How Guthrie, OK, is bringing The Social Ecosystem to life

I recently had the pleasure of chatting with Matt Mueller, City Manager for the Town of Guthrie, Oklahoma.  Matt has been in the role for only six months but has brought major changes to the town in terms of his approach to government 2.0, or, more specifically, in terms of his approach to The Social Ecosystem.

Guthrie, OK, is not a large town.  The town’s population is around 10,000 and is on the older side, but a recent influx of young professionals is putting the town in a position where the mix of ages is becoming more and more balanced.  Generations Y -> Z are well represented.

Guthrie is not a town in love with new technologies and cool buzzwords.  They are a small town that believes in sharing information, helping the local citizens, and keeping their cost low.  In other words, your average town.

The town is using the CivicPlus Government Content Management System and appears to love it.  This CMS system provides a lot of flexibility and a lot of functionality, functionality they are not yet fully leveraging.  However, the web site is getting 19,000 hits a day, pretty good for a town web site.

A key push for the town is to make all public documents available on the web site.  This effort is resulting in lowering operational costs (as citizens can avoid coming in and making requests for information) and helping to build the trust level in the town.  I asked Matt if he considered a town-wide satisfaction survey and this is something that is in the budget for this year.  Organizations of all types must understand how their customers perceive their efforts and local governments are no different.

Guthrie has a local access television station where town meetings and other local information is made available.  They are working to post all the programming, in video format, and it clearly needed.  25 hours of video a month is being viewed.  This is an increase over 6 months ago and is opening up the information to a wider viewing audience.

You’ll note, so far I haven’t said much about Twitter and Facebook…  While they do have a presence in these channels it is not an area they have yet put much investment in.  Why?  This is not a major information stream for their citizens today, their is added costs to these channels, and there is more work to be accomplished in their core channels..  The civicPlus CMS tool allows them to easily publish content out to each of these channels but the planning for the best ways to publish this information to best serve the citizens will take time.  Frankly,  they are getting large payback from their web, video, and TV efforts and need to do more work there first.

Guthrie is getting it right.  They are leveraging the concepts of The Social Ecosystem to maximize their efforts, providing strong value  to their citizens.  Keep up the great work Matt!  You and your team are definitely on the right path.

John

The Social Ecosystem

Organizations of all types have struggled to come to grips with terms like Government 2.0, Social Business, Social Media, and a long list of others that are floating around book stores, universities, and blogs.

I have spent a lot of time speaking with businesses and government agencies, exploring what is working, what is failing, and seeking to understand where confusion and hype are preventing these organizations from achieving full value from their efforts.  The Social Ecosystem is the result of these efforts and is meant to reduce confusion and offer guidance for organizations across the world.

Lofty goals?  Perhaps, but the Social Ecosystem is not being defined in a vacuum, it will fully leverage many ideas that are already available and will evolve, as needed, as we continue to learn more.

For this post I will discuss, at a high level, the major components of the Social Ecosystem as well as some key definitions.  Over  time I plan to create a table of contents, a section for terms, and break this down into a book-like format. Please be patient as it will take time and we’ll all work through this together.

Key Components

• The Social Ecosystem.   The Social Ecosystem provides a structure within which all types of organizations live and interact.  This ecosystem is open and inclusive of both public and private organizations and remains independent of geography and language.
• The Social Organization.  Organizations ranging from small and medium businesses to enterprises to local and federal governments (and so on) are all social organizations.
  • I will begin by looking at the key behaviors and requirements from an Ecosystem perspective.
  • As we continue we will explore the internals of the Social Organization. I will add in concepts like Social CRM, Enterprise 2.0, and Government 2.0.  There will be no attempt to replace these concepts, instead, they will be included as they fit very well within this model.
  • In the long-term the Social Organization should be thought of as a standard, including various levels of compliance that address security, training, measurement, level of channel neutrality, and more.
• The Social Unit.  The smallest part of the Ecosystem includes teams and individuals.  We will discuss concepts like social currency, the social value cycle (compliments of Paul Doyle, CEO of Proofspace), leadership and organizational structures.

