New features on LocalGov.co.uk

The development team have been very busy of late moving LocalGov.co.uk onto a new server and adding one or two new features.

The server shift has resulted in one or two breaks in service and we appreciate your patience.

However, things have settled down now and site performance has improved markedly.

As far as new features are concerned, we have replaced the related articles function on every article page with ‘most commented’ and ‘most read’ articles. You can toggle between the two lists by clicking on the tabs. This gives you a flavour of what others are finding most interesting.

Secondly, we have released the public beta version of our new quick search.

This development is in direct response to user demand. Tap in your search term in the panel on the top right as normal, and the search returns are displayed with a number of filters on the right of the search return page.

Click on these and you can filter your search by date, sector, content type, source (i.e. The MJ, Surveyor magazine etc) and author.

At the moment, the search cover most of the site content, including the directory, and other sections such as jobs will be added in due course. The section-specific searches are still running as normal.

If you have any feedback, please drop us a line.

New MJ Awards home page

The MJ Achievement Awards 2010 are now open for nominations and we’ve made some changes to the awards section on the site in order to make the process easier.

A number of you have asked us to provide an online entry facility, and the new awards home offers just that.

Now found at www.localgov.co.uk/mjawards, the new home page still features a list of this year’s categories.

Click on the category names, and a panel opens giving award criteria and sponsor information. By clicking on the ‘make nomination’ button, the system will ask you for details to create a nominee account and this information will be saved allowing you to enter other categories and future awards ceremonies.

It’s then a case of following the instructions and uploading your entry and supporting information.

The MJ Achievement Award boasts 14 categories this year, including new awards focusing on topics such as Total Place and waste management.

Click here for more.

Infrastructure webinar

LocalGov is hosting a webinar covering the issue of infrastructure at the Solace conference later this month.

Supported by Atkins, the discussion will cover the need for more efficient, more effective, sustainable infrastructure and the barriers to implementation.

Register your interest here

LocalGov summer digest

Readers have, in the past, asked us to give them a bit of a round up of news over the summer months as many say they are distracted by holidays etc during the traditional ‘quiet’ time for local government news.

In response to this, we have put together a top 10 of the most popular articles on LocalGov.co.uk posted over the summer (essentially during the period when the schools are on holiday).

It’s a quick check to make sure you haven’t missed anything.

Summer top ten

1 Employers move on pay welcomed by union

The deadlock over local government pay has been broken with a move to a 1.25% rise for the lowest earners. 22 July 2009

2 Parties split in storm over revised pay offer

A deep split has emerged between local government leaders over the employers’ decision last week to increase the pay offer to unions.29 July 2009

3 Damning report for Surrey

Beleaguered Surrey CC has been slated in a final report from the outgoing interim chief executive Michael Frater. 11 August 2009

4 New breakaway blow to national pay framework

The future of local government’s national pay bargaining framework was in doubt this week, after it was revealed concern over this year’s proposed settlement crossed the political divide. 13 August 2009

5 Councils urged to prepare for ‘second wave’ of recession

Councils must be prepared for rising problems such as crime, fly tipping and alcoholism, as the ‘second wave’ of the recession takes hold, according to the Audit Commission. 12 August 2009

6 Haringey chief reveals decision to quit council

Haringey LBC chief executive, Ita O’Donovan, is stepping down almost 12 months after the Baby P scandal engulfed her London borough. 2 September 2009

7 Concerns for Baby Peter's siblings as abusers are named

The NSPCC has voiced concerns for the siblings of Baby P after his mother, her boyfriend and his brother - the trio convicted of causing or allowing his death - were named. 11 August 2009

8 Slump in revenues ‘will exceed £4bn’

Council revenues are likely to slump by significantly more than the £4bn identified by the LGA this week, Smith Square has warned. 12 August 2009

9 Ministers call investigation into ‘boomerang bosses’

Ministers are to investigate the costs of senior council officers who receive large pay-outs when they leave post only to secure another job in local government. 26 August 2009

10 Capital woman in the suburbs

Richmond upon Thames LBC chief executive, Gillian Norton, tells Heather Jameson about her past in the Greater London Council – and a future of cost cutting in her council. 5 August 2009

More engagement

New data has now been added to the citizen engagement section of the site. The figures on channel usage apply to June and can be viewed here (you’ll have to log in first).

A new case study has been added to the section detailing how South Tyneside Council went through the process of channel shift using metric data provided by our partners Govmetric.

We also have an excellent article by Lincolnshire County Council’s Head of Web and Information Services, Peter Barton, on council websites and their administration. You can view that here.

Citizen engagement, May

Our citizen engagement section has just been updated with data for May from our partners Govmetric.

This data shows how customer engagement channels have performed over the month, including reasons for public dissatisfaction. You can use the data to benchmark your own council's engagement performance.

This is the second month we have published data and the results for April can also be found on the citizen engagement home page. Already of note is the continuing rise of interactions via the Internet and, perhaps encouragingly, an increasing satisfaction with this communication channel.

