The IDeA Communities of Practice platform (CoPs) won first prize in its category at the National e-Government Awards in the prestigious setting of at the Guildhall, London on Tuesday 20th January. The e-Government awards are supported by the Cabinet Office, SOCITM and SOLACE, and recognise excellence in public sector IT and transformational e-Govt projects.
See also John’s IDeA Blog for photos of John Hayes, Michael Norton, Lawrence Hall and me picking up the award.
CoPs was short-listed as finalist in two categories, and won under ‘e-Government Excellence: Professionalism & Leadership’ (Leading e-Government strategies and professional development which contribute to achieving positive transformation).
There were 588 entrants to the e-government awards, with CoPs being one of only 11 winners receiving the UK’s highest level commendation for the best e-government and technology-driven services. It was also pleasing to hear Gordon Brown, in his recorded speech for the evening, reference the good work that online communities had been achieving for government over the previous year.
This is some recognition (at last!) for the work I’ve been engaged on at the IDeA for these past 3 year’s, ably supported by the Knowledge Management team, and not forgetting all of the many excellent community managers and facilitators who keep the communities buzzing.
The CoP platform currently supports over 26,000 registered users across the UK public sector, and more than 600 individual CoPs, collaborating on policy initiatives, developing good/next practice for public sector service improvement or just sharing knowledge and ideas.
There was a brief mention in Gordon Brown’s videolink speech about on-line communities. I’d like to thik he had the CoP platform in mind when he said it!
[…] Steve Dale gives more detail about the award and PM Gordon Brown’s favourable mention of communities of practice. Local government leads […]
Nice one Steve! Recognition at last.
Thanks for the thanks! Not that I crave recognition for anything I do, but it is nice now and again that what you are doing is worthwhile, and it compensates for all the knock-backs. Incidentally, the knock-backs are still winning, so in order to maintain ying and yang, maybe more awards this year? I can hope!
[…] Communities of Practice wins e-Gov National Award […]
[…] Communities of Practice wins e-Gov National Award Steve Dale gives all the details the CoP winning national recognition (more than deservedly). (tags: communities.of.practice Cop IDeA e-government) Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)Power upCommunity CouncilOlechowka River: a blessing or a curse for the neighbourhood of Kowalszczyzna?LGSearch […]
Congrats Steve 🙂