The Social Ecosystem is channel-neutral (thanks Steve Schildwachter) and does not promote any specific tools or vendors.  It will stay open and independent.

Key Definitions

These are a starting point and we will certainly add to these as we move forward.

• Social CRM.  My definition builds off of Paul Greenberg’s stake in the ground.
  • “Social CRM is a philosophy & a business strategy, supported by a technology platform, business rules, workflow, processes & social characteristics, designed to engage the customer in a collaborative conversation to give mutually beneficial value in a trusted & transparent business environment. It’s the company’s response to the customer’s joint ownership of the conversation”
• Enterprise 2.0.  For this work I will use Andrew McAfee’s definition from May of 2006.
  • “Enterprise 2.0 is the use of emergent social software platforms within companies, or between companies and their partners or customers.”
• Government 2.0. My chosen definition comes from the Australian Government 2.0 Google Group.
  • “Government 2.0 is not specifically about social networking or technology based approaches to anything. It represents a fundamental shift in the implementation of government – toward an open, collaborative, cooperative arrangement where there is (wherever possible) open consultation, open data, shared knowledge, mutual acknowledgment of expertise, mutual respect for shared values and an understanding of how to agree to disagree. Technology and social tools are an important part of this change but are essentially an enabler in this process.”
• Social Media.  The definition I will use is the one given by Brian Solis.
  • “Social Media is the democratization of information, transforming people from content readers into publishers. It is the shift from a broadcast mechanism, one-to-many, to a many-to-many model, rooted in conversations between authors, people, and peers.”

That’s all for today, let me know what you think.

John

A few more thoughts on EmpireAvenue

Duleepa ”Dups” Wijayawardhana, CEO at Empire Avenue, was driving through Boston today and we met for a cup of coffee to share thoughts on Empire Avenue, Social Collaboration, and the value of Starbucks coffee.

As you may recall, I wrote about Empire Avenue a short time ago and liked what I had heard, and seen, at that time. After chatting with Dups for another hour, I am more excited by the company than ever.  Here are a few reasons why you should be too.

The company has a long-range vision, a plan that looks out 3 – 5 years into the future.  This is not a company looking to exit in 18 months, this is a company that sees a place for itself in the future.  This is important for several reasons including:

• They are building a real company, from marketing to business development to engineering.  They are focused on sustainability, solid business practices, and growth.
• They are looking to build a scalable platform.  They are not throwing together a site that will last a short time, they are building for the future.

At about 3500 users the site is still tiny but I do expect this to pick up as they begin to execute on some of their near term business plans.

Dups, the entire EA team, myself, and many of the users of the site understand that EA is not just a game, but is a social network built around delivering value to individuals and organizations.  The ability to deliver value, in terms of revenue to all members of the system, from content providers to distributors, is a focus. The system is not there today but is heading in this direction.  I have already seen value through:

• Another channel for content delivery.
• Additional members joining my Facebook fan page, my LinkedIn group, subscribers to my blog.

This wins, while small, convince me that the platform hold potential. Think of EA as a new distribution platform for organizations and individuals.  This platform will further democratize information, enabling content producers of all sizes to earn value from their work….  Sounds kind of cool for a game….

John

Making Boston buses sexy while reducing your wait times

Now that is one sexy looking bus…. Yes, you agree?

I attended an event with the Massachusetts Department of Transportation, hosted at Microsoft’s New England Research and Development Center (NERD).  The focus of the meeting was a review of the developer programs that has now been underway for a year, visiting both where the program has been and where it is going.  One of the key goals is to increase bus usage, making buses sexy was the phrase used (mostly in jest to be honest).

The bus data for more than a third of all bus routes in Boston is now available for developers to build applications with.  Applications ranging from simple web applications to iPhone applications to LED lights have been created and are in use by many Boston residents.  In fact, when the first bus routes were released a year ago a simple application was available within the first 24 hours and a dozen applications have been created in the first year.

