The Manchester Police Tweetfest

Image via Wikipedia

Ingrid provides an excellent update about the 24 hour tweetfest by the Manchester (UK) police force.  This information needs to become standardized and therefore sharable in much the same way that weather data is today.  We are seeing 311 and transit data becoming more and more standardized at the local level, to the benefit of everyone as application developers are grabbing this information and building applications (paid and free). 

It’s been in the news (see this Guardian article). Manchester police have been tweeting all calls over a 24 hour period. It’s been an interesting and effective way to show the range of police calls – it’s not all break-ins and bust-ups. A lot of it is what’s been described as ‘social work’ – ‘confused man reporting his television isn’t working’, etc. My favourite was the tweet that described a call to deal with a man who was holding … Read More

via Policy and Performance

Citizen Engagement through IBM Jams

While the video dates back to July the concepts discussed in this video certainly still apply to all cities and towns across the world. I apologize for the IBM advertising aspects of this (I am not affiliated and make no money from it):

Gubernatorial Candidate Chafee promises open government reform

My friend Sid Burgess wrote this excellent guest post about gubernatorial Candidate Lincoln Chafee’s recent comments about open government.  Sid does work with the team at SeeClickFix, so please keep this in mind as you read his post.  Since I have a great deal of respect for the SeeClickFix team, and Sid, I do not mind highlighting them as part of this post (I receive nothing in the process, just FYI).   

Beyond what Sid shares below I also wanted to note that this is a very good sign for American politics.  It is one of the few times I have seen a political candidate speak about open government as part of their political platform.   Will other candidates pick this up and merge this message into their campaign?  Will this spark more meaningful citizen conversations and involvement?  Will this translate into measurable change leading to cost savings and other efficiency wins?  Only time will tell, of course, but at least the conversation is underway.

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Image from campaign website

Lincoln Chafee, independent candidate for Governor of Rhode Island, is all about the power of the community. In a recent press release outlining his plan for “open, accessible, accountable government,” Chafee made it clear that real change starts when citizens and their governments have connectivity and communication. He plans to bring Rhode Island in step with other forward-thinking administrations by improving the accessibility and usability of the state’s website, as well as initiating an open procurement process. Chafee also intends to utilize tools which enhance open government, such as GovLoop and . . . SeeClickFix!

“I want to include Rhode Islanders in the process of stewarding their neighborhoods by encouraging the use of SeeClickFix, a free mobile phone and web application that allows citizens to identify, report, and fix non-emergency issues in their neighborhoods,” stated Chafee on his campaign website. Wasting no time, the campaign has already organized a “SeeClickFix Storm” to take place this weekend across Rhode Island, during which supporters are asked to find and report issues in their neighborhoods with the goal of publicizing Chafee’s open-government initiative.

It’s not the first time we’ve seen groups of people get together, with friends or in support of a cause, to utilize SeeClickFix en masse. In some ways, it is the most fun and effective way of making a big difference with relatively little effort. Chafee’s campaign initiative will be off to an effective start with the help of SeeClickFix to bridge the communication gap between citizens and their local governments. “With this ‘SeeClickFix Storm,’ we can start using SeeClickFix statewide and getting community issues fixed,” Chafee says on the Facebook invite to the event. “And more broadly, Rhode Island citizens can participate in the work of government in a meaningful way.”

Vietnam seems to understand Government 2.0

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Government 2.0 is a citizen-centric philosophy and strategy that believes the best results are usually driven by partnerships between citizens and government, at all levels.  It is focused entirely on achieving goals through increased efficiency, better management, information transparency, and citizen engagement and most often leverages newer technologies to achieve the desired outcomes. Government 2.0 is bringing business approaches, business technologies, to government. (as defined by me )

Vietnam is launching a program next year, investing $90 million dollars which, beginning in 2015 they expect to create annual returns of up to $1.5 billion.  Dr Phung Van On, Director, IT Center, Office of the Government, states that “To make it work, the government has proposed a comprehensive plan to ensure there is the appropriate legal framework, the right financing, human resources and implementation strategy.”    A top down goal-oriented approach that recognizes the following is key:

• You must invest money in training, technology, and people if you are to drive real change.
• Laws must be clarified for all those working to drive change.  In some cases laws may need to be modified, through proper channels of course, to support growth.
• Technology will often be a key enabler.  In fact, the majority of the savings Vietnam expects to see will come from a shift to the web for everything from citizens paying taxes to government acquisitions.

While we must wait a few  years before we know if the ROI being predicted is achieved it is clear that the country is already benefiting from the government 2.0 philosophy.  The Vietnamese tech sector, as noted in the article,”.. grew by 20 per cent (to US$6.26 billion) in 2009 despite the global economic downturn, and the government is targeting three times GDP growth through to 2020.”

