Facebook announced that Roy L. Austin, Jr., will join the company as vice president of civil rights and deputy general counsel to establish the company’s new internal civil rights organization.
Mozilla: Here’s how to proactively manage social media bad actors, including politicians
In the aftermath of the deplatforming of Donald Trump, Mozilla offers concrete advice on how to best deal with bad actors — including heads of states and politicians — on social media platforms, beyond just suspending or permanently removing them.
Twitter permanently suspends @realDonaldTrump
Twitter announced it has permanently suspended Donald Trump’s Twitter account.
Terms of use: Applying a human rights framework to social media platforms
To better demarcate the lines between freedom of speech and censorship, the Electronic Frontier Foundation calls for social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram to apply a human rights framework to their terms of use.
Should government #DeleteFacebook?
It’s now time for public leaders to familiarize themselves with Facebook’s government terms and conditions and learn more about — and appreciate — data governance issues, starting with General Data Protection Regulation.
GitChat with GSA CIO Sonny Hashmi
We’re hosting our next GitChat with General Services Administration Chief Information Officer Sonny Hashmi.
Piqua sets the civic example for cities of all sizes
GovFresh 2013 Small City of the Year Piqua, Ohio, is a shining example of the old adage “small is beautiful.” With its multi-pronged approach to engaging citizens, Piqua is proof that it doesn’t take a big city budget to execute big civic ideas.
ArchiveSocial helps keep government social media on the record books
ArchiveSocial enables public sector organizations to embrace social media by minimizing risk and eliminating compliance barriers.
Visualize this: 32,000 DC Bikeshare Trips (VIDEO)
In the 32,000 trips included in the 5-day sample, rush hour surges, pulses of local traffic, cross-river commutes, and 3 am Sunday morning “Rides of Shame” can be seen throughout Washington, D.C.
2011 GovFresh Awards entries and voting now open
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.
Citizen 2.0 white paper highlights 17 examples of government social media innovation
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.
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?
USDOT in the social media slow lane
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.
Social Congress and the 21st century legislator
How is it possible, in the 21st century, that I can Skype with friends in China, keep up with my friends across the country via Facebook and exchange messages with the CEO of a startup I admire on Twitter, but yet when I try to communicate with my members of Congress, it seems like everything I do is swallowed up by the black abyss?
Can citizens get satisfaction?
Get Satisfaction CEO Wendy Lea shares her advice on how government can leverage Web 2.0 tools to better connect with citizens.
More signs of trend in changing dynamics of public access TV? Google launches YouTube for Government
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.
Missouri town uses YouTube to re-define public access television
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.
Best in SF government social media
The City of San Francisco over the last two years has aggressively embraced social media for marketing of government programs and initiatives, citizen engagement, and two-way communications. An important task for the next mayor is not only to preserve the vibrant ecosystem left by one of the U.S.’s most tech-savvy mayors, but to continue to advance government innovation in one of the world’s most tech-savvy cities.
Are the reasons for using Twitter different across party lines?
This post is meant to summarize a recent and well-publicized study of ours for those in the Gov 2.0 community who are interested in the key results, but do not have the time to read the paper.
It has been well documented that Republicans have a greater affinity to Twitter; despite the leading Twitter user being President Barack Obama, a Democrat. Our study asks: are the reasons for using Twitter different across party lines?
Social media, local gov and the National Association of Government Webmasters
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.”
Why Twitter’s government outreach is a big win for the Gov 2.0 movement
For at least that past two years, a tiny yet fast-growing group of folks who call themselves “Gov 2.0 advocates” has worked tirelessly to spread a message that emerging technologies, low-cost communications and digital culture can reshape government to be more collaborative, transparent, efficient and connected to its citizens.
Gov 2.0 Radio: Engaging app developers with government data
A discussion with Mark Headd, an app developer and former govie, about civic apps. Headd explains Open311 and accessing government services and lowering costs using Twitter, and gives ideas on how to engage developers around government civic apps contests.
Guide to using Twitter
Gadi Ben-Yehuda, Social Media Director for the Center for the Business of Government, shares his insights into how government can better leverage Twitter.
Tweeters Twitter should consider for its new government gig
The Beltway is buzzing about Twitter’s new Government Liaison gig, and the excitement is shaking DC like a California earthquake. The aftershock has produced a smart post by Andrew Wilson (Top 10 Requests for the New Government Liaison at Twitter) that offers great ideas for Twitter as they comb through a stack of resumes bigger than a GPO print job.
Can Twitter reimagine democracy?
Twitter’s plan to hire a government liaison (its first DC employee) has set off a a tweetstorm from the U.S. Capitol to London to Tokyo, and likely a flood of resumes into the Web 2.0 firm’s SoMa offices. Some of the Gov 2.0 community’s brightest have already offered great suggestions for how this new Twitter position can serve official government social media, and, with Facebook’s recent stumbles, the lighter social network may have a real opening here.I look forward to commenting and continuing the discussion on Twitter and on friend’s blogs (check out the hashtag #twitgov), but here I wanted to offer a few thoughts on the political side of the equation.
Leveraging Social Media for Change
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.
Are you being social in real life?
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?’
Why has government gone from zero to Web 2.0 in 60 seconds?
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?
A sound, simple government Twitter follow policy
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.
There’s a LocalGovChat for that
LocalGovChat (@localgovchat) is a weekly Twitter chat to help local government communicators connect and learn from one another. Chats are held Wednesdays from 9-10 p.m. EST.
Facebook Public Policy Director talks privacy, free speech, Beltway presence
Facebook Public Policy Director Tim Sparapani discusses privacy and free speech issues affecting his company and opening a Washington DC public policy office on C-SPAN’s Communicators.
Army Bloggers Roundtable with NCO Net
Great Army Bloggers Roundtable segment discussing the social dynamics of NCO Net, a professional community of non-commissioned officers.
Gov 2.0 in 2009 video review from Salt Lake Valley Health Department
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.
Gates, Mullen discuss social media and the military
Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mullen discuss the impact of social media on democratic freedom and how military can leverage it.
CDC’s social media efforts featured in Advertising Age video
Advertising Age video highlights CDC’s social media efforts with Twitter, e-Health cards and dealing with related culture and leadership issues.
Video: Salt Lake Valley Health Department shares H1N1 social media efforts
Great video of how the Salt Lake Valley Health Department uses social media tools like Twitter and Facebook to communicate H1N1 information to citizens and media.
50 must-follow #Health20 heroes on Twitter
Healthcare workers and advocates are bridging social media, technology tools and healthcare to work towards meaningful healthcare reform and the development of an Electronic Health Record and National Health Information Exchange. This list is by no means comprehensive so please add more. I would like to eventually categorize into groups, but you can get an idea by search under hashtags #healthcare, #hcsm, #hcmktg and #hcreform (please share other hashtags being used).
40 #Health20 heroes to follow on Twitter.
25 must-follow #gov20 heroes on Twitter
Public servants and engaged citizens are bridging social media and government to build a more open and transparent democracy. Here are 25 #gov20 heroes to follow on Twitter.