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Flashback: Government Teaches About Fireworks Safety Online

• Speaking of practical ways that the government can provide useful information to citizens online… there are various government webpages that help citizens become informed on being safe around fireworks. Here’s a sampling of them…

Baltimore empowers citizens to act as sensors with new mobile apps, open 311

The White House and E-Petitions:

• With ‘We The People,’ White House Promises to Go E-to-the-People
• White House offers “We the People” online petitions at WhiteHouse.gov

Public Technology Institute (PTI) seeks citizen-engaged communities

Also, I had a guest post over on the American Society for Public Administration’s (ASPA) blog: “How Local Governments Benefit from Social Media“

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Open Gov Links of the Week

311, apps, citizen enagagement, citizen participation, collaboration, engagement, firework safety, gov 2.0, holidays, improving efficiency, local government, mobile, online petitions, open 311, social media

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“As Citizens Look for Hurricane Information Online, Governments Scramble to Deliver”

“3 Earthquake Takeaways for Government & Social Media”

• So what can government communications learn from the east-coast earthquake that happened on Tuesday?
• Here’s three things:
  • be where they are, be official, be fast.

“New reports on citizen participation and rulemaking offer open government guidance”

• “AmericaSpeaks released a new report, ‘Assessing Public Participation in an Open Government Era: A Review of Federal Agency Plans.’ This represents the most comprehensive review of the public participation aspects of the federal open government initiative to date.” (link in original)

“Court rules White House visitor logs subject to FOIA”

• A bunch of info in the story by The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press.

“comScore Releases July 2011 U.S. Online Video Rankings”

• “comScore released data from the comScore Video Metrix service showing that 180 million U.S. Internet users watched online video content in July for an average of 18.5 hours per viewer. The total U.S. Internet audience engaged in a record 6.9 billion viewing sessions.” (emphasis added)

Which way did the August 2011 Municipal Cost Index go? Find out here!

“Working Together Towards Transparency in Local Government”

• The author “shares with us his organization’s venture at creating metrics for government websites that officials and citizens can agree on.”

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Open Gov Links of the Week

accessibility, citizen participation, collaboration, communication, engagement, FOIA, gov 2.0, government transparency, local government, online video stats, open government, public comment, public information, social media, stats, transparency, video stats

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• “Opening government, the Chicago way”

  • “Interviews with Chicago journalists and open government advocates, along with Tolva and Goldstein themselves, led me to a clear conclusion: there’s something new going on in the Windy City that’s worth sharing with the rest of the country and world.” (O’Reilly radar)
    

• “Department of Veterans Affairs releases progressive, structured social media policy”

(gov20.govfresh.com)

• “Chief Innovation Officer Bryan Sivak Tackles Maryland’s Status Quo”

  • “Former District of Columbia CTO Bryan Sivak is best known for implementing technology initiatives like the accountability portal TrackDC. But his new role as Maryland’s first chief innovation officer may be his most challenging yet.” (Government Technology)

• “Federal court enforces penalties for FOI response delays”

(The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press)

• On crowdsourcing locations of all defribrillators in Philadelphia…

(Technically Philly)

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Open Gov Links of the Week

collaboration, FOIA, gov 2.0, open government, social media

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Last week, The Brookings Institution hosted a panel discussion about (among other things) social media and civic engagement. The event was held in Washington, D.C.

Here are some posts/news stories about the event. Video of the event is embedded below…

• “Ten Ways Social Media Can Improve Campaign Engagement and Reinvigorate American Democracy” (Moderator of the event, Darrell M. West, Vice President and Director, Governance Studies, The Brookings Institution)
• “Recap: Brookings’ Panel on How Social Networking Can Re-Invigorate Civic Participation” (Alicia Mazzara on GovLoop)
• “Can Social Media Reinvigorate Civic Participation?” (ICMA)
• “Crowd Pleasers v. Policy Heft” (nextgov)
• “White Boards and Goolsbee vs. Obama and Babies” (techPresident)

Panelists included:

• Mindy Finn (Partner, Engage)
• Diana Owen (Associate Professor of Political Science, Director of American Studies, Georgetown University)
• Macon Phillips (Special Assistant to the President and Director of Digital Strategy, The White House)
• Lee Rainie (Director, Pew Internet & American Life Project)
• Welcoming Remarks and Moderator – Darrell M. West (Vice President and Director, Governance Studies, The Brookings Institution)

Special thanks to Leandro Oliva (@lmoliva_ on Twitter) for letting me use this info!

While I’m not totally sure where I originally found out about this, it might have been from here.

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Gov't & Technology, Open Government

accessibility, citizen participation, collaboration, elections, engagement, gov 2.0, open government, public information, public relations, social media, video

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“Open data: top tips on transparency for local authorities”

• This includes 6 tips…
• The 1st of which is: “Make a start… accept that it’s not as complicated as you might think. Even on a very limited budget you’ll be surprised at what can be achieved and the difference it could make to the people in your community”

“Guide: Wiki’s for Government”

“Beta: The future of government websites”

• “Launching a website in “beta” used to be a way to test functionality before releasing a more polished product for public consumption, but according to some federal technologists…”
  

“City commission adopts phone attendance provision”

• What would be beneficial about this (or would it possibly be a negative step)? Hear what some have to say…

“White House Establishes Government Accountability and Transparency Board”

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“The Network Effect: Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter & Tumblr Reach New Heights in May” (comScore)

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Open Gov Links of the Week

citizen participation, city government, collaboration, communication, engagement, government websites, improving efficiency, local government, meeting technology, Open Data, open meetings, social media, social networking, stats, transparency, wiki