One of the coolest applications is from Lost In Boston coder Ben Resner.  Ben is using this data and presenting it in LED displays, here seen at JP Licks, to give bus commuters real-time information about where their buses are now.  In a sense, delivering on a desire to make your bus stop wherever you are now.  Think about it, you no longer have to wait in the cold or in the rain, you can run your errands or just grab some ice cream while you wait for that bus.  The best part, thanks to GPS hardware and some really cool software, you really do know when to expect the bus to arrive.  Less waiting, getting more done (or less if that is what you want), while waiting for that bus.

By the end of the summer all bus routes will be available and I am certain developers will continue to find interesting ways of tying this real-time information with interesting mash-ups adding even more value to our lives.

I know I am looking forward to see how this evolves and, equally important, how it is rolled out across cities, states, and hopefully other countries in the future.

John

4Food will be bringing an innovative approach to fast food

I am excited by what I have read about 4Food, posts like this from uncluttered white spaces, a soon-to-be new restaurant in New York City with the motto of “de-junking fast food”.  It is still 32 days away from opening but it is already generating buzz around its unique use of social media and crowdsourcing. This place will be fun to visit.

I reached out to the 4Food team to learn some more, read on.

Q.  You are exploring some very cool uses of social media, social business.  What prompted you to begin down this path?
A.   The idea was to incentivize our customers to market their own products in a way that was relevant to them so that they would develop equity in the brand. The money saved on marketing helps us provide better quality ingredients while keeping our prices reasonable [The basic W(hole) burger is $5].
 
Q.  Your use of crowdsourcing to generate the menu is a very creative idea, how did you come up with this?
A.  See the founder story animation.  Once I’d punched the center from the patty (to enable it to cook “quickly & evenly”) I had to find something to do with it with the hole. I had the idea to fill it with a vegetables scoop in Nobu (feasting). I discovered that scoops changed  the taste profile of a burger like toppings transform pizza, and that a burger could be further customized by choice of cheese, slice, bun and condiment. Given that there are more than 64 million ways to build a W(hole)burger, it seemed logical that customers might want to name their own. So we give each new build an SKU and incentivize customers to market their burgers inside and outside 4food by paying $0.25 each time one of their builds is purchased. Best selling burgers feature on the Buildboard chart.
 
Q.  What are the early results of this effort?
A.   People we don’t know and that have never sampled 4food have been clamoring to create and name their own burgers.   More than 80% of people who register complete a 4food profile, which is extraordinary.
 
Q.  Are there others that you are learning from, modeling your efforts with?
A.  We are primarily learning from our own mistakes because we’re not aware of any other restaurant that uses social network marketing or crowdsourcing in this way.
 
Q.  What is your thinking on the ROI of these efforts?
A.  Our intent is that ROI from our technologies will be expressed in:

• Low cost viral customer acquisition
• Repeat business
• Reduced customer churn
• Lower marketing costs

4food has also invested in nutrition tools and an in-store Community Kitchen Commissary, from which we expect a social return in empowerment and improved health.
 
Q.  What tools are you using as part of your efforts? 
A.  We leverage Facebook and Twitter, and have developed a suite of tools [“We Know You Better”]  that enable Users to create smart online profiles [“4food Nutritional DNA”] and receive smart recommendations, by profile, by day, by time of day. This tool set also groups Users by diet (by DNA), and facilitates automatic promotion of User builds to the most relevant groups.

Regarding social media tools, we’re mostly using Tweetdeck but also use standard applications such as Google Alerts, PostRank and FriendFeed, but mostly rely on custom software to generate analytics and prioritize blog posts and bloggers and their relevance to 4food.

Q.  Have you looked at doing anything interesting with Foursquare checkins, giving the Mayors Burger special placement or something else fun and cool?
A.  FourSquare – there will definitely be a deep integration. We understand the power of leveraging the platform and engaging with that community. We don’t have any specifics to share right now, but we’re looking at unique and interesting ways to integrate 4Food.   In addition, we display 4food-foursquare check-ins on our 210 sq ft media wall throughout the day.

Q.  What has surprised you the most about the use of crowdsourcing menu ideas?
A.  It is early days but the differentiation is startling.  Our system works that two people can build the same burger and marketing it competitively using different names/messaging, so we expected to see quite a lot of beef patty + brioche + chili + BBQ etc… but that has not happened (yet).  We also use crowdsourcing to generate real time product purchase information to guide the replacement and introduction of new scoops on New Scoop Tuesdays!

