Communications

Let’s Praise AT&T, CenturyLink, Comcast, Cox, Sprint, TWC, T-Mobile and Verizon for this

For all our complaints about our ISPs and their service we should all reflect on some of the great things these firms do. Individually they seek to innovate and win our business and loyalty. And collectively they can come together to do great things too. One great, positive thing just happened because of collegial actionRead… Read more »

Don’t dumb me down! (guest post)

With the permission of Geoff Mason (@grmsn), I’ve republished his blog post Don’t dumb me down! from 21 March this year below. I thought this was a very good post on a topic that, as increasing amounts of information and discussion only appear online, is increasingly affecting how effective public servants can be and theRead… Read more »

Google responds, claims new privacy policy will not effect sensitive data

Last week, CivSource reported on several concerns over Google’s new privacy policy raised by government IT consultants Jeff Gould and Doug Miller. In the article, both men raised several concerns about Google’s new privacy policy and what it might mean for government customers. Google has responded, in an attempt to address those concerns. On MarchRead… Read more »

EPA’s Public Participation Guide

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA) is proud to launch the “Public Participation Guide“, an international public participation toolkit. It is a resource for agencies and organizations to help develop, plan for, and implement programs that engage the public in environmental decision-making. U.S.EPA has worked on developing this guide since 2009, initially for useRead… Read more »

GovBytes: NY emergency call center: Consolidated and over-budget

Consolidation of services and streamlined systems are a good thing, and usually cut costs. But what if the project costs billions? New York City has consolidated its emergency call-taking system, a project that began in 2004, and was implemented this month, 7 years behind schedule. It was also $1 billion over-budget. Contract managers for theRead… Read more »

Introducing Kind of Digital’s digital engagement training library

Quite excited about this! Affordable, scalable digital engagement training for your whole organisation. Get access to over one hundred instructional videos on how to use digital tools to engage with citizens and communities. From getting started with Twitter and Facebook to publishing open data and developing a social media strategy. We offer the best valueRead… Read more »

7 Antidotes To Public Apathy

Dave Meslin is an interesting activist from Toronto Canada who describes himself as a “professional rable-rouser”. I love the title as we truly need more folks like Dave questioning how government operates. A common thought given the few number of people that attend public meetings or even bother to vote is that members of theRead… Read more »

Newspapers suck at social. Why are you different?

Http://leonardSipes.Com I recently wrote Newspapers and the internet; the lessons we share. The first and second articles were based on The Story So Far, What We Know About the Business of Digital Journalism from the Columbia Journalism School which may be (and probably is) the most insightful social media document of all time. This isRead… Read more »

How Event Polling Best Reaches Target Constituencies

Government, by necessity and obligation, must understand the competing interests and ideologies of the variety of identity groups that it serves. Put another way, those who are in charge must always have an ear to the ground if they want to remain in charge. That being said, there is no silver bullet in terms ofRead… Read more »