On Wednesday 12 May in the UK, we woke to a new government in which collaboration is the name of the game, and that same afternoon new government released its first policy statement. 

David Robinson, Senior Advisor at Community Links and former Vice-Chair of the Council on Social Action was one of a small and diverse cast of individuals invited to a discussion on 18 May of The Big Society with the new Prime Minister and deputy PM at No 10.  David hosted the first Chain Reaction discussion group on 4 June in east London to share ideas in response to the new government’s proposals, and to co-design a response to Government on what we as a network believe that the core values underpinning the work of the Big Society Network should be.  

• Click here to view our Stronger Communities, Bigger Society? Values paper 
• Click here to see what happened at the London meeting on 4 June 2010 

What is the Big Society Network? 
As The Big Society website states; "...[it] is an organisation being set up by frustrated citizens for frustrated citizens, to help everyone achieve change in their local area. The aim is to create a new relationship between Citizens and Government in which both are genuine partners in getting things done: real democracy using all the human and technological tools we now have available..."  Read more about the Big Society Network

What are we trying to achieve with this paper? 
It is early days in regards to planning the Big Society Network activity, and it’s far too early to know what will exactly happen in coming months, but some things are inevitable: there will be less money, and that will mean we all need to to work more collaboratively and creatively. We wanted to start feeding back to Government and the Big Society Network, the practical ideas for how we can really work together across business, the public sector, and community organisations, to deliver a fairer, stronger society, and what the core values that should underpin the work of The Big Society should be.

Who have we fed this back to? 
We have fed this back to No10, DCLG and The Big Society Network, and are waiting for responses.  (We'll update you as we receive them) 

Can I still be part of this discussion? 
Stronger Communities benefit from the involvement of the many, not the few, and The Big Society needs activity needs to be guided by society itself.  

Here's how you can share your ideas and thoughts about The Big Society:  

• Run your own discussion group about Big Society, and / or feed into the wider discussion on the Chain Reaction network.   
  
• If you are in the North of England, share your thoughts at the Big Society North meeting on 27 July 2010.  The Big Society North is a locally organised network to share ideas and resources - Read more about the thinking behind Big Society North.
  
• Comment directly on our Stronger Communities paper via the wiki
  
• Share your thoughts via Twitter using the tag #bigsociety or #bsnopen - these tweets are being aggregated by Social Reporter David Wilcox here