Are outcomes guaranteed?  No, nothing in life is for sure.  However, a strategic approach with intelligent investment will deliver results. 

John

Related Articles

• It’s time for a new version of government (tech.fortune.cnn.com)
• Steve Ressler: New Snapshot of Gov 2.0′s Evolution (huffingtonpost.com)
• Transcript of an interview about Government 2.0 (clubtroppo.com.au)
• The Five Branches Of Government 2.0 (rohitbhargava.com)

Getting greater value for social media in the public sector (via Policy and Performance)

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I had not followed Ingrid’s post before but came across this one where she discusses local government and the use of Social media (see the slideshare in her presentation) to achieve results. Check it out.

I was up in Warrington this week at NWEGG’s Social Media in the public sector conference. We heard from Liz Azyan who gave a sweeping overview of social media and also Lynne Shackley from the Information Commissioner’s Office who said cheery things like “custodial sentences” and “greater enforcement powers” but also raised some really important questions around public sector use of social media – e.g. what do we do about service requests via soci … Read More

via Policy and Performance

Catalysts for Change (via Athena’s Lightning – A blog by Lovisa A. Williams)

Lovisa provides us with a great deal of food for thought with her latest post. My favorite line, ”We need many voices, ideas, and solutions if we intend to succeed”. If we are to continue to drive positive change it will take the entire community, not a handful of voices. Lets all do our part and keep this train rolling.

 For the past couple weeks I’ve been thinking about a comment Justin Herman made to me regarding his new colleagues.  The rough paraphrase was, “They are great people who are extremely knowledgeable, but they don’t seem to be on the circuit.”  This got me thinking about how the majority of people who work for or with the Government are the kind of dedicated workers who come in every day, work hard, are passionate about what they do, and don’t get … Read More

via Athena’s Lightning – A blog by Lovisa A. Williams

Discussing ThinkUp with ExpertLabs

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I had the pleasure of chatting with Anil Dash and Gina Trapani of ExpertLabs about their current beta release of ThinkUp, Government 2.0, and more.

Related Articles

• ThinkUp: Social Media Insights Engine (emilychang.com)

It’s time for a new version of government (via Fortune Tech: Technology blogs, news and analysis from Fortune Magazine)

Very pleased that my first post on government 2.0 is now live on fortune.com. Check it out and let me know what you think.

 The government 2.0 movement is about change, real change, and how to use the power of tech to empower the public. Here’s how it will work, and who’s already behind it. By John Moore, contributor There is a movement underway, called Government 2.0, a movement is crucial to our future as a society and one that’s I’m a part of — an insider … Read More

via Fortune Tech: Technology blogs, news and analysis from Fortune Magazine

Hello from NAGW

I apologize in advance as I am writing this post on my Android, in a restaurant, ahead of the NAGW conference.  If you note typos, forgive me. 

The conference will focus on key issues for government webmasters and I know it will be extremely educational.  Topics will range from WordPress and Drupal development tips, social media usage, accessibility, mobile, and business case development.

Since there is always a limit on the number of places I can be at one time I will be focusing upon business case development, social media and mobile usage.  Stay tuned as there should be plenty to share soon.

-John

Is social media a good platform for political debate?

Image by Premshree Pillai via Flickr

 

With a great deal of fascination I watched, and lightly participated in, a Twitter-driven debate between many of the mayoral candidates in Calgary.  The event, called Twibate Tuesday, brought together most of the candidates into a virtual room (Twitter) where roughly every ten minutes a new question was asked by the moderator, Calgary Politics.  I love the concept as it provided potential for citizen interaction.  

Twitter is often compared to a cocktail party; loud, noisy, plenty of side conversations…. The debate was much the same.  Great questions were asked by the moderator, and by the participants, and by the crowd, but it was easy to get lost.  

So, how could this be made better?  Here are a few thoughts, let me know what you think:  

• Crowdsource the Twibate questions ahead of the debate.  Through platforms like Bubbleideas (yes, I do sell this solution) you can bring all interested parties together to generate the right questions.
  • Moderators can either pre-define questions or accept idea questions from citizens.
  • Citizens vote and comment on questions, enabling those running the debate to pick the questions people most care about.
• Use a Facebook page for the debate.  Keeping the debate between the debaters is critical.  Too often it was unclear which questions were being answered and unclear if every candidate answered each question. 
• Use Twitter as the debate back channel.  Citizens should be free to comment and interact with the moderator and candidates throughout the debate.  However, it is important that this interaction does not confuse citizens reading the responses.

When the debate is completed the entire Twitter stream should be posted to the Facebook page.  Citizens who missed the debate would be able to view both streams to get a complete view, one clean and crisp, one with all the noise of the cocktail party.

How would you approach a debate using new media options?  Would you use other approaches?

John