Q. What is the coolest burger idea you have seen so far?
A. We really don’t want to pick and choose as in this case cool is defined by the community – so the coolest build will be the one at the top of the Buildboard chart!

Q.  Will you deliver?
A.  Yes, starting 2-3 months after launch – once we are certain we have our in-store service optimized. Meanwhile we have developed a very cool social ordering platform that allows users to invite friend to join them for a “FEAST” at 4food or (after 2-3 months) to be delivered directly to their office or home.

The City Of Manor is guiding the way for other local governments

While the City of Manor is not large in terms of population it has demonstrated that it is large in terms of its ability to innovate rapidly.  Manor also has a great personality, as can been seen by this picture with a QR-Code key to the city to the left.  I love it when people and organizations are able to have fun and accomplish great things in the process.

Dustin Haisler, Assistant City Manager and CIO of Manor, Texas, was good enough to take some time to answer a few of my questions.   Thanks Dustin.

Q.  The City of Manor is generally considered a good early example of what government 2.0 can be, what motivated the town to broadly embrace these initiatives?
A.  The City of Manor’s motivation to embrace Gov 2.0 principles came out of signficant budgetary constraints that were beginning to impact our ability to serve our constituents.  Manor does not have a significant tax base, yet we do have 6,500 people we must provide service to on a daily basis.  As a city, we knew we could not afford to buy the industry solutions - and financing technology just did not make sense, so we went another direction and began to innovate.
 
Q.  How were the concepts of government 2.0 first introduced at the local government level and how were the ideas sold?
A.  Whenever you introduce new concepts you must be sure to break the down to a level that is easier to understand for individuals that are not tech-savvy.  Further, we demonstrated to Council how these technologies could be used as a way to build transparency and increase efficiency, thus adding significant value to our agency.  Also, since Manor had little to start with, it was much easier to quickly deploy and streamline such drastic technologies to fill the void. 

A few examples of how we broke down some of the technologies can be seen at:

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJP9skeobCU
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swgcNNv2cOA

Q.  How could these initiatives have been better positioned to local government officials to bring everyone on board faster?
A.  We always have room to learn, and one example we discovered is that you want to have everyone that a project would effect, on-board from the beginning.  Not only does this speed up adoption, but it allows the individuals that will be using the technology on a daily basis to make helpful recommendations prior to launching.

Q.  Citizens, like the customers of a business, benefit from marketing and PR.  What have you found successful in marketing the results to citizens in town?
A.  What we have found by marketing the results of our initiatives is that citizens become more engaged and excited about participating in future innovations.  When citizens see that we implemented an idea on Manor Labs, they see that we are not just taking ideas that could make our agency better – we are implementing them.

Q.  Online bill payments for utilities and court expenses are available.  What savings have been achieved by making on-line bill payments possible?
A.  The amazing thing is that 5 years ago we did not even own a server, and today people can pay their utility bills and court citations online.  The savings has been enormous, but cannot completely be attributed to online payments.  Currently over 50% of our population is registered to pay their utility bill online and we recently introduced recurring auto-draft as another payment option.  Online payments have also significantly reduced our utility department’s call volume adding to additional savings in staff time and resources.

Q. I am very impressed with SeeClickFix, the benefits of crowdsourcing are clear in terms of transparency, however, it is hard to judge the return on investment.  What costs, and what return on this cost, have you seen with leveraging SeeClickFix?
A.  SeeClickFix only costs us about $100.00 per month, yet provides our citizens with enormous value.  Citizens can report issues from our website, their home phone, the Internet or one of handful of dedicated phone applications.  SeeClickFix has become our primary work order system, streamlining the standard work order process and saving us significant time and money. 

Q.  What data sets, if any, have you opened up?  Are you leveraging open 311 “standards” or rolling your own “standard”?
A.  Manor has taken a slightly different approach to open data sets.  We don’t just want to publish hundreds of raw data sets and call ourselves “transparent.”  Raw data is important; but we also want to focus on making the information easy to understand and visualize for our citizens.  We are currently working on a portal that will launch within the next few months in addition to our raw data sets.

