Digital communities – giving the public what they want

If you’re a regular reader of The Blue, you’ll know that at O2, we pride ourselves on the work we’re doing with Local Government. Our aim is to help local councils find innovative new approaches to long-term challenges. In particular, we’re interested in how digital offers new opportunities for councils to engage with their citizens and communities more effectively.

To find out more, we recently commissioned research on the subject. And we’ve put the findings together in the O2 Digital Communities Report.

The report explores the experiences and views of the UK public when they’re dealing with councils. It contains some challenging insights, including a lot of frustration around the quality and accuracy of the information provided by local councils. But it also shares some great ideas on how councils can prepare for the digital future and deliver seamless service to local communities.

It’s something we’re already helping councils to do through our Local Government Digital Fund (LGDF), where we’re offering £250,000 worth of expertise, services and technology to help councils do things differently. Councils can still submit their ideas, so if you haven’t sent us your application yet, don’t delay. The deadline is 21 January 2014.

For more about our work with the public sector visit our webpage. Follow us on Twitter @O2BusinessUK for the latest news and views, or join the LGDF conversation at #O2lgdf.