NESTA to 'reboot' public services using collaborative
web technologies
As part of its 'Reboot Britain' programme, The
National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts (NESTA) is
today launching a series of cutting-edge new projects that will
explore innovative ways in which collaborative web technologies can
be applied to some of society's biggest social challenges.
The experimental programmes will explore how
web technologies, with their focus on collaboration,
self-organisation, openness and sharing of knowledge, allow people
to engage and interact more easily with public service providers
and have more of a say in the design and delivery of services. The
aim is to cut bureaucracy, increase response times and demonstrate
new solutions to public service delivery which complement
traditional approaches.
Jonathan Kestenbaum, Chief Executive of NESTA,
says: 'Traditional approaches to dealing with society's most
critical issues are no longer enough in the light of increasing
constraints on the public purse and rising expectations. We must
look to new, innovative methods to tackle these issues and seize
the potential of collaborative web technologies to develop
innovative solutions which are more effective and cheaper.'
The programmes will explore how collaborative
web technologies can:
- Help break the cycle of re-offending amongst youths
(www.jailbrake.org)
- Increase the responsiveness of those working in child
protection through more efficient sharing of information
- Provide direction for those not in employment, education or
training (NEETs) by offering online peer to peer mentoring
- Allow communities to work with police more effectively to make
their communities safer
Each of these has been identified as an area
which is socially important, costly to support, an area of high
anxiety for the public and where traditional interventions have
been unable to offer a complete solution. Each project will be
tested in partnership with those who run traditional services in a
live environment.
Jonathan Kestenbaum adds: 'We've seen how
moving public services online can contribute to providing more
efficient services. With these programmes we aim to take this a
step further and deliver the next generation of public services
which are focussed on collaboration and effectiveness.'
The first project to launch, 'Jailbrake', aims
to find ways to use simple web and mobile tools to help slow down
or stop the cycle of re-offending by the hundred thousand 15-17
year olds who get caught up in the criminal justice system each
year.
The call for ideas - such as websites, systems
that rely on text messages or social networks - is now open and the
closing date for ideas is 26th February 2010. Ideas are
welcomed from anyone with an interest in this area, whether part of
a youth offending team, a service user, police officer, a member of
a local community or software developers, designers and funders who
can help turn those ideas into real projects.
For further information and to enter an idea
online visit the Jailbrake website.