Tech

How is your government “building local community” online? Invite to Locals Online

In many cities, neighborhood councils have been established through a mix of citizen-up voluntary and government-led activities. Often established as non-profits, the resulting entities experiment with a mix of models and activities. My sense is that below the radar, often unregulated by open meeting laws or broadcast communication models, many are experimenting with social mediaRead… Read more »

Wyner & van Engers on Online Discussion Forums for eGovernment Policy Making

Dr. Adam Wyner of the University of Leeds Centre for Digital Citizenship and Professor Dr. Tom van Engers of the University of Amsterdam’s Leibniz Center for Law have posted A Framework for Enriched, Controlled, On-line Discussion Forums for eGovernment Policy Making (2010), a paper submitted for EGOV 2010. The paper arises from the EU projectRead… Read more »

Measures of Success for Social Media?

I was involved in an interesting discussion today about how the government should measure the success of social media. Just how do you measure it? Certainly, there are tried and true statistics (page hits, numbers of fans, followers, minions, etc) but that doesn’t really measure success. Is it even viable impact data? I never visitRead… Read more »

RecoveringFed writes on The Power of Pull

This is a repost from my blog recoveringfed.com About halfway through their new book The Power of Pull, John Hagel III, John Seely Brown, and Lang Davison write about how individuals can use emerging social networking capabilities to harness personally the power of pull–pull being their term for the capability of institutions and individuals toRead… Read more »

States That Never Were (from “The Thicket” Blog)

Originally published by Karl Kurtz on The Thicket blog from the National Conference of State Legislatures Part 1 (April 12)Some people have fanciful notions about renaming the states to suit their own desires. Others report the interesting history of past efforts to create new American states. Virginia Senate Clerk Susan Schaar responded to my previousRead… Read more »

Two New Free Access to Law Sites: Nomus & Connect 2 Congress

Two new free access to law services have made the news in recent weeks: Nomus, created by McGill University law student and software engineer Kent Mewhort, provides free access to the full text of Canadian federal cases as well as cases from courts of seven Canadian provinces. Click here for coverage information (HT @EJWalters); ConnectRead… Read more »

Weekly newsletter on leading-edge knowledge that will help us create a more open government

Research Reports 1. OpenGovernment Reports from the UK and Australia (12//2009): See how Australia and the U.K. have developed plans similar to the U.S. Australia encourages “info-philanthropy” (such as a tax deduction for sharing data) and having employees engage online and experiment with new ideas. The U.K. is opening up data, integrating cross-jurisdictional information, emphasizingRead… Read more »

Social Media Has Changed Our Lives Forever – What About You?

Social Media has changed our personal and professional lives forever. Some people use it purely recreationally, while some are unable to break away from it on their mobile device. Businesses are starting to see the “double-edged” sword of social media. While some users are able to utilize the media as tools, others abuse it forRead… Read more »