Research

Guide for Public Participation (07/2011) – The Welsh government’s ‘how to’ guide for public engagement practitioners leads officials from the beginning of the planning process through the evaluation of the activity. It also includes a template to help them plan and think through the engagement. http://www.participationcymru.org.uk/advice-support/practitioners-manual-for-public-engagement

Mobile Trends (07/2011) – A new report predicts U.S. smartphone penetration will surpass 50% in 2012 as mobile device sales now exceed traditional computer sales. The top five countries with the highest data usage are: Sweden, US, Hong Kong, Finland and Denmark. http://chetansharma.com/globalmobileupdate1H2011.htm

Most popular smartphone apps (07/07/2011) – Mobile games are the most popular apps amongst smartphone users, according to the latest report by Nielsen. The report shows that 64% of users who downloaded an app in the past month, downloaded a game. Other popular mobile app categories were weather, social networking, maps/navigation and search. http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/online_mobile/games-most-popular-mobile-app-category/

Best Practices

Engaging Citizens (06/26/2011) – How citizens want to engage with government was the focus of the Raleigh CityCamp, held in June. A major theme that emerged was for government toabandon email and engage citizens in real time through social media. http://opensource.com/government/11/6/citycamp-raleigh-creating-citizen-movement-open-government#citizenmovement

The new face of public services (06/29/2011) – The trend in emergency services is toward web and mobile phone services co-produced by citizens and government. They are faster, more responsive and scalable than those created just by government agencies, according to an Ovum article. It concludes government agencies must embrace co-production in designing public policies and services or risk being left behind. http://about.ovum.com/app/co-production-the-new-face-of-public-services/

Innovative Social Media Campaigns (06/2011) – From utilizing online video in an inventive way to creating a unique presence on Facebook, a Mashable article highlights six innovative social media campaigns. The challenge for government is to create equally engaging content for our audience(s), while keeping in mind the winning practices revealed by the big brands.

http://mashable.com/2011/06/07/innovative-social-media-campaigns/

Will cellphones replace keys? – Front pockets and purses are slowly being emptied of one of civilization’s most basic and enduring tools: the key, according to a New York Times article. New technology lets smartphones unlock hotel, office and house doors and open garages and even car doors. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/04/technology/04key.html?_r=1&src=tptw