Q.  Look out 12 months.  What capabilities do you want to be offering that you are not offering yet?
A.  We hope that within 12 months we will be offering more assistance to agencies that need help getting their Gov 2.0 projects off the ground.  We have partnered with the OpenCourseware Consortium of Universities to establish and reward citizen/employee Gov 2.0 education.  As a part of this venture, Manor will publish 10 open and free courses by 2012 centered around governance and Gov 2.0.

Q.  Any great stories from citizens in the town demonstrating successes that would not have been possible without the social and collaborative strategies and technologies you are using now?
 A. Our use of SeeClickFix actually came out of an idea on Manor Labs.  A citizen asked if we could generate an RSS feed for city work orders, etc. and we began to research ways to make it happen, eventually leading us to SeeClickFix.  It’s been amazing to see what’s possible when you embrace Web 2.0 tools to engage citizens and let them participate in making their community a better place to live.

What is your approach to Social Business or Government 2.0?

Once again it is time for a survey and I am using SurveyMonkey so it is, unfortunately, not embedded in this post as nicely as I would like. The questions focus on your approach to Social Business Strategies (think social media done right) for your organization (business, federal agency, local government, etc..).  The survey should take 5 minutes, tops and I truly appreciate your time to answer these questions.

Click here to take survey

Results,  once completed, will be shared with all.

Crowdsourced tips from my Twitter community

Alright, you know I like Rob Cottingham’s Noise to Signal cartoons, they are awesome. I am once again lifting one of Rob’s cartoons (with permission of course) because it fits well with this post.

Twitter, like any other social media channel, has its upper echelon, its average users, its new users, and so on and so forth. So often people forget that they are engaging with real people and real organizations and simply make foolish choices.  We’ve all done it, to be honest, but we do not want to make a habit of it.  On the flip side, there are many, many, people and organizations doing great work which I try to constantly celebrate in my various case studies and interviews.

First, in honor of those that have lost their way, much as our well-followed friend in the cartoon, here are some of the things not to  do any longer:

• Stop referring to yourself as a visionary, ninja, guru, expert, or something similar. My friends @JoeManna, @TheMaria, @Eric_Andersen, @WendyWooWho, and @BillShander were discussing this recently and all agreed that this is a real turn-off.  If someone else refers to you in this way, fine, but please never write these phrases into your profile.
• @AntOf9 shared this:  ”10+ “listening to ___ song” tweets in a row (not same as I LOVE THIS SONG! tweets), w/ meaningless foursquare posts a close 2nd.”
• From @MikeSmithDev, “auto DMs. About as productive as having a conversation with an answering machine.”
• @JNJosh points out “The word “Crowdsource” ” .  Of course, he was also laughing at my attempt to crowd-source this blog post.
• @LoisMelbourne shared this pet-peeve, “people that stuff my twitter stream with multiple tweets all at once intentionally”.
• @Mattrdmn shares a much more practical issue as he notes “I have a hard time finding new people to follow. I find myself searching and searching but a lot of the things I’m interested in are tweeted by spam feeds.”
• Then @Story_Jon looks at two extremes when he notes “Broad: Self serving twitter strategies. Narrow: Automation, paid tweets, and not tweeting for yourself (ie Britney Spears)”
• @Quinno99 notes “How To Make Money on Twitter” spam, followed by news orgs tweeting celebrity gossip.” while @wilsonsway also notes “Spam and pushy sales #Twitter”
• My friend, @StephMcDonald, noted the one that disturbed me the most when she pointed out “People who randomly send you their blog w naked pics of themselves b/c you mentioned “cooking” in a tweet. Not kidding.”

In terms of positives, there is a huge list, as I have noted, of organizations and individuals doing it right.

• @wilsonsway noted “How to improve content, learning new things about Linux, for example. #twitter”
• @MattRdmn notes “I love the way news travels on twitter. How a story can break here and I only hear about it on the news the next day.”