As this data set matures, we hope to provide comparative data alongside more case studies and good practice.

If you have employed a novel or successful technique in your authority, please let me know.

I'd also like to hear from you if you have further feedback and suggestions as to how we can develop this section.

Click here to view the citizen engagement data. Remember, you'll have to log in to view the results.

MJ Awards

We enjoyed another hugely successful MJ Achievement Awards dinner at London's Hilton last week.

It was great to meet so many 'star performers' from councils around the country and congratulations to all those who won and were shortlisted.

A video of the evening has now been posted on the MJ awards home page. You can view it here.

Winners' photographs from the evening have also been posted. You can obtain copies of the shots by emailing images@hgluk.com

New election section now live

As promised, a new local elections section is now live on the site with the results of last week’s poll.

In common with the Localgov.co.uk political composition map, this new section uses Google maps technology to display the political shifts. You can view the map before and after Friday’s results to make a national comparison.

The map can also be restricted to two parties of your choice to chart the political swing.

That said, this service is a little limited for the 2009 elections given that a relatively small number of councils were contests and that the Conservatives were so successful.

In addition, the section has the facility to view the information in tabular and pie chart form.

Click here to view it. You'll need to login first.

Council elections, 4th June

First, apologies for the lack of activity here over the last few weeks.

A rather busy period in the office was followed a couple of week's leave... and the computer is off limits when I'm on holiday.

So, back to work.

Local and European elections take place next Thursday (4th June). Although much attention will be focused on the Euro poll given turnout fears following the MP expenses affair, LocalGov.co.uk will be keeping a close eye on the local result.

We'll be adding one or two new features to the directory section to display the results as we get them. Prominent links will also be added to the site and directory home pages so you can access the information quickly.

The MJ Awards shortlists

The MJ Awards shortlists are now online and you can view the categories and the shortlisted councils on the MJ Awards 2009 page.

These went live yesterday and resulted in a record traffic day for the site. Interest was so great at one point on that particular page the site slowed down considerably so thanks for your patience if you got caught in a bottleneck. We intend to streamline this page a little to avoid this problem in future.

In common with previous years, we have included pdfs of the council submissions. The reasons for this are two-fold: the section serves both as a useful guide for councils considering entering the awards and, in combination with previous years' entries, a good practice file.

The commended councils' submissions for 2009 will be live on the site shortly.

Remember, the awards night takes place on the 25th June at London's Hilton and will be hosted by BBC TV newscaster Huw Edwards.

If you have been shortlisted, you can download a booking form for the awards night here.

Good luck!

The new unitaries and the directory

The directory team was busy yesterday making changes to the site database to handle the new unitaries.

The nine new councils take over the responsibilities of more than 40 authorities. To avoid any confusion, and for the foreseeable future, the directory will reflect this shift in responsibility.

Consequently, councils such as Crewe and Nantwich and Berwick-upon-Tweed will still be listed in the directory, but the entry will be accompanied with an explanatory note and link to the new unitary authority now delivering services in that area.

Ultimately, the dissolved authorities will be removed from the 'live data' and included in the reorganisation section.

Citizen engagement section now live

LocalGov.co.uk’s new citizen engagement section is now live.

This area of the site is intended to be a best practice hub for all things engagement – ranging from call centre management and IT systems to the use of social networking to engage local communities.

Currently, you’ll find articles and case studies although this is very much work in progress.

We are in the process of developing an exciting new project to expand the scope of this new section and would like to hear from you with sound applications of engagement tools that have delivered in your areas.

We will also be producing a regular e-bulletin with updates and you can register for this service on the citizen engagement home page.

This new section of site is open to registrants please register for free, or login, before viewing.

Naturally, subscribers also have access upon login.

Click here to view

More video

We've just published a clip of the Local Government Information Unit's Andy Sawford talking about why he is using Twitter. It forms part of a larger feature on the micro-blogging tool which you can read here.

On that subject, you may have noticed that an LGIU blog now appears on our blogging page. The posts are currently truncated owing to a problem with the feed settings.

The tech team at LGIU are fixing this as I write, but you can track links to their posts here.

Feedback please!

I'm just starting to plan site development for the next 12 months or so.

In addition to programmed improvements to LocalGov - such as the redesign last year - a number of smaller development projects will come my way.

These are usually the result of shifts in the market or changing advertiser expectations and, being a relatively small, agile operation, we are generally able to deliver these changes efficiently.

But any development needs to be aligned with user expectations, and this is where you come in.

Your feedback, positive or negative, is welcome an any aspect of LocalGov.co.uk, but we'd particularly like to hear from you on the following:

• The online directory service
• Jobs and careers information
• Email bulletins - frequency, level of detail, themed bulletin services
• News coverage
• Searching the site

Please e-mail your views to me direct using publisher@localgov.co.uk


Thanks in advance,

Matt Hobley

Webcasts and tweets

Things have a been quiet for a couple of weeks on this blog... apologies.

