[LINK] How Andrew Stott is setting Whitehall a-Twitter

[Bernard Robertson-Dunn]

How Andrew Stott is setting Whitehall a-Twitter
As head of digital engagement for the government, Andrew Stott oversees 
its much-discussed Twitter rules. But that, he says, is only the tip of 
the iceberg
Michael Cross
Guardian
Wednesday 5 August 2009 18.00 BST
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/aug/05/andrew-stott-twitter-whitehall-government

A note of weariness enters Andrew Stott's voice. "There has been some 
misunderstanding. It wasn't 20 pages on how to Twitter, there was about 
a page on how to Twitter." According to the man charged with boosting 
Whitehall's use of digital media, the vast bulk of the government's 
Twitter Template, published last week, consists of suggestions about how 
Whitehall departments might use the medium while abiding by civil 
service rules.

Nonetheless, in the current political climate, critics found the image 
of a government grappling in an amateur fashion with modish new media an 
irresistible source of mirth.

"The civil service and the government should focus on the job of running 
the country – not on wasting time creating more spam!" was one of the 
more temperate comments posted on a BBC report. The Conservative leader, 
David Cameron, weighed in with his laddish "too many twits" broadcast 
comment.

Such reaction was foreseen. One of the risks of using Twitter identified 
in the guidelines is "Criticism of jumping on the bandwagon/waste of 
public money/lack of return on investment/pointless content."

But for Stott, the government's new director of digital engagement, 
Twitter is a legitimate, if minor, conduit for communication between 
citizens and officialdom. At least 26 Twitter feeds originate from 
central government institutions and 86 from local authorities. No 10 
Downing Street's Twitter feed boasted 1,102,285 followers this week.

In his first interview in the post, created by Tom Watson, the first 
(and only) minister for digital engagement last spring, Stott this week 
described his role as falling into two main parts.

The first involves helping government bodies use digital techniques, 
including social media, to engage with the public.

The second is to open up access to official information. In this role, 
he is working with Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the prime minister's "expert 
adviser on public information delivery".

Obstacle course

Both roles follow an agenda set two years ago in the Power of 
Information review, which encourages the government to embrace "Web 2.0" 
ways of working, and by the subsequent work of the Power of Information 
taskforce, which Stott's team has replaced. He will be based at the 
Cabinet Office, along with an advisory panel, to be appointed in the autumn.

In his task of opening up public information, Stott faces an obstacle 
identified by Guardian Technology's Free our Data campaign – the 
anomalous position of government-owned trading funds such as Ordnance 
Survey.

Earlier this year, the Power of Information taskforce urged that freeing 
up geospatial data should be a priority – a recommendation accepted "in 
principle" by the government.

Stott says he is "working with OS on developing a new business model" as 
an alternative to the current "user pays" setup.

But trading funds, he says, are only a small part of the free data 
question. "A lot of my job is about much larger data sets, which are not 
released under any terms at the moment."

Some is data never released because no one has asked for it; some is 
data sets restricted except for approved users such as researchers. 
There are also data sets that have been published, but in a format that 
makes them impractical to reuse.

One strand of this work will be a version of the US's data.gov 
repository of public data sets. But Stott indicated that this will not 
be a complete one-stop shop – some organisations will continue to hold 
their own repositories – and that work is still at an early stage. "We 
haven't quite decided what to call it yet."

The tweet goes on

On the government's new media agenda, Stott is unapologetic about 
Whitehall (and politicians) using all the tools in the Web 2.0 box to 
reach people who are not getting information through traditional media. 
He says that there is a legitimate role for Twitter in drawing attention 
to announcements, and for answering frequently asked questions. He 
stresses that last week's Twitter template, published on Stott's blog as 
a guest post by Neil Williams of the Department for Business, Innovation 
and Skills, is about the institutional use of Twitter, as distinct from 
tweets by individual civil servants.

These would be covered by the previous short guidance about online 
participation, with its reminder that "you should not disclose 
information, make commitments or engage in activities on behalf of 
Government unless you are authorised to do so".

Most of the rules, Stott says, are common-sense applications of the 
existing code. "For example, any dialogue with individual citizens 
shouldn't be blogged at all, just as it would not be appropriate to 
reveal it in any other channel." He commends the Foreign Office and the 
Department for International Development as government bodies that have 
shown what can be done within these strictures."

Two fundamental obstacles lie ahead for Stott's work. One is that the 
Cabinet Office, despite its proximity to Downing Street, cannot give 
orders to other government departments, much less the wider public 
sector. Local authorities, for example, own the copyright in their data 
and can set their own terms for publication and reuse, even when these 
conflict with wider government policy.

The issue came to a head this week when several councils said they would 
defy a ruling by the Information Commissioner's Office to make data for 
property searches available free.

At the moment, Stott does not even have a direct ministerial sponsor – 
the role of digital engagement minister is still formally vacant, 
following Watson's resignation in June.

No doubt the post will be filled when the political season resumes in 
the autumn. But this brings the digital engagement programme perilously 
close to obstacle number two – a general election.

If the opinion polls are correct, there is a strong chance that in less 
than a year a new government might bring in a new digital engagement 
policy – or, perhaps more likely, make a point of abolishing a prime 
example of "Labour spin". Stott, who has spent 30 years in Whitehall 
under a wide range of political masters, refuses point-blank to speculate.

However, he says the challenges posed by new web media are not parochial 
ones. "This is an issue faced by governments around the world, 
enterprises around the world." Apart from the US, the Australian federal 
government in June announced the creation of a Web 2.0 taskforce (with 
funding from Microsoft). The Conservatives, who have already pledged to 
create a new "right to data", are watching such developments with interest.

Tweet facts

26 – The number of Twitter feeds from the UK's central government bodies

86 – The number of Twitter feeds from local authorities in the UK

1,108,065 – The number of people following the Downing Street Twitter feed.

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Regards
brd

Bernard Robertson-Dunn
Canberra Australia
brd at iimetro.com.au