Citizen engagement is one of the most popular topics today in municipal government. There’s not a city out there that isn’t trying to figure out a way to get their citizens more involved and it’s understandable why. A new study came out that showed cities and states that have higher levels of citizen engagement, actuallyRead… Read more »
Regionalization or municipal collaboration continues to be a big topic in local government. It can be an especially useful pursuit in “home rule” states like Massachusetts with generally weak or no regional governments, and reliance on each city and town to provide residents with all local governmental services. As we know, local government budgets haveRead… Read more »
Local authorities in the UK spend up to £67.85m every year publishing public notices in local newspapers.The individual cost of publishing a notice can reach over £20 per column cm in some publications, upwards of three times the cost for other adverts. This is resulting in a weighty burden on councils. Local authorities are cryingRead… Read more »
In Los Angeles city officials want to spend $10 million dollars to do a three year survey of sidewalks to determine which need repair. Citizen Peter Griswold wants to save that money by creating Volunteers for Sidewalk Brigades to complete the sidewalk survey. As reported in a Los Angeles Timesarticle Griswold sates “There are soRead… Read more »
A recent news story in The Economist discussed outsourcing and privatizing of government communications, and used Sandy Springs, GA as an example of a government entity that had outsourced many functions. Suzanne Horsley, an assistant professor in the University of Alabama’s Department of Advertising and Public Relations, was intrigued by the article, and now she’sRead… Read more »
A recent article on Emergency Management Magazine’s website stated, “Surveys consistently indicate that less than 10 percent of the public is considered prepared for a disaster and that percentage is usually closer to 6 percent.” The article deems current strategies to prepare the public for emergencies as inadequate, stating that the threat-based message is deliveredRead… Read more »
I was reading NYC’s Digital Roadmap updateand I really liked the page (pg.20) they did on digital engagement. As communicators, I think a huge measure of our success is our reach (not just whether we did something or exist in X channel). The City of NY reaches 5,483,640 individuals digitally each month broken done as:Read… Read more »
Last week, on the first day of the new school year in Detroit, the CfA Detroit team launched a new service with the Detroit Department of Transportation (DDOT) called TextMyBus. TextMyBus provides a simple text messaging service to relay real time transit information to riders. In an environment where Detroiters are faced with cold winters,Read… Read more »
It’s election season and like many American’s I am tired of all the nasty campaign ads splattered across my TV. Both Democrats and Republicans are guilty of slinging mud and focusing on non-issues. It gets so bad sometimes that its hard to focus on the real issues. But then you meet someone — someone likeRead… Read more »
Fleep recently summarized the promise she saw in the Second Life community, the change that transpired there over the last few years, and her decision to focus her involvement in a different virtual community or platform. (You can read her article here: Why Anyone Who Cares. . ..) And based on the comments she receivedRead… Read more »