FoxNews’ White House Correspondents write a blog about covering the White House. They recently published a post titled, “Getting Closer: A New Era of Access.” The post discusses the amount of citizen access in the recent healthcare debate and specifically mentions the White House Press Secretary’s usage of Twitter.
Robert Gibbs, the White House Press Secretary, is @PressSec on Twitter.
The Marine Corps has decided to embrace social networks and is now allowing units and individuals to use social media (and access the sites, which were previously blocked on Marine networks). Wired describes this decision as an about face because the Marines had banned Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, and other sites last August.
This is probably the most interesting passage from the Wired article, a quote from a Major who worked in the Haiti relief operations:
The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are fought on classified information systems. While an operational necessity for these conflicts, most disaster relief partners, to include a majority of the US Embassy staff, can neither see nor access classified material. During the initial days of the relief operation, the ability to pass timely and accurate information was arguably as important as the availability of food and water. In the initial weeks of Operation UNIFIED RESPONSE, Blackberry text messages became the primary means of communication, chiefly because they were the simplest and most reliable means of corresponding with the host of US Government agencies, United Nations offices, and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) coordinating the relief efforts.
Tech President looks at Newark Mayor Cory Booker’s use of social networking tools. We posted a recent tweet from Booker two weeks ago, a call from help for a citizen and the Mayor’s response. Good parts:
Mayor Booker’s success comes from using social media as a means for “two-way discussion” as opposed to just another way to get out a message.
And:
While Mayor Booker does use social media as a way to facilitate and engage in conversation, it is clear that it’s not the only part of the Booker team’s communication strategy. Sending press releases almost daily, Mayor Booker’s communications team has not given up traditional forms of media in favor of newer forms.
Twitter recently posted a case study of the U.S. Geological Survey’s use of Twitter for earthquake detection (which we recently covered here). The brief description:
One of the U.S. Geological Survey’s unique responsibilities is the monitoring and reporting of earthquakes, which affect the daily lives of people around the world. By mining real-time tweets, the USGS expands its suite of seismically derived information and obtains first-hand accounts of shaking seconds after an earthquake occurs.
Newark Mayor Cory Booker tweeted this earlier today:
I’m on it: Thanks RT @pb83 Mayor there’s a MONSTER pothole at Munn & 18th Ave. Sumbody’s gonna lose a piece of there car.
The original tweet from the Newark resident was:
@CoryBooker not sure who 2 address this 2, but there’s a MONSTER pothole at Munn & 18th Ave. Sumbody’s gonna lose a piece of there car.
That’s service for you.
Sophos released an advisory on security risks with social networking this past week. ReadWriteWeb has a great article on the subject, and has this recommendation:
The real solution to the social networking security problem is to embrace sites instead of blocking them. Rather than being overly restrictive, companies would do better to make social networking policies a part of their corporate policy and procedure manuals, spelling out what is and is not acceptable within their organization. Left up to users, it’s clear that for some, it’s anything goes…and that’s a danger most companies cannot afford.
Wired on using Twitter to get the attention of transit officials (and SF Mayor Gavin Newsome).
The State of North Carolina has issued a new policy on government social media policy, focusing on:
Another of the Governing magazine articles on social media in government: The Web 2.0 Paper Trail Problem. At issue in this article is complying with open records requests in social network communications.
Many people use open records compliance issues as a reason not to utilize social networks and social media. If you make the Facebook page for your city and your Twitter account public, where is the issue? A citizen can see everything that has occurred. It is, by definition, open. I think this is a moot issue.
Another of the Governing magazine articles on social media in government: Twitter and Earthquake Detection. This one is a short article about a U.S. Geological Survey system (the Twitter Earthquake Detector) that pulls tweets and other user-made updates (and photos) that specifically relate to earthquakes. The purpose of the project is to allow quicker detection and notification of earthquakes.
Another of the Governing magazine articles on social media in government: Tweeting for the Public Good, about the State of Utah’s authorization of employees’ use of social media. I enjoyed the entire article, but especially liked this point:
In too many instances, the first inclination of public-agency managers still is to restrict access to popular social-networking sites such as Facebook and YouTube for rank-and-file employees.
That is ironic when you consider some of the terrific uses that state and local governments have found for these tools.
The article mentions the Utah state web portal, which is here. They also have a list of state government Twitterers and blogs.
Governing magazine released a good set of article on social media in government yesterday. I’ll be posting links to all of them, but here is the first. Is Social Media a Friend or Foe of Government? This article had a good quote as well:
Nobody has control over what their Facebook friends do — that’s the fun and the flaw of Web 2.0 for governments. Then again, when citizens go to the microphone at a council meeting, nobody has control over them, either.
How the City of Santa Clarita Uses Social Media. And on the future of social media use in Santa Clarita:
In early 2010, the City will expand the business utility of social networking for our residents by adding a Twitter component to our CRM application, referred to in Santa Clarita as “eService.”
“Social Networking Use Increases, But Has Yet to Transform Government,” from Government Technology. Very interesting article on how social networking is currently being used and where it is going to go.