Comms in a time of crisis
It would be trite to comment on the major changes that we're all facing in our lives. We only hope that everyone is keeping safe and well.
As with most organisations, particularly public bodies and those working to support them, the coronavirus has triggered a complete rethink of the way we work and how we communicate with the world. As a result we've been thinking a lot about how Delib can be most helpful in a time of crisis.
Unique insights
Most of our work centres on public participation: consultations, complex ongoing decision-making (budgeting, transport, policing), and discursive challenges on behalf of organisations that range from small local authorities to trans-national bodies. It sits at the intersection of digital, policy, democracy and online user behaviour, which has lead to the development of a unique set of insights and a huge depth of resources.
This, we hope, is deeply practical knowledge, which we're going to start sharing to help public officials move processes online, in a way that works for everyone in society.
Best practice in a digital-only world
We're being inundated with requests for help from people who either want to start using our tech, or from those who already do and need extra assistance, as the world rapidly and suddenly moves online. Notable concerns are already arising around accessibility and how we can limit the number of people who may be excluded from online decision making processes.
As a result, we've decided we'll begin sharing everything we can over the coming weeks and months that we think will be directly useful to public officials, whether they're a Delib customer or not.
It's going to look something like this.
TONE:
- We are humble
- We are informative
- Everything we post provides service
We want to help our customers and the wider world with adapting to life online. We're here to assist.
ACTIONS:
- We've fast-tracked the release of our podcast episodes (embedded below), as a) they're full of useful insights and b) people will be listening to a lot of podcasts at the moment
- As of this week (w/c 30th March) we'll be trialling a series of themed Twitter and LinkedIn threads. These themes are Accessibility, Privacy and Survey/Service Design.
- We'll still be sharing other helpful articles and news in between.
- If there's enough demand, we will send out an email containing a list of all the resources we've shared once a week. Sign up here.
This is by no means an exhaustive list and the strategy plan will evolve over time. Please get in touch if you have any feedback, suggestions for themes or content you'd like us to share. Dani is Delib's content editor and is the best person to submit suggestions to; you can do so here.