Dom Lopez has had a powerful and sustained influence on Mosman Council over the last 40 years. Now a new Dom has emerged who is representative of new thinking about how local government should operate. The new Dom is Dominic Campbell. He is based in the UK and not yet 30. He runs a consultancy called FutureGov.
A few weeks ago he was out in Sydney and presented his ideas at a workshop hosted by ACELG. Dominic’s basic thesis is that we are only in the first phase of a transformation that local government is undergoing as a result of web and social media technology. When a new technology emerges, it first gets used to make our current way of doing things more efficient. But there is always a second phase when we cotton on to the fact that the new technology opens up the possibility of a radically different approach. Digital technology initially caused vinyl LP’s to be replaced by CD’s. But then along came iTunes.. According to Dominic, eGov, where we simply do on line what we used to do with paper is the CD equivalent. He has given the name WeGov to the iTunes equivalent.
It is impossible to predict how WeGov will evolve, but there are some interesting precursors where government and the community work together in a relationship of trust rather than control where both sides have permission to experiment. An example would be the transformation of a traditional meals on wheels service to one where people who like to cook in a particular ethnic genre are matched with people of that ethnicity who cannot cook for themselves. (Project Casserole Reigate and Banstead Council in the UK). WeGov is all about new ways to design services, new ways to involve citizens, better use of resources and of course, saving money.
Have a look at the Social Innovation Market Place website for more detail. WeGov has the potential to bring radical improvement to our cities. The word cloud that goes with it includes the words open, relaxed, collaborative, transparent, engaging, authentic, fun, personalised, human, honest and sharing.
SHOROC was well represented at the workshop with Pittwater GM Mark Ferguson, Mosman Community Development Director Di Lawrence and Community Services Manager Niki Atmore and myself attending. You can view thw full presentation here
