Tag Archives: examples

ICMA Local Govts Share Photos on Flickr

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The International City/County Management Association (ICMA) has had a Flickr account (a photo sharing social network) since 2008.  Today ICMA has announced that they are looking to share your photos of government in action:

In partnership with 3CMA, ICMA is seeking to capture the essence of local government through photos! Join 3CMA and ICMA on Flickr by submitting original photos of “local government action.” These photos will be used to enhance marketing materials for 3CMA, ICMA, and participating jurisdictions, as well as give the general public another way to see what’s going on in our local governments.

This is a pretty neat idea, to crowdsource (or city source, if you will) finding good photos for marking materials.

You can submit photos through their online form.

Budgeting for the Opening of Data

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Governing had an article recently about better aligning budget with IT innovations.  I thought one portion was especially insightful about the need for data initiatives:

Budget for cross-program initiatives, especially sharing data with communities of interest and the public. Standardized data can allow agencies and the public to report once for many purposes, rather than suffering under requirements for multiple and repeated “single purpose” reports. For example, corporate financial reporting in the Netherlands is now considerably more efficient and effective because firms make available real-time data feeds to replace a series of required reports. Closer to home, the D.C. data feeds and federal Data.gov initiatives are releasing government data to encourage transparency and feedback for better productivity and civic trust. To find these cross-boundary opportunities, the budget process must search for them.

Power of Social Media in a Crisis

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FP Wellman, a former Army public affairs officer, has an older post about the power of social media and new technology in a crisis.  He explains how social tools can be very helpful to existing crisis response plans, specifically talking about a shooting and a blizzard:

Mr. Don Carr, Director of Public Affairs, tells me that “most of what we did is part of the PA (public affairs) annex to the installation’s adverse weather response plan. The SM sites are not specifically part of the annex; we just did it. Our update to the annex will roll ‘em in.”

Mr. Carr goes on to note what made the social media outlets especially powerful “was the ‘instant’ feedback we got on FB and Twitter. As residents or employees would post a comment about how things were, I was able to cut-n-paste them into emails to the IOC (Installation Operations Center), DPW (Department of Public Works) or the Housing folks, so that priorities for plows and other work could be adjusted accordingly.”

I think if you are a PIO or anyway involved in crisis response, this is a very valuable article.

Making Staff Just a Click Away

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The Alliance for Innovation writes about how the City of Surprise, Arizona, created a new page to make contact city staff and leaders easier:

“Surprise is city of connection and opportunity, and our new streamlined directory makes it easy for our residents to connect with the right person in city government,” says Interim City Manager Mark Coronado. “We continue to drive Mayor and Council’s goal of constantly improving our open and transparent relationship with residents.”

The new City Directory, which includes staff contact information and numbers to local utilities, is among many new improvements to the web site, all designed to improve connections to government information. Other recent additions include a Google site search and the “It’s Your Money” city finance site. The city’s commitment to openness was recently recognized by Sunshine Review with a perfect score for the openness and transparency of surprise.gov.

Check out their Connect/Contact page here.

Building a Social Media Guide

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Orange County, California, details how it created a social media guide.  And the best part?

During several panels and workshops, I’ve shared our draft social media guide and asked for feedback from social media users. I also posted the guide on my blog. After all, isn’t that what public engagement is all about? You can download the guidelines here.

Pawlenty Holds Facebook Town Hall

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This afternoon we have another link from OhMyGov!  Last week Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty held an online town hall meeting on Facebook.  And some stats:

Gov. Pawlenty saw his Facebook fan numbers surge to over 35,000 from around 31,000 in the days before the event, a campaign spokesman told OhMyGov.

During the 2 days last week when Pawlenty was promoting the town hall, he received 1,039 “likes” on posts related to the event and 527 comments, for a total of 1,566 citizen “touches.” Not all were unique, to be sure, but it’s a nice base of activity that, remember, gets broadcast to all of his fans’ friends too. The town hall had over 1,000 confirmed guests.

Over 1,000 confirmed guests is pretty incredible.  And what about the town hall itself?

The range of questions posted on his Facebook page ran the gamut from sensible to downright strange. One participant offered this suggestion and question on how to solve Minnesota’s budget problems: “Two large oil fields have been discovered in North Dakota and Montana – how can Minnesota profit from oil in North Dakota?” We assume that T-Paw, as he likes to be called, took a pass on that one.

Overall, the post-town hall meeting comments on the Governor’s Facebook page were overwhelmingly positive. From Roberta Folino: “very good town hall meeting and I actually had my question answered,” and from Patty Rosehill: “good beginning – looking forward to more of these town hall meetings.” Of course, keeping a positive spin on developments is made easier on Facebook since only “fans” can comment on your page.

What an accomplishment.  Governor Pawlenty said about his first online town hall, “I think we should (have) more Facebook town halls in the future. Thanks to all who participated and we’ll do the best we can to get more questions in during future events.”

