or agencies generate
it in unstructured or in formal ways.
Where personal information has been
relayed face to face, there may now
be online interactions that provide
access to information from users.
The WuC portal may become a tool people
use to interface with information
providers, and through moderation,
researching and re-distribution, may
give better access to content.
Such activity will condition the
community portal to reflect local
priorities and needs. To be successful,
the content must be ‘owned’ by local
people: it must be inclusive, aiming
to reduce cultural, linguistic and
other barriers. Word of mouth is still
important in communities: if this
is recognised, then the community
content can aim to reinforce this
and add value to it by being immediately
available, and accurate. Chat and
online forums have proved to be spontaneously
successful at this: other forms of
content generation require special
efforts.
‘Official’ information is often trusted,
whether provided directly or through
an intermediary. A community portal
should attempt to provide both a seamless
front end to such information, as
well as offer alternative and unofficial
views. In fact it should aim to avoid
‘spin’, although this will raise issues
of the freedom within which people
can express themselves. Local content
systems should aim to connect people
and allow new and shared approaches,
empowering people to take action and
make choices. Information providers
and decision makers do not appear
to consider wired up communities’
content as a threat – rather as an
opportunity to reach people more easily
– and this is especially true of local
government.
People use various attributes of
information in community networks:
- comparing
- connecting
- describing
- directing
- explaining
- problem solving and help
- promoting
- trusting
- verifying
- experimenting interactively.
When designing content management
strategies, these attributes can form
a useful thinking template to portal
design, editorial and content management
policies.
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What will prevent
use of local content?
The key factors that determine poor
usage of local content systems are:
- Lack of skill in using IT
- Poor appreciation of both the
capabilities and functioning of
the Internet and the application
software (mostly Microsoft)
- Poor site and page design
- Network speed
- Failure to retrieve relevant information
- Set-top boxes not found to be
user-friendly
- Online usage charges and concerns
over what the charges are for, and
who is making the charge.
In order to attract people to take-up
portal services the following should
be considered:
- Content should be arranged to
look and feel topical and community
based, adopting a newspaper feel
- Direct links to internal page
should be provided
- Some interactive elements should
be incorporated – one idea is to
offer regular small prizes to maintain
interest
- Chat and web-based email will
bring users to the home page
- Discussion groups can be a real
attraction to discuss local hot
topics
- Community groups can organise
and generate ownership by including
their content
- Updates, and announcements about
the results of local affairs should
be frequent
- Challenges should be offered to
people on the web to get them talking
- Managers need to cater for those
with limited ambitions – communicating
via email or chat – as well as those
who demand more sophisticated technology
and communications
- Develop a marketing plan that
concentrates on services and benefits
rather than the technology itself.
Some of the benefits that can emphasised
are:
- As the content systems are created
locally, they are more relevant
and approachable
- There are (anecdotal) examples
of a value being placed on such
local content and services for personal
self-development
- Content creates community and
strengthen social ties
- Having a local web site can engender
pride in the locality
- Systems bring people together
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Content management:
issues and recommendations
Authors
WuC projects have used a variety
of approaches to generate content.
As well as paid staff, private and
public sector authors and moderators,
all have attempted to recruit and
train local ‘web-masters’ or authors.
Attributes of these are that they
need to available motivated and active,
and have local or special knowledge.
They should have good contacts, imagination
and some technical ability. They should
be able to link things together, and
may act as gatekeepers and sign posters.
They should be able to write in a
language understood by all. An issue
will always be ensuring quality as
well as regular postings or coverage.
Authors should be encouraged to contribute
to editorial policies and any style
guides, and share good practice.
Recruitment
The best people to recruit are those
already active and perhaps writing
or preparing content, and who can
encourage others to do so. Thus there
will be a key group of authors – some
of whom will be project champions
– who can enlarge the number of contributors.
They can act on specialist issues,
or have a geographical coverage.
Support
Payment of ICT costs and a tailored
training programme do much to encourage
good authorship. Regular news about
projects and the chance to network
face to face also help. As many as
50 authors might realistically be
involved, and it is important for
funding and other reasons to try to
keep a record of the time input of
authors. Investing in them and providing
feedback and thanks is vital.
Managers
A content manager seems to be central
to development and should be co-ordinating
content - speaking to public sector
agencies and the communities - not
necessarily generating it. The first
task is portal development and the
second is content development; system
administration needs to be taken care
of and that’s possibly a different
job.
