Hello and welcome again to the new Digital for Development blogging group. I am the head of the digital team here in DFID’s communications division in London. I work with a team of talented editors to produce and promote the online words, pictures, video, audio and graphics for the department. We also lead on DFID’s digital engagement which has grown from a germ of an idea many years ago, to a business as usual, day to day activity.
It’s an exciting time to be writing. With the advent of the UK government’s Digital by Default strategy, things are changing fast and changing for the better. As a former print and online journalist, I have lately been astonished by how willing the civil service is to adapt and grow with the changing times. There are many dedicated and switched on digital people across the UK government who are contributing daily to improving services for citizens.
At DFID, much of our digital communication is focused on demonstrating the impact of British support in developing countries. We work in 27 countries so there is a lot to show.
It will also be fascinating to read posts from the other digital teams in DFID, whose work on aid transparency and technology for development are breaking new ground in the global effort to eradicate poverty. I would also love to hear readers’ thoughts on what we could improve and what works well.
In this blog, I will write about social media initiatives, interesting articles, meeting citizen needs on the award-winning GOV.UK, digital trends and more. I will introduce colleagues who will – no doubt – write with zeal about what has worked and what hasn’t. While we are very established now on Facebook, Flickr, Twitter, YouTube, SoundCloud, not to mention this blogging platform, we are always exploring what else we can do, and what should be dropped.
My next post discusses the recent changes to Flickr. Let’s get the conversation started.