[Summary: Looking for local authorities to be part of joint-commissioning new Facebook/Bebo/MySpace tool for youth participation]
One of the action projects emerging from the Action Learning Set I’m currently involved in around Youth Participation & Social Network Sites is all about creating a new online tool to transform consultation with young people – and to go from dull form-filling to engaging ongoing dialogue between young people and those in local authorities who want to hear from them.
The action project team, sprearheaded by Tom Gaskin from Norfolk Blurb and with support from others including Jess Linacre have already got a series of great design ideas together working with SNS application developers Neontribe and now they are looking for other local authorities who want to pool resources to help build the best possible application.
So – if you are from a local authority, or similar organisation, and you could be interested in being part of the pilot and contributing towards the budget – then drop me a line and I’ll put you in touch with the action project team.
(Photo credit Balakov)
I would just like to know what child safety mechanisms you are considering? I see all kinds of social apps toted as being the “next best thing to connect people” and some of those people are very young. What are we doing to protect them from people who might want to connect with them for all the wrong reasons?
Hey Tim
A very good question. This is actually something which we’ve already been doing a lot of work on. See http://www.timdavies.org.uk/2008/12/01/safe-and-effective-social-network-site-applications/ for a bit more background.
Neontribe who will be developing the app have been involved in the development of the ethical standards and safety criteria that will influence the application development.
In a nut-shell everything will:
(a) Be fully risk assessed to ensure it doesn’t put young people at risk;
(b) Abide by strict ethical criteria covering data sharing and informed consent from young people;
and
(c) Model good practice, and seek to encourage critical literacy building with young people – so that the application is not only safe itself, but contributes to creating a safer SNS space;
—
For a quicker summary of the SNS Safety work I’ve been doing this three-page paper may be handy http://isp.substance.coop/files/Summary_Discussion_Doc-Safe_and_Effective_Social_Network_Site_Applications_for_Young_People.pdf