Speaking from 4IP – @tomskitomski #mps09

4IP Tom Loosemore @tomskitomski reading his notes, wonderfully, off of a napkin, said:

Channel 4 is effectively publicly owned (or owned on behalf of the public). In recent years audience attention has been shifting, both between channels, but also away from TV and to the on-line world. 4IP is a pilot – a precursor to that bigger shift – aiming to lead the way in that change. They are a year into a 3 year pilot, with over 2,000 ideas submitted to date.

4IP is looking for collaboration and participation in the ideas, but their toughest test is based on the fact that Channel 4 is a business and the ideas must be long-term viable, so they are looking for sustainable businesses ideas – and ones that are not dependent on advertising (it doesn’t work he says ;) ).

Check out the site at 4ip.org.uk – the form is very simple. Just over 10 years ago Tom jointly had an idea that lead to upmystreet.com – an endeavour to talk about the state, based around our location. He ended up taking a call from HMSO because of the trouble it caused! The semantics of “my” are powerful, he says – he’s pleased the event is called “my public services” rather than “what do we do about government web sites” – taking ownership of what is ours. Especially important, as we may have to do the work that the government can’t afford to do over the next 10 years.

Design the services around the needs of the public, not of the state – enabled by the technology. Tom says that the government should do three things:

1. It should NOT publish websites, it should publish information, for others to read – with a license to use, content that is kept up to date and a requirement to identify the source as a government one.

2. Follow the same model for transactional services. Gov should provide and interface for others to provide the services (the Inland Revenue already do this to some extent).

3. Should Actively listen.