The Local 2.0 Blog

We are now in the process of writing the final report for the Local 2.0 project, but in the meantime please check out our blog about the Young Foundation's work on the web at :

http://yfweb.wordpress.com/

and follow us on Twitter @yf_web

The Local 2.0 Project

Facebook, Twitter and MySpace are now an established part of daily life for many people and increasingly are being viewed by politicians, local authorities and public agencies as a way to reach people who aren’t actively involved in local democracy and decision making. Facebook and its counterparts were utilised by councils, residents and the third sector during the Mayor of London’s recent Help a London Park campaign. Over 20 Facebook pages were set up, some with over 1,000 members, to canvass votes for local parks to be awarded one of 10 £400,000 improvement grants.

Through our work on neighbourhoods and community empowerment, the role of online social networking and other 'web 2.0' applications at the very local level has emerged as an area that needs more exploration. Supported by CLG’s Empowerment Fund, the Young Foundation is embarking on Local 2.0, a new programme of practical work on hyper-local or 'neighbourhood media' – meaning internet and mobile services that connect users with the people and neighbourhoods they live and work in.

We are working with Kirklees Council, King's Lynn and West Norfolk Borough Council, the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and Wiltshire Council on this project.

The CLG Empowerment Fund is also funding UpRising.

Research Papers:

• In collaboration with the Improvement and Development Agency (IDeA) and the Local Government Association (LGA), the Young Foundation have published the paper, Joining the Conversation: an introduction to neighbourhood media, which provides an overview of hyper-local uses of the internet and how they can be useful to local government.

• Listen, Participate, Transform: A social media framework for local government (June 2010). This thinkpiece, the second in a series from the Young Foundation's Local 2.0 project, provides local authorities with a simple, practical framework to base their social media activity on. Alternatively access it on Scribd here.