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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).
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.
“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.”
Image by DavePress via Flickr
Image via Wikipedia
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.
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.
Image via Wikipedia
While large organizations are clearly delivering value to the public and private sector it is important that we do not lose site of the importance of small organizations, local governments, and their ability to drive positive changes. According to census numbers and numbers published by SBA for the United States alone we know that:
With these numbers in mind I have launched a brand new community, Our Town Talk. This community will evolve as membership grows, meeting the needs of our members.
The mission for this community is straightforward and summed up as providing a place for citizens, small business owners, local government employees and politicians to come together and share their thoughts on what is good and what is not so good in their communities. Over time I would love to see this become a place where citizen 2.0 is standardized and becomes a reality.
While these goals are worthwhile we will need to be patient and seek to grow this community to the point where a critical mass is achieved. In the mean-time, note:
If you believe your town needs an easy to use platform stop by and give it a try.
John
I use Constant Contact for The Lab’s mailing list and really enjoy using the application. I wanted to share with you some of the things I like, and dislike, about the product.
What is Constant Contact?
Constant Contact is a SAAS-based email marketing management application. It manages contacts, images, emails, and the analytics around your campaigns.
What does it cost?
Constant Contact pricing is based upon the number of contacts you have stored in the system. Costs start at $15 per month for fewer than 500 contacts and rise from there. However, they offer a FREE 60 day trial which is enough time to dig in and determine if the application is right for your needs.
Creating emails
Constant Contact uses a straightforward wizard to construct your emails. The editor allows the non-technology savvy users to easily create good looking emails, inserting images, formatting text, inserting social media links. For those of you that are comfortable with HTML, however, you can easily load the email into the built-in editor and build a very robust mail message.
However, a downside of the editor is that it requires Internet Explorer or Firefox. Someone on the road with their IPad, as I am now, cannot use the email editor at all.
Managing Contacts
The contact management aspects of Constant Contact are basic but sufficient for your email marketing efforts. I really like, however, the ease with which you can customize the information you capture from people when they sign-up for your emails. A simple form enables you to define fields that you want captured and if they are required.
Social Integration
Constant Contact has done a nice job providing social media integration. Email and social media must be used as complimentary communication methods and this solution handles this need well. When emails are sent you are able to save your mail as a web page, automatically tweet links to the page, and share the page on various social sharing web sites. In my experience you can achieve impressive results by sharing these messages on mail and social channels, give it a try.
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:
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
As I write about The Social Ecosystem I regularly remind people that 80% of organizational challenges are common across industries, sectors, geographies. In other words, while this article is focused on government it applies equally well to small and medium businesses, enterprises, etc…
“Government 2.0 is a citizen-centric philosophy/strategy where results are often driven by partnerships between citizens and government. 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.”
Learn more about Government 2.0 by reading any of these great books (affiliate links):
Learn more about Government 2.0 by reading any of these great books (affiliate links):
