Last week, a friend told me about a presentation she’d just done for some local elected officials, on making government websites customer-friendly. She said the session had gone really well – they got it. But this is what caught my attention. She said some of these government officials had never thought about their websites inRead… Read more »
In a word…fear. That about sums up most local government leaders and their thoughts about the use of social media. As the government with the closest proximity to the public it serves, a lot of my peers worry about opening up another dialogue venue. Many aren’t familiar with social media sites and can’t envision whatRead… Read more »
In the true spirit of “wisdom of the crowds,” I’d like to ask GovLoop members one simple question: If you had to choose one reason why leadership must use, and embrace, social media, what would that one reason be? And why? (OK, two questions) I’m really curious about this. We [social media practitioners] often hearRead… Read more »
Making Mountains out of Capitol Hill A first time visitor to Capitol Hill will probably be surprised to find the legislative branch of United States government essentially run by twenty-something-year-olds fresh out of school. “I’m 33 and I am past my time,” Eric Johnson, former Chief of Staff to Robert Wexler (D-FL), told a groupRead… Read more »
Resources 1. Use Twitter in place of surveys and polls (05/26/2010) – Carnegie Mellon University finds text data generated from Twitter and other social networking sites can be used in place of formal surveys and polling to measure public opinion. http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~nasmith/papers/oconnor+balasubramanyan+routledge+smith.icwsm10.pdf 2. Democracy Pays (05/26/2010) –UK study shows citizen participation in decision making can produceRead… Read more »
[Note this is cross blogged from cpsrenewal.ca; the original and its over 25 comments can be found here.] Last week I happened upon a blog post from Geordie Adams via a tweet from Tim O’Reilly. In it Geordie explains what he thinks is the major issue facing social media enthusiasts in the public sector: “CulturalRead… Read more »
This post originally appeared on my external blog, “Social Media Strategery.” Thanks to Katie Mercado, I had the opportunity to give a presentation on time management and social media at today’s 33rd Annual PRSA Maryland Chesapeake Conference. I was actually a little surprised when Katie approached as I feel like there’s so much more thatRead… Read more »
On the 10th June I went with two of my colleagues to a meeting of the Scottish Council of Voluntary Organisations (SCVO). They are an umbrella organisation that tries to make their contributors work more coherently. In a manner of speaking the SCVO is the ‘Improvement Service’ of the voluntary sector so hearing presentations fromRead… Read more »
On June 15, 2010, the Northern Virginia Technology Council’s Social Media Committee hosted its first annual social media awards at K Street Lounge in Washington, D.C. The ceremony was part of #dcweek and recognized social media programs in six categories (see winners below). You may notice that half of the winners were government organizations: DepartmentRead… Read more »
DCWeek – 240 people to check out on Twitter Ideas for Seattle – Local Gov and UserVoice Paul Day’s Conversion-Driven Government: Social Media is Not You Job Open Government – a book review The Guardian: The Internet – Everything you ever need to know Internet.artizans: open data doesn’t empower communities Osrin.net: Understanding gov20 adoption, findingRead… Read more »