What and why of barcampukgovweb

From BarcampUKGovweb

What and why of the whole barcampukgovweb process

The following is a work in progress. So not in any way set in stone, or intended to be overly prescriptive. But there does seem to be a need for something like this, and a space for it to evolve. Firstly to promote the SecondMeet, including to new people and there will inevitably be new people. And secondly to avoid the whole thing descending into yet another insider-only thing. (see for example Paul Canning, item 8)

The first draft of the sections below was just copied over from the site about the first event

What?

This barcamp is about creating a shared understanding and commitment to the vision for UK government web activity and helping establish the UK government Digital Network to bring together the community of webbies from within government (central and local), the wider public sector and potential collaborators from beyond government.

Why ?

Government's approach to all things web and digital is changing for all sorts of reasons: transformational government / website rationalisation provides greater focus on a smaller number of online channels, the impact of - and opportunities presented by - web 2.0 is looming large in everyone's thoughts, online engagement and deliberation are buzz phrases around Whitehall.

• What does this all mean? • How does it all fit together? • What skills / resources are organisations going to need in future? • Who's done it already? • How do you actually do this stuff?

This barcamp provides a opportunity where hopefully we can answer some of the difficult questions and create a shared vision and approach. Equally, its hoped we can mobilise the government digital media community to improve our skills, knowledge and voice as a collective group.