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Over lunch at ukgovcamp @pseudograph asked me if any of my twitter celebrities were there. I said no. There are great people who I really admire but I kind of know them so they’ve lost that celebrity cache for me. Then I found myself in a workshop with @steiny and I had to admit, I was a little bit geek-struck.
It was a workshop about celebrating ukgovcamp and talking about he future.
[UPDATE 12th March 2013 should have said the workshop was pitched by @hadleybeeman and @annkempster and already blogged about by @juliac2.]
It pottered along quite pleasantly until Tom lit some blue touch-paper. What he asked (and I paraphrase quite heavily) was how many people at ukgovcamp or in the wider community are likely to become chief executives in the next few years.
We probably all agree that chief execs are going to need the sort of skillsets possessed by and taken for granted by those in the govcamp community. If the community doesn’t produce them then where are they going to come from? Probably from the same place they always come from.
He explained it with a tale (which I may have embellished in my remembering):
Imagine a couple of hundred cardiac surgeons get together each year in London. They talk about the latest developments in surgery, future cardiac trends and the impact of 3D printing on distended aortas. Imagine those surgeons could see that there were fundamental problems in the NHS leading to poor outcomes for patients. They should probably do something about it shouldn’t they? In fact some would argue they had a duty to do so.
Not everyone was sold on the idea that there is, in fact, a problem. Or if there is a problem it may be being fixed without us. Or if it isn’t being fixed it may not be our job to fix it.
We got a bit hung up on the idea of a manifesto. I guess in a public sector context manifesto is a loaded term though in that company I thought agile rather than political.
And I could not but see links between this workshop and the morning’s workshop on women in digital pitched by @teacamplondon and the later workshop pitched by @loulouk on a mentoring network for digital.
Things are not, to my mind, sorted. It is not the job of ukgovcamp to sort them, nor can anyone claim a constituency from the govcamp movement.
But those who agree that there is a problem can, if they chose to, try to do something about it.
A manifesto may not be the right way to frame the problem. Maybe some user stories might be more appropriate. Here’s my starter for 10.
Things that should work betterin the public sector
- Chief Executives of public bodies should have a good grounding in technology, digital and networked society issues so they can lead transformation in contemporary organisations.
- Digital professionals should be able to develop strong leadership and networking skills so they can take on the most senior roles in the public sector.
- Those appointing senior roles in the public sector should be able to understand why digital and technology skills are important so they can appoint future leaders.
- People at all stages of their career in digital roles should have access to mentoring, development and support to ensure they can progress alongside their peers from traditional professions.
- I wish it went without saying but it clearly doesn’t, men and women should have equal opportunities at all stages of their careers so they can live and work in a culture that is not rubbish.
Comments really welcomed.
Image is Puffles and BB by Alex Jackson used under a Creative Commons licence