The Local 2.0 Blog

Visit Http://local2point0.wordpress.com for the latest Local 2.0 updates. You can also follow us on Twitter @local2point0

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.

To find our more about the project at read about the latest developments, visit the Local 2.0 blog

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. The paper can be downloaded here.

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.

For those working in local government, social media is soon to become part of everyday business - a valuable channel to improve dialogue with local citizens, forge essential new partnerships, and encourage a new kind of mutualism that will be vital to maintaining effective services during difficult financial times.

You can download the thinkpiece here or alternatively access it on Scribd here.