Generation
Editorial Policies
A decision has to be made as to what
if any editorial policies should be
used. The primary issue is the layout
of the content in a clearly defined
portal structure, with limited jumps
in order to reach the relevant pages.
This can be achieved by separating
the various functions and uses, and
distinguishing clearly between ‘project
information’ (news, features, training,
and technical issues for example),
links to and pages from information
providers, and locally created material.
Decisions need to be made about style
and layouts, and whether these should
be imposed or emerge from those creating
content. Such decisions may depend
on the software being used (for example
it may include style sheets), and
the branding look and feel that is
given to the design.
Other issues concern legality and
morality; accuracy and usefulness;
ownership (and branding); relationship
with other publishing agencies and
provenance; and design for usability.
A minimalist policy would lay down
a few tramlines about content being
short and to the point, not defamatory,
being local(ised), topical and relevant,
and would rely on the common sense
of those creating content. It may
be sensible to create an editorial
board – to include local residents
to make such a policy. However decided,
decisions will be needed on:
- Review and deletion procedures
– automatic by date or manual?
- Copyright and ownership (for example
photographs)
- Data Protection registration
- Equal opportunities (design for
use)
- Suitability – how should content
be moderated? Should there be multiple
or single moderators, and should
they be anonymous? Is all content
to be moderated or just chat, messaging
etc.? Do you need legal or other
declarations and policies on removal
of content or access rights? In
general, although there may be an
outbreak of immoderate behaviour
or content, experience suggests
that sense normally prevails, especially
if local are involved in content.
Content Management
Much will depend on the type of software
and architecture used. A database
driven portal improves management
and retrieval of data and should be
used. Individual password controlled
logons can be used - so long as there
is added value to this in the form
of extra services and access to information.
Examples of these might be a personalised
look and feel, access to disability
features, access to membership
services and benefits, content
creation rights, and access to forums.
Control of language and searching
tools offer a better way to find content,
but this can prove problematic. Creation
of metadata has been slow, and a thesaurus
has only recently been available.
It can be argued that good site design
and a natural language search option
will yield the required benefits,
but searches can come from anywhere.
An example of an attempt to manage
community content across a range of
agencies is the Seamless service at
http://www.seamless.org.uk/.
It is recommended that if the necessary
skills are not locally available these
should be acquired for other local
agencies (such as libraries or information
specialists) or services bought in.
Other options to draw attention to
content include up to date site maps,
headlining new content or rotating
older content on home pages, and ‘hide
a flag’ games that instruct users
to look for ‘hidden’ information.
Content from other agencies
Access to information prepared by
other agencies was a precondition
of the establishment of the WuC pilots.
In particular there was to information
about employment and education, and
links were required to identify and
arrange joint working with the other
agencies. These may be represented
on overall management groups, but
there is a danger that this is at
an inappropriate level. It may be
difficult to find and work with the
special person who will deliver content
pages, where the agency has high staff
turnover and its own information dissemination
strategy, or where simply it lacks
staff and the ability to act as an
information provider. It is recommended
that there are dedicated web pages
on the portal, that agencies manage
their own content for submission to
it, and that indexing is arranged
with the content Manager. At the same
time, local authors should be encouraged
to seek out information and review,
link to or import it, relating it
to local current issues, or to particular
initiatives.
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What roles are
played?
Residents and staff from WuC pilots
were asked to debate what local people
thought various individuals and agencies
should do to ensure that content was
local, relevant and useful, and what
were the issues surrounding this.
Project Staff
WuC portals should be used to promote
and support local interest groups,
making them aware of them and stimulating
interest in their activities. Content
should be designed so that people
would understand and be positive about
the Internet, and want to use it to
make connections. Strong support should
be given to those acquiring the internet
habit, and online help pages and areas
for information sharing should be
provided for project champions. In
Kensington, Liverpool champions were
trained on and encouraged to use a
private extranet to collaborate in
the setting up of a number of projects,
including content development.
Volunteers
Because people will not always understand
a wired up community Project, volunteers
can provide an essential source of
hard information. Central to this
is the portal, which in the voluntary
and community sector can be seen as
a tool for community cohesion and
development. The key is engagement
through personal interests and activities
– and volunteers can be recruited
by other volunteers to create content
around these. Training will be required,
and recognition and reward offered
to champions and volunteers. Volunteer
time too is a valuable resource for
match funding (see sustainability).
Private sector
The private sector role in content
generation may be limited to the supply
of systems. However WuC pilots have
also used private sector contributions
to support users, moderate content,
or create portal designs.
The role of local traders seems paramount.
