The context of web 2.0
This chapter explores new ways of working on the web, highlighting examples of existing innovation in central Government services and looking at how different organisations are using internet technologies in new ways to reinvigorate service delivery.
The previous chapters touched on the new ways in which people are searching for, using, re-using and responding to information online. There are a growing number of people confident in contributing to user-generated websites which provide mutual support based on personal needs and recommendations from trusted sources (sometimes referred to as co-production). Large groups of people are also playing an integral role in the success of services based on creating
trusting relationships online (see box 3). This is a radical shift from the way people used to use the web which was markedly less social, and had things like static personal home pages, one way communication such as emails, posting of information etc.
Box 2: Netmums
Netmums is a good example of how a website filled a gap in provision by opening up to parents and asking them to provide content on local opportunities and also to ask for and give advice on general parenting issues as they arose. The site created both a community that was not previously connected and a solution to a significant gap in provision.
The Netmums website started as a small internet community for mothers in Harrow in 2000 to fill a significant gap in information and support for parents in the local area. It now has a national website and individual area websites that have information for local parents on everything from schools and kids’ clothes to advice on sleeping or post-natal depression. It links mothers up through coffee groups and ‘meet a mum’ schemes. The website’s value comes from the idea that those best qualified for local services, information and advice is people who have experienced and lived through similar experiences. It currently has around 500,000 members.
Box 3: Zopa
Zopa is a digital peer-to-peer lending service which effectively side steps the banking system by allowing people to lend anything from £10 to £25,000 to others they are put in touch with via the site.
The interesting thing about the site is that despite some formal protection measures, it relies on the trust generated between borrowers and lenders and sense of collaboration that is engendered. It is also an interesting example of how innovative sites can bypass traditional structures ie banks, and facilitate a closer relationship between citizens.
These are just two examples of a new way of using and responding to the web, often called web 2.0. This refers to the web as a collection of facilities creating a network of people rather than a network of information. Local and central Government have utilised web 2.0 technology to support community building, online collaboration and information sharing38. Public services can mobilise the general public’s expertise through this social use of the web to develop better public products and services.
- Department of Communities and Local Government, 2008. Technology futures. London: Department of Communities and Local Government
The reason these examples work is they are built by users, for users, with users.
We are reluctant to use Directgov because we have no loyalty to it, and no incentive.
Our children will not even think about, let alone be able to speall it.