Just in case you haven't already got enough Twitter in your life, here's the first of five clips of Shel Israel introducing his new book, Twitterville at a recent event.

You can catch the full set from the session here, including panel contributions from the likes of Tom Watson MP.

While putting my first post together for November's PDF Europe, I was flicking through videos on YouTube from the New York event earlier this year - and I thought I would share danah boyd's take on online culture and its relationship to offline communities.

Full text of her talk can also be found over on her blog.

Often, the public don't entirely understand what exactly it is that Local Government does (and does not) do.

Equally often, those working in Local Government don't have a full picture of what local people want from services in their area.

One way I can think of to match these two needs is through better public engagement which is joined up to policy making, more deliberative rather than informative or adversarial, and which promotes a genuine understanding between the two parties.

I'd like to know more about how local authorities are currently going about engaging with people more meaningfully than through polling or 'tick-box' consultation exercises. One use of this network could be to spread simple ideas and good practice around this area, particularly with a leaning towards the use of online methods and social media.

When it comes to consultation and engagement, less is often more - so long as the processes that do take place involve diverse participant groups and have meaningful outcomes.