Welcome and thanks for visiting. This blog is where I write about projects I am working on, capture my research in progress and generally organise my thinking in public. It helps me enormously to have a place to do this – I hope you also find it useful. I try and maintain a running post with some definitions and background reading that may be helpful.
I tend to roam between designing for democracy and more general thinking about technology driven change and the digital mindset. I’m increasing thinking about systems practice as well as my own leadership practice. You may find it helpful to read this ‘why I blog blog’ but suffice to say that this a place where I share my thinking in public but that means its subject to change and may look quite different when its actually applied in my role at Adur and Worthing.
If you are looking for my professional bio then you need to head over to LinkedIn . If you are trying to find me online for a more research orientated discussion then you can find me on twitter as @curiousc. If you want to contact to me about speaking at an event then you can contact me via either of these routes.
Dr Catherine Howe
Here are some of the things I am currently working on:
Latest posts
Actual research results on this empowerment business
I went to an interesting seminar today at the CLG where Prof. Lawrence Pratchett and Dr Catherine Durose from De Montfort University talked about a recent systematic review they have carried out of a number of different empowerment tools. You can find the full report on the CLG site and ...
Donegal workshop – rather long action research note!!
I was in Ireland this week helping to run a Citizenscape workshop in Donegal (one of the pilot sites). We are looking to involve Youth Councillors and other young people as community moderators (Just as an aside – I really struggle with what to call these folks as a group ...
Twitter – its all about listening
I have for some time now been struggling with the idea of Twitter. At first I was worried that this was a sign of aging and I had reached my personal limit in terms of new innovations but thankfully I am still filled with excitement about the idea of the ...
Cultural imperialism?
Its a bit of a segue but has anyone else noticed that the Wimbledon commentators have all been talking about players needing to ‘change up’? Is this a sign that Henman et al have been getting all street from watching The Wire???
Internet Dog years – or a spatial/temporal take on the network society
Brace yourelf – its a long one….. I am working on the theoretical framework for my thesis at the moment and so trying to establish its firm roots in the idea of a ‘network society’. The idea that we have moved into a post-industrial information age is well entrenched in ...
the network society is networking the organisation
For various reasons I’ve been spending more time talking to engagement and communications teams recently. That, combined with the usual work with democratic services has made me think about the way that technology changes the relationship with the citizen and that the emphasis on interaction requires a ‘coming together’ of ...
A paean to petitioning…..
I took part in an Petitions round table last week run run by the consultation institute. The round table format means you really get chance to talk through specific points and the group was all very fired up about what the new Local Democracy Bill will mean – and specifically ...
What do I actually mean by the virtual town hall?
I realise that I keep mentioning it but haven’t actually described what I mean. Here are the main points of the kind of space I am imagining: Its designed to incorporate and respond to the next online fad – and the one after that. Its just not efficient for you ...
Devon CC – Social Web guidelines
Carl from Devon CC has posted his social web guidelines on his blog. You can find them here. I think this is a hugely helpful thing to do and something that all Councils need to be getting on and doing…..enjoy…. I think one of the trickiest things about council officers ...
iphones – gadget lust or actually useful?
Research proposal submitted!!! I’m enjoying a weekend of leisure having sent the final draft off last week – just have to wait for the research committee meeting next monoth now. Leisure is perhaps stretching the definition slightly as a lot of it has been spent cleaning and sorting in preparation ...
Digital Leadership All posts
Shape the market and buy better stuff
Last week we stopped the implementation of a major upgrade of a piece of legacy ...
Field Notes All posts
AI musing – time to get engaged
Having said goodbye to social media (sort of) and having largely bypassed the data hype ...
NHS Citizen All posts
NHS Citizen design – agile but structured
I wanted to capture my first reflection from the final NHS Citizen design workshop last ...