Study on the Impact of Government 2.0

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SmartPlanet reports on a study by Grant Thornton and FreeBalance on the impact of government 2.0.  The conclusions?

Government 2.0 — enabled through social networking tools — provides benefits such as reduced cost of engagement through more productive tools and processes, simplified knowledge creation and retention though usable applications, easier knowledge sharing, and enhanced information discovery through transparency and data mashups. It all sounds like good mom-and-apple-pie stuff, but is it actually being put to use?

The Grant Thornton report says yes.

And on better using social media and government 2.0?

To help government better take advantage of social networking technologies, Grant Thornton suggests that government organizations better incorporate “design thinking” (Government 2.0 mindset) as a supplement to “management thinking” (Government 1.0 mindset).

“Design thinking” uses a collaborative and iterative style of working that builds up ideas – the best ideas surfacing from a pool of many.” The consultancy also recommends that government managers embrace “viral” change, versus the more static, top-down command-and-control decrees. “Change Management in the Web 2.0 era is more peer-to-peer, viral – change is pulled by participating constituents, employees, customers.”

These are conclusions that many of us have already realized, but I think the study is a good reassurance of where government 2.0 is going.

Giving the White House Feedback Thru Twitter

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ExpertLabs and the American Association for the Advancement of Science have teamed up to help the White House identify major goals:

The White House wants to identify Grand Challenges in science and technology that will help inspire a new era of innovation. And they’re asking for your ideas, right on Twitter. These challenges will inspire innovations that create jobs, improve education, power clean energy, transform health care, and more.

Here’s how to help:

  1. Think big! Imagine an ambitious science or technology challenge (something huge like the moon landing!) which you think can inspire great new ideas and inventions.
  2. Reply to the @whitehouse tweet with your idea, or a link to ideas you find interesting. Use the hashtag #whgc.
  3. Encourage your friends and followers to respond, too!

This is a pretty neat way to use the social networking site Twitter to help the country. And you organization could do something similar by polling Facebook friends or Twitter users in your community.

And just so you know this is real, here’s the tweet from @whitehouse:

What Grand Challenge should be on our Nation’s to-do list? Reply w/your idea now! http://bit.ly/dy9fkL #whgc

Government Nominations for Webby Awards

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The Webby Awards are awards for internet excellence, and are given out by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences.  There is a special category in the Webbys for government websites, and you should take a look.  Nominated are the websites for the Air Force, Census 2010, NASA Home & City Version 2.0, NASA, and San Ramon Valley Fire.

Head over to the Webby Awards site, and you can vote for the People’s Voice Winners in each category (but make sure you vote in the Government category).

Any thoughts on the best site?  Let us know in the comments.

Social Media for Government Communications

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Software provider Adobe’s Government Bits Blog has a great post on using social media for government communications:

One lesson from social media is the immediacy and richness of information that can be shared through digital channels. Blogs, online video sharing platforms and Twitter have demonstrated the power and desire by the public to share information quickly and easily.

An example of injecting social media lessons into achieving core agency missions is the French Government, who in partnership with students of EPITA (France Graduate School of Computer Science and Advanced Technologies) created a cross-platform widget, DirectGouv, to increase transparency and communication to the press community and thus, to citizens-at-large.

Build That Fiber Yourselves

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In the next couple of weeks, Google will announce the winners of the Google Fiber for Communities applications (we covered the initiative previously).  Wired has a good article on what communities that don’t get into the fiber project should do: contact a fiber provider, go out for bonds, and build it yourselves:

Wilson, North Carolina, runs a city-owned network called Greenlight that offers an unbundled 20 Mbps up and 20 Mbps down connection for $60 a month. Cable subscribers can get 10 Mbps up and down for $35 — and those who need even faster connections can go all the way up to 100 Mbps.

But there are lots of ways for cities to start a network without committing to building everything at once — which often requires a bond measure.

Settles points to Santa Monica, California, which started with a fiber-optic line serving the government, then expanded it slowly as the city worked on projects like street renovation and sewer-main installations. In March, it launched the Santa Monica City Net, a 10-Gpbs open-access network that Santa Monica businesses can use — which includes Google and some top hospitals using it for tele-medicine. That network is 10 times faster than what the FCC calls for as a goal in 2020.

We all know that it isn’t as easy as deciding to put broadband in our communities, but this has to be a better option than changing the name of your city (Topeka, aka Google, Kansas) or jumping into a shark tank.

Bringing Attention to Open Government

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govfresh has another good article, this time by Luke Fretwell.  He lists 10 ways we can bring more attention to our open government and government 2.0 initiatives, including blogging, leveraging social video sites, guestposting on major news sites (like Mayor Newsom on TechCrunch), and simplifying our message.

A very good read.