Equally as important, never forget that many organizations are delivering real value through collaborative solutions and social media driven support, marketing, and sales.  Companies are reducing operational costs, increasing collaboration internally and externally, and often times breaking down the walls that should never have been erected in the first place.

John

The City of Edmonton pushes the envelope with Second Life

I had the opportunity to chat with Chris Moore, CIO for the city of Edmonton, Canada.  Chris and I have chatted before and it is always a pleasure.  Chris is entirely focused on delivering results and is unafraid to leverage new strategies and tools to meet these goals.  One of the new tools Chris is using is Second Life from Linden Labs.  While Second Life has been around since 2003, the City of Edmonton is just beginning to roll the tool out, as you can read about in this recent article.

As you can see in the picture to the left, Chris and I met in Second Life, a virtual world, to discuss why Edmonton chose Second Life, the goals they have in mind, the policies they will put in place.  Before I go into our conversation here are some statistics on the size of Second Life as it compares to other tools you may be familiar with.

• Second Life has a little more than 800,000 unique users logging in monthly.
• Twitter has more than 100 million registered users with more than 10 million being considered active users.
• Facebook has more than 400 million registered users, 50% of which login each day.
• YouTube generates more than 1 billion views each day.

Second Life requires a slightly higher level of technical ability, a challenge that remains a major obstacle for growth in my opinion.

Chris has been interested in this platform for a while, having become excited by its potential value after hearing Pam Broviak chatting with Adriel Hampton on Gov20 Radio about the platform.

What are the goals?

While initial goals focus on urban planning the reality is that Edmonton is also taking time to explore, to learn,what other possibilities exist within Second Life.  The following video shows a Second Life example of a construction project underway in Cairo, Egypt.  In this case, the construction was first completed in Second Life, giving users a rich platform with which they could get a feel for the result before building.  The construction is currently underway in real life.

This example is particularly relevant in Edmonton where there is a controversial project proposed to build a new arena.  It is possible that this will be modeled in Second Life, much like the Egyptian project, and, if it wins enough support, will then be built in real life.

Second Life may also be an ideal location for scenario planning. For example, what would happen if an earthquake were to occur in downtown Edmonton?  How would citizens be evacuated?

What else can be done?

Meetings and training sessions are a common use case for Second Life.  I would generally argue that there are superior platforms for meetings, but as Chris states, “Choice is the new standard”.  This platform provides you with additional options.  A couple of reasons that Second Life could make sense for your next meeting:

• It is free.
• You can host 50 people in most locations while a few locations can scale to 200 people.
• The feeling of being in person makes the discussion feel more personal.

This platform also provides benefits for training scenarios.  Chris shared with me the story about a training session he attended for doctors.  Doctors, from various geographic locations, “met” in a simulated operating room to train, to work through, various scenarios.

E-commerce is another use case worth paying attention to, although it is not a scenario Chris is paying much attention to in the short-term.   PlaySpan, a provider of payment and monetization solutions for online games and virtual worlds, estimates that virtual goods will generate $1.6 billion in the U.S. in 2010.  A possibility could include retail outlets, such as an Apple Store, where users could view products and buy on-line, using virtual currency (which is easily exchanged for real currency).

Policies, guidelines?

While construction in Second Life will be locked down to fit the vision for this environment, usage guidelines will grow somewhat more organically.  Expect employees to follow existing accepted use guidelines, behaviors that are specific to Second Life are still being observed, policies and guidelines will come as needed.

Are you using Second Life today? How is Second Life helping you reach your goals?  Drop me a note, or stop by my virtual house to say hi in Second Life (my name is Johnf Meriborne).

John

Is your organization supporting mobile access?

While mobile web browsing is far from the mainstream there is no denying that it has finally turned a corner.  According to data on NetMarketShare, mobile web viewing has increased from 0.69% of all traffic in May of 2009 to 1.7% in March of 2010.  While these numbers are small they represent an increase of nearly 250% in less than one year.

eMarketer estimates that mobile web browsing will be 40% of all web browsing by 2013.  While I have doubts, 20 – 25% is not without question.  Are you doing enough to prepare for this reality?

Since you’re already here, take a second and answer this poll.

I’ll share the results soon, thanks.

John

 

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