Francis Bacon
Digital Communications Editor, The Royal Society
Director, moreconference
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Tweets
- Hope as an anti-poverty measure http://t.co/tXqGnaCv via @theeconomist
- Content curation at BBC by @magnify. Signal vs noise. Nice note to end on: 'the web isn't a company...it's us'. http://t.co/jtnnBowyMay 19, 12 from web Reply, Retweet, Favorite
- Just ordered my next @BarclaysOnline debit card with free personalised photo: http://t.co/VuDfwE6OMay 17, 12 from web Reply, Retweet, Favorite
- Looking fwd to my first #mailcamp12 today, I'll be giving a 5 min pres on @royalsociety newsletters
- Futurism: that infuriating mix of bullshit and brilliance. http://t.co/jM2skoce
- MT @tomstandage interesting job: the British Museum is looking for a "head of digital media and publishing" https://t.co/wLWMbYsq
- RT @Rishadt Can Facebook give Bing hope? NYTimes: A Revamping of Bing in the Battle for Search Engine Supremacy http://t.co/XPoNlj9x
- Finally got olympics tickets: Greco-Roman wrestling. Always been a fan of that.May 13, 12 from web Reply, Retweet, Favorite
- Love the crossover btwn social anthropology and tech geekery | Email on Mobile Devices http://t.co/Hon7pFMC
- Be regular and orderly in your life so that you may be violent and original in your work. – Gustave Flaubert
- Solving the problem as you scale. Been thinking a lot about this lately. http://t.co/mX7AYD5A
- Zeebox is quite an interesting app. Convenient tv guide if nothing else.
- RT @garbnzgh Best animated .gif ever? http://t.co/eCn1XPxJ
- @mcgeoff Thanks Geoff, this looks really greatMay 03, 12 from web Reply, Retweet, Favorite
- Bit underwhelmed by Samsung S3, going to check out HTC One S in a real life shop tomorrowMay 03, 12 from web Reply, Retweet, Favorite
- Just seen an instagram photo taken by an occupy protester. Feeling depressed.May 02, 12 from web Reply, Retweet, Favorite
- Taking google drive for a spin, looks like it could be useful http://t.co/K9f2JwDaMay 01, 12 from web Reply, Retweet, Favorite
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Posts
- Apr 15, 12
This week I went to my first teacamp – an informal meetup for people working on digital in government. The topic was what should be in the forthcoming social media guidance for public servants.
Personal v professional
Much of the discussion hinged on the balance between public servants’ right to a personal life and their professional responsibilities to their organisation.
Now that it’s easy to use the web to work out who someone works for, the risk is that people’s opinions or indiscretions will damage the organisation or be used to criticise it.
What if a policy officer tweeted something at odds with the corporate position? The press might seize on this.
Nick Halliday, Matt Jukes and Terence Eden have also blogged on this discussion.
Radical transparency
For me, the distinction between ‘personal’ and ‘professional’ is no longer a helpful one.
I see the web as being radically transparent, in that it not only enables more information to be published, it also helps people to make connections that they otherwise could not make.
Think of this: today you could scrape LinkedIn for a list of Twitter handles of staff at a government department. Analyze their streams and you might find opinions at odds with departmental policy.
The web will increasingly expose inconsistencies like this.
What’s actually happening is that the idea of the organisation is under attack. It was always the case that people’s personal and professional lives were inconsistent – it’s just that the web is now finally exposing this.
The personal is political
Let’s also remember that every statement, however seemingly innocuous, carries implicit value judgements and is in some sense ‘political’.
The words we use, the sources we read, the thoughts that occupy us (or not) reveal our values – and it is these values that are at the heart of political debate.
Tweeting that you enjoyed The Matrix is ‘personal’, until you realise that someone else saw it as a Christian metaphor and others as a dystopian warning about out-of-control technology. And someone else thinks you should only be watching films about their pet issue anyway.
There is no statement which does not carry implicit values (and in fact making no statements also expresses values).
