Communications

Reshaping public services online by getting the basics right

Frustration There is nothing more frustrating than being in government right now if you are looking for change or motivation in your work. With almost no funding available, fewer colleagues to carry the burden, feeling of loss and uncertainty, we are facing an all time low. Everyone knows that with fewer resources, it makes itRead… Read more »

Local Gov Website Redesign: Some questions for local gov webbers

Website Redesign Questionnaire Checklist Having been involved with Camden Council’s website redesign, I myself have had some lessons to be learnt like Kevin Brewer from Derby City Council. However, I’ve realized that after talking to several web development teams across local government here in the UK, we all operate or are structured very differently fromRead… Read more »

Putting German Municipalities on the Twitter Map

More and more German municipalities are using microblogging service Twitter.com – mainly as a complementary news outlet. A map provided by ifib (Institute for Information Management Bremen) displays more than 60 tweeting municipalities – Städte, Gemeinden & Kreise – in April 2011, highlighting total number of tweets and follower count. It looks like cities inRead… Read more »

Social Media Game Plan for Debts, Deficit and the Economy Conference

Dear friends, we know many of you can’t come to the conference or you’ve got ADD and will be fiddling with your phone/laptop. You can still join the conversation and do something with those twitchy fingers by amplifying our live tweeting. We will also be fielding questions from twitter to pose to the panelists inRead… Read more »

Open311, SeeClickFix, San Francisco and Estonia

The San Francisco City Attorney’s Office (where I work on civil law investigations and social media initiatives) this week launched a local campaign to tackle illegal dumping and graffiti, using SeeClickFix and a range of 311 services to encourage smartphone and Web reporting of neighborhood blight. The “Let’s Do It SF!” initiative also has aRead… Read more »

How Can Social Media Help Governments Serve the Booming Hispanic Population?

The Hispanic Population in America is on the rise. The overall growth in the U.S. States of Hispanics (or Latinos) was 15,171,776 from the 2000 to 2010 Census (U.S. Census Bureau, only U.S. States). But the growth isn’t just happening where you might think it is. Take a look at this map. It shows theRead… Read more »

Recruitment 411: Marketing is Alive and Well on Facebook

A co-worker recently sent me a Fortune magazine article, Facebook: Where marketing efforts go to die? Knowing Facebook is an essential element of our recruitment marketing, I was immediately curious. As I started reading, I realized the article was talking more about product marketing than marketing a brand like we do at the IRS. WithRead… Read more »

Enterprise CTOs: Learn Hadoop and Cloudera’s CDH3 on 21 April

I’ve had the pleasure of meeting Cloudera’s VP of Product Charles Zedlewski in person. Charles has a gift for understanding enterprise technology and conveying his understanding in clear, easy to remember ways. Charles will be providing a presentation on Cloudera’s Distribution of Hadoop (CDH3) on 21 April 2011 via a webinar you can attend (linkRead… Read more »