One suggested approach to improve
trade, create interest and eventually
secure advertising revenue was to
use the portal for ‘mystery shopper’
reviews of local traders – although
this risks damage to reputations!
In order to combat what is seen as
a threat to local traders – online
store shopping – local service directories,
and local business e-commerce web
pages are seen as the answer. Funding
and other resources are a problem,
and community portals will need to
demonstrate usage rates and have access
to social / business entrepreneur
skills.
Public sector: local authorities
Although local government information
is trusted in general, communities
do see it as a top-down approach,
where an interest in real-time services
is more likely – assuming face to
face and telephone are not the preferred
options. A ‘customer focussed’ service
giving access to services and information
and jobs will work – via pages embedded
on the community portal. Given the
requirements on local government to
deliver e-services, these can be brought
direct to community residents in projects
to test e-democracy. There will be
issues over secure identification,
and the impact that such projects
might have on the community feel of
the content, but they will assist
in the creation of digital towns and
villages. An active, vibrant, relevant
local portal will lead to a more sustainable
relationship with local government,
and may even in the longer terms become
the front end for government – county,
district, town and parish services.
Public sector: education
It is essential to split content
for young people and parents – in
terms of style and presentation. Education
and learning need to be ‘disguised’
within a wider context of information
advice and guidance and based upon
personal interests; this requires
agency partnerships to be formulated
(such as EAZs) at a local level.
The portal should concentrate all
of the content in one place – with
hooks to draw in young people in chat
rooms. IAG can be provided interactively
and anonymously, and publish local
peoples’ stories.
There are issues of child protection,
censorship (young people should be
encouraged to make the rules), and
ensuring that young people’s content
is marketed clearly in terms of its
services and benefits. ‘Interactivity
not lists’ is the byword. There will
be barriers – time for parents to
be consulted, or inward looking educational
staff, but there are enough initiatives
– and parents want to be kept up to
date.
Public sector: health
Taking as an example the role of
a GP, the key question will be what
are people’s problems. The services
provided by a practice and the knowledge
there is clearly of interest to the
community and may be made available
via a portal. Also, a GP would look
to the Web to provide back-up information
to people, and also the GP can be
a champion of the community portal
and may even help people to become
part of its presence. Content may
also be produced by a practice – issues,
news (‘there’s a bug about…’) and
links to support agencies – although
time is recognised as a barrier. In
due course, telemedicine, and online
communication with health practitioners,
pharmacists, agency services and information
and advice services should be established
centred around the community portal.
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Training
Recommendations
- A training needs assessment should
be carried out for managers, authors,
editors / moderators and administration
and content control staff
- Written manuals and guides should
be prepared for staff and volunteers
- Good examples of content to aspire
to should be held online
- A training base should be established
in order to share the learning experience
- Training will be about engagement
and capacity building as well as
IT, in order to build knowledge
and communications skills
- Support from trainers should be
on offer after the initial training
period
- Photo manipulation training should
be included in residents basic training.
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Critical
Success Factors
What will make community driven content
and portals work best?
- Committed authors
- Content reflects the variety of
the community served
- Content reflects the nature of
that community
- The amount and type of use made
of the portal should be recorded,
analysed, made known and acted on
- Research should be carried out
to determine the success rate at
finding or linking to information
at the portal
- Techniques to make people loyal
to the portal – via its ISP, through
web mail, or membership schemes
– should be actively pursued
- Software fit for purpose is essential
- The quality of material and its
accessibility are less important
than its local relevance
- Database technologies to drive
the site – an open source software
if applicable
- User friendly design – language,
layout, structure
- Compatibility with standards (such
as eGIF, metadata)
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Useful
Documents
A sample
content manager job description
is here.
A sample of content
layout from the Blackburn East
WuC and developing
community content (PowerPoint)
show the range of content from linked
initiatives, project activity, and
of local interest.
An example of a content
policy (based on the establishment
of an editorial board and policy)
shows a formal approach within a local
government partnership. A web
site editorial policy sets this
out in clear terms.
A sample
change control procedure is here.
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Links
Web sites of the Wired up Communities
pilot projects are at:
Alston CyberMoor
http://www.cybermoor.org
Blackburn East
http://www.Beonline.org.uk
Brampton
http://www.pit2net.co.uk
now at http://www.brampton.com2net.org.uk
East Manchester
http://www.eastserve.com
Kensington, Liverpool
No site
currently online.
Newham
http://www.newham.org.uk/wired
Suffolk
http://www.suffolkonline.net
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