Every day, tech-minded citizens across the country are doing good by their communities, literally geeking out about how they can help re-define the relationship government has with its citizens, using technology as a democratic tool to empower both.
Switzerland-based RedCut has released Citizen 2.0, a white paper of case studies that include 17 examples of social media and government innovation. We asked CEO Hadi Barkat to share his methodology and what he learned.
The U.S. Department of Transportation is officially nowhere to be found in social media circles, but DOT Secretary Ray LaHood is everywhere, including Facebook, Twitter and Flickr.
Get Satisfaction CEO Wendy Lea shares her advice on how government can leverage Web 2.0 tools to better connect with citizens.
Google announced the launch of YouTube for Government with a simple landing page and playlist of examples of how elected officials and government is using its video platform.
The city council of St. Charles, Missouri has launched Discover St. Charles, a YouTube channel that delivers department updates to citizens using short video clips.
Gov 2.0 Radio discusses social media and local government with Morris County, NJ, webmaster Carol Spencer, treasurer of the National Association of Government Webmasters. A veteran of IBM, Spencer calls social media the biggest revolution in technology since the personal computer. On government agencies blocking social media, she says, “You’re blocking access to the way people live.”
Gadi Ben-Yehuda, Social Media Director for the Center for the Business of Government, shares his insights into how government can better leverage Twitter.
Stephen Goldsmith’s new book, The Power of Social Innovation: How Civic Entrepreneurs Ignite Community Networks for Good, written with Gigi Georges and Tim Glynn Burke, offers tools for innovative government and nonprofit professionals to develop and scale their new solutions to public problems. The book is based on Goldsmith’s experience as chair of the Corporation for National and Community Service for nine years under Presidents Bush and Obama, mayor of Indianapolis, and Professor of Government at Harvard Kennedy School. Relying also on interviews with more than 100 top leaders from the public, private and nonprofit sectors, The Power of Social Innovation features illustrative case studies of civic leaders and entrepreneurs and the catalyzing role each plays in transforming a community’s social service delivery systems. The excerpt below—taken from Chapter 5 “Animating and Trusting the Citizenâ€â€”highlights innovative ways that private citizens, nonprofits and government officials are using digital media to “crowd source†or otherwise engage their communities in decision making and actual participation in solving their shared challenges.
Microsoft Director of Social Innovation Mark Drapeau discusses the importance of ‘real’ relationships in social media and asks government, ‘Are you being social in real life?’
Microsoft Director of Innovative Social Engagement Mark Drapeau asks, ‘Why has government gone from zero to Web 2.0 in 60 seconds?’
What do you think?
Because there isn’t a consistent strategy around government Twitter follow lists, I’ve been thinking more about how agencies and municipalities can better leverage this feature to support citizens.
Some government agencies/municipals follow only related agencies and departments within the agency, as well as elected leaders and appointed executive officials. Others appear to follow whomever might be affiliated with the person managing the account or, worse, whomever follows them. Following everyone that follows you isn’t scalable and could potentially be perceived as an endorsement of that person or company’s product and services.
The Salt Lake Valley Health Department produced a A Year in Gov 2.0: Our Social Media Quest video highlighting its social media and communications activity over 2009, including efforts around H1N1 public outreach.
Time for government to plug into one platform?
In a new blog post, Gartner’s Andrea Di Maio asks if it’s time to pull the plug on government Websites?