An attempt to describe what I mean by Digital Civic Space and the skills we may need to create it

1. Who is designing the
digital public realm?
Catherine Howe, Chief Executive Public-i

2. What is the data telling us?
Consistent growth of
Internet takeup
At time of writing, over 80% of the adult population are online and 92%
have mobile phones. Around 50% of the UK population own a smart
phone.
Technology needs to be considered in the context of social change
Consistent growth of
‘social’ behaviours
Users who access the internet from mobile devices are more likely to
create content, consume content, and look for information online – in
turn, allowing them to become more active participants.
Digital exclusion is becoming
social exclusion
Those already at a disadvantage and arguably with the most to gain
from the internet are the least likely to be making use of it and further
disadvantaged by not using it.

3. What do we mean by Digital?*
*what do I mean?

4. Our relationship with the
public is changing

5. We limit ourselves by simply considering
changes to the way we communicate

6.  Self Publication: Disintermediation of the Media
 Virtual Community and Social Networking: Wide scale use of Networked
Power
 Collaborative Culture: Creating a sharing economy
 Radical Openness: Disruption of the democratic relationship
 Networked Technology: Smart Cities and new streams of information
 Customization, Making and Self-Service: Disruption of manufacturing and
the industrial economy
Technology or Social Change?
The Internet is the most significant technological development of the
last 100 years. At least.

7. Disintermediation

8. Disintermediation and new forms of power
Political Parties have less
relevance
Local Media is struggling to
survive
There is no space for
discretion
Your thinking will be done
in public

9. There are new rules of engagement
Networked Digital
Open Agile

10. Participatory Culture and a Network Society
Collaborating
ParticipatingSharing
Creating
Connecting

11.  Open by default: this is open not just in terms of information but also in terms of
thinking and decision making
 Digitally native: not in terms of age but in terms of the individual adopting the
behaviours and social norms of the digital culture
 Co-productive: an expectation that everyone in the conversation has power to act and
the potential to be active in the outcome as well as the decision-making process
 And as the name says, networked: able to be effective via networked as well as
hierarchical power as a leader, to blur boundaries and to work across groups
The qualities of Democracy in a Network Society

12. Government is no
longer the only one
creating public
space

13. What could digital civic space
look like?

14. Data?

15. Creativity?

16. Augmented
reality?

17. More of the same?

18. Opportunities to sell stuff?

20. Building and making?

21. It doesn’t have to be
defined by the
technology
There are other ways of
looking at this

22. http://www.uckfieldnews.com/
http://lewes.co.uk/
http://hollingdeannews.wordpress.com/
A new Public Sphere?

23. Co-production and
ABCD

24. New kinds of spaces

25. Networks….of
networks

27. Society not Technology

28. Digital Civic Space
Open
Co-
productive
Place defined
by Citizens
Representative
Public

29. What does this mean for
leaders?

30. Does this change the relationship with the public?
 Transactional services
 Clear accountabilities
 Deficit model of community
engagement
 Hierarchical power
 Informed consumers
 Co-produced services
 Blurred boundaries
 Asset model of community
engagement
 Networked Power
 Active Citizens
Customer Citizen

31. Will we just communicate with the
public or collaborate with them?

32. What will the public
realm look like online?

33. Catherine Howe
catherine.howe@public-i.info
Thank you for your time