Freedom of expression
The world is going to have to live with the idea that organisations’ opinions and those of their staff are not the same. Hopefully the novelty of this will soon fade.
So what to do with those social media guidelines?
In my opinion they should make an explicit attempt to protect public servants’ freedom of expression – a fundamental human right.
The greatest risk here is not that organisations will be embarrassed by the contradiction between their statements and those of their employees (that will happen anyway) but that public servants feel they cannot use social media to engage in political debates or even express themselves in a ‘personal’ way.
Public servants make up about 20% of the workforce and they’re going to be using social media more and more. A protection for freedom of expression is needed to make sure they do not become disenfranchised.
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Paris
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Reading
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Recent Tracks
- LaserLight by Jessie J
- 212 (feat. Lazy Jay) by Azealia Banks
- Starships - Explicit Version by Nicki Minaj
- Too Close by Alex Clare
- Somebody That I Used To Know by Gotye
- Call Me Maybe by Carly Rae Jepsen
- What Makes You Beautiful by One Direction
- Midnight City by M83
- Only Love by Ben Howard
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- Lord Knows by Drake11 plays
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- Power by Kanye West8 plays
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- Midnight City by M838 plays
- Shot For Me by Drake8 plays
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Posts
- Paris
Took an early Eurostar on Friday morning and stayed at Hotel Eldorado, near Place de Clichy. After a lazy Parisian afternoon we watched In Time at the Pathé, struggling to keep up with the French dialogue.
On Saturday we shopped in the “back passages of time” arcades on the right bank - appropriate for a rainy day. By chance, an amazing lunch in Les Mesturet (duck, blue cheese lasagne) then later incredible food at Le Bistrot de Dames (lamb, steak tartare!) - the restaurant underneath the hotel.
On Sunday we found the Rodin Museum, having aborted an attempt at Musée d’Orsay. Late afternoon train got us back to London at 7.
- Goecha La, Sikkim, India
More photos available here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/baconandeggs/sets/72157627957577554/
We flew into Bagdogra from Delhi and then got a taxi to Gangtok, where we organised the trek with Vajra Adventure Tours for $50 pppd. You have to go via Gangtok (rather than Darjeeling) in order to obtain the permit. The trek then starts from Yuksom which is a 4/5 hour journey from Gangtok.
It is possible to organise the trek in Yuksom but the town is quite small and you might have to wait for availability. You have to take a guide on the trek (although this is only checked at the park entrance) and unless you are well-equipped with tents (for the guide too) and food (for 7 days) then you’ll have to also use animals - either horses or dzo. Their handler, a cook and one or two other helpers will probably also come too.
On the way out we went directly to Darjeeling, which has the Himalayan Mountaineering Institute, a quirky Natural History Museum and lots of tea plantations. Instead of flying we took the train from NJP to Delhi (32 hours).
- Isle of Skye
On Thursday 26 May 2011, we caught the Caledonian Express from Euston to Glasgow, which arrived late, then connecting trains to Kyle of Lochalsh. We camped by Sligachan Hotel.
On Friday we walked up Glen Sligachan as far as Loch Dubha and saw a golden eagle.
On Saturday we tried to walk round North up the coast but overflowing streams blocked our path. So we trekked on the road to Portree instead and ate at the superb Lower Deck Seafood. Local ales and Arran whiskey at the Sligachan bar with a German couple.
On Sunday we walked over the pass to Glenbrittle Forest and then on a road to Merkadale. Bussed back to Sligachan from the A863.
Tip for next time: although the train from Inverness to Kyle is special (especially the last 30 mins into Kyle) it would be quicker and simpler to get the coach from Glasgow.
Schittorn, Bernese Alps (2970m)
Mount Murud (2423m)
Moldoveanu, Fagaras Mountains (2544m)
Jbel Toukbal, Atlas Mountains (4167m)
Snowdon (1038m), Y Garn (947m), Glyder Fawr (999m) and Glyder Fach (994m), Snowdonia
Scafell Pike (978m), Great Gable (899m) and Helvellyn (950m) Lake District