The team have been busy grappling with new technology, chief among them webcasting.

We ran our first webcast late last month on customer engagement. Despite extensive testing, we had one or two teething problems which affected people accessing the live webcast.

These are now sorted, but I do appreciate how frustrating this was for those users (and there were a good number of them) trying to access the event.

For those of you who persevered and managed to gain access eventually, I hope you found the event of use. If you would like to view a recorded version, you can do so here (don't forget to login first, or register for free if you do not have an account).

Despite these early glitches, we have a number of the events in the pipeline and details will emerge in due course.

I firmly believe that this technology has a role to play, particularly as time pressures make it increasingly difficult for council officials to attend events in person.

This technology allows us to bring the event to you... all you have to find is half an hour or so.

BTW, thanks to all those now following us on Twitter. Although still early days, I have been delighted with the response. If you would like to follow LocalGov, you can find us at http://twitter.com/localgoveditors

New directory home page now live

Localgov.co.uk's new directory home page is now live.

In common with other areas of the site, the new home page boasts more dynamic elements which allow colleagues in our directory department to highlight new features and 'real time' updates.

The new page makes use of a rolling promotional panel and has improved sing posting to the subscription options.

Another important feature is the sample entry, which now gives potential subscribers full access to one organisation entry to view the data on offer. This is a direct response to user requests for this feature.

A statistics panel provides snapshot figures on the local government using Municipal Year Book data.

Take a look at it here.

Keep in touch with Twitter

I've been using Twitter for a while now. For those of you not in the know, it's another social networking tool that allows you to post brief updates about what you are up to.

Essentially, it's another way of keeping in touch online.

I've been a little dubious as to the professional applications of the tool but local government is increasingly using the space to communicate and interact. Consequently, Localgov.co.uk has joined the fold.

We will be using it to keep people up to date with breaking stories and other updates, including new conferences, events, MJ awards announcements etc.

To follow us, see http://twitter.com/localgoveditors

Other Twitter destinations of note include:

http://twitter.com/AndySawford

http://twitter.com/EdwardWelsh

http://twitter.com/ingridk

http://twitter.com/CllrTweeps

Political composition map now live

I'm pleased to announce a new feature on LocalGov.co.uk.

Colleagues working on the Municipal Year Book have used Google Maps technology to plot a political composition map of Britain. This is a free service available to site registrants... you just have to log in before your can use the map.

Every local authority is plotted on the map and a colour assigned, depending on the political composition of that council. Clicking on the council icon will reveal the political composition in detail.


We have also given users the option to filter the results by political party and compare two parties at a time. Given that we are trying to track political composition in local councils, a filter is provided for 'no overall control' and for the other political organisations which may hold power at the local level.

The data is also provided in tabular form for site subscribers.

I hope you find this new feature of use... you can find it here.

It is already finding fans in our office, particularly for those seeking a quick reference guide to a particular council's political composition.

If you have any feedback on this feature, please email me.

Keeping tabs on traffic

When you start working on websites, traffic becomes a key feature of you day-to-day.

Initially, this is an obsession with page views… how many ‘hits’ a piece of content gets.

You then dig a little deeper (How many people are watching video content, and for how long?, for example) before becoming fully immersed in the full range of metrics on offer and then losing sight of what they are actually telling you about your website’s performance.

I must confess that I’m interested in the referring traffic… that is, finding out which sites on the ‘Web are directing traffic users to our content.

This has thrown up some interesting results… a Mercedes owners club blog linking to a story on proportional parking charges for cars with higher emissions, for example.

A pleasant surprise this week though has been my colleague Heather Jameson’s profile article on Bala Mahendran, chief executive of Basildon Borough Council.

Mr Mahendran is from Sri Lanka and news site infolanka.com picked up on the story and pushed nearly 1,500 visitors our way on Wednesday afternoon this week.

Nice to see UK local government having international appeal.

LocalGov on YouTube

LocalGov.co.uk now has a YouTube channel where you will be able to view the entire back catalogue of video content produced for the site.

This includes the regular viewpoints produced by editor of the MJ Michael Burton, alongside our news reports, interviews and content produced with our partners including Steria and IBM.

YouTube brings our content to a wider audience and provides an accessible viewing platform for our videos.

You can view the channel at http://uk.youtube.com/user/LocalGov and subscribe to keep up to date with new content as it is produced for the site.

We will continue to develop this page alongside other enhancements of our video content due later in the year.

Happy viewing!

Localgov.co.uk update

Just a quick note to wish all Localgov.co.uk users a happy new year and let you know that the site redesign is now complete. Should you find any errant pages that have not been switched over to the new look, please e-mail me the URL.

The work doesn’t stop there, though. We are currently working on a number of new initiatives and improvements that will be going live in the coming weeks.

Watch this space!

Regards,

Matt.