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6th edition of state-by-state Open Government Guide (HT NFOIC)

• How’d your state do? How do you think it could be improved?

Social Media as a Credible News Source?

• “Still a little ooky about social media? Well, believe it or not, social media is a major element of news nowadays.”
• This talks specifically about social media, the news, and recent weather.

Perspective: 5 Tech Trends in the Elections Industry

• “Technology is dramatically transforming the election process. Election offices are challenged to keep pace through leveraging technology to increase transparency and improve communication with the public. Here are five technology trends being adopted by election offices across the country to better serve voters, candidates and the media.”

Census: State and local governments employed fewer in 2010

• “The Annual Survey of Public Employment and Payroll shows totals for state and local government full-time and part-time employment, and it details employment by government function at the national and state level.”

Survey shows people prefer using PCs, Web portals to contact agencies

Obama administration releases open government status report

• This came in after the original post. Thanks to Alex Howard for the heads up on this!

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Open Gov Links of the Week

Census, citizen participation, communication, elections, gov 2.0, government transparency, IT, open government, social media, technology, transparency

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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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This is a collection of links that I’ve come across recently related to technology, transparency, and government. Not all of them came out this past week, but they haven’t been included in former Friday posts like this. Know of any that should be included? Add them to the comments below!

“Illinois, New York City move forward on open data, apps”

“Social Media and Elections: Using New Media to Manage an Election & Communicate with Voters”

• How can election officials use social media? Why should they? The U.S. Election Assistance Commission held a roundtable discussion throughout the day on “Voting Goes Viral. Using New Media to Manage an Election and Communicate with Voters”. Here’s some takeaways…

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

• “comScore, Inc. … released data from the comScore Video Metrix service showing that 176 million U.S. Internet users watched online video content in May for an average of 15.9 hours per viewer.” (emphasis added)
• “83.3 percent of the U.S. Internet audience viewed online video.”

“Report: Best Practices Guide for Local Governments”

• “Seismic shifts in the economy are forcing dramatic changes in the nation’s cities and counties. Many jurisdictions have made deep cuts across the board, eliminated entire functions, or both, while seeking new means of support and collaboration. This is a time when relevance and adaptability of government — and by extension, the public-sector information technology community — is being subjected to a very real-world test. What’s more, this test is being conducted in full public view, every day and with every encounter between citizens and their government.The urgent question is around how well, how nimble and how agile government is at adapting to the current environment while never losing sight of the future. This special report offers some answers in the form of best practices gleaned from our extensive local government surveys.”

“June 2011 Municipal Cost Index shows steady increase”

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Open Gov Links of the Week

communication, elections, engagement, local government, online video stats, Open Data, public relations, social media, video, video stats

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On Friday, the U.S. Election Assistance Commission held a roundtable discussion throughout the day on “Voting Goes Viral. Using New Media to Manage an Election and Communicate with Voters“. The archived video of the webcast is available here.

An Introduction

Their premise going into the day?

There are a multitude of social media sources for information about elections and voting. In this rapidly moving, multi-source environment it is more important than ever that there are official resources about voting that the public can rely upon. (source [PDF])

Here’s some interesting statements that are made in the Agenda and Meeting Information [PDF]

There is more information about the event at the bottom of this post…

• The voting public increasingly relies on information that is generated and exchanged amongst themselves, about elections, including the basics of how, where and when to vote. Candidates, parties and voting activists have their own strategic uses of social media. Social media outlets are the platforms in which information about elections is being shared and repeated.
• Journalists and election officials share a common goal of informing the public about election procedures and election outcomes, and both groups are using social media to inform the public.
• An important point to make about social media is that it is not a technology; it is a culture. And, yes, it can be scary and unfamiliar to some of us. However, we have to remember our goal – serving voters. They are on Twitter. They use Facebook. And we have a responsibility to go where they are and make sure they have reliable, credible information about exercising their right to vote. Remember, using social media is not about getting a return on your investment; it’s about having conversations with the people you work for. It’s about collaboration, interaction and it is the way business is being done.
• In an era of dynamic changes in voting technologies, increased voter expectations and reduced budgets, journalists and election officials need to find common ground and explore ways to improve the efficiency and effectives of communicating critical election information to the public. A natural tension between these two groups has been speed versus accuracy regarding unofficial election results.
• The social media environment is fast-paced, unforgiving and can be cruel. If you enter it, you will make mistakes, big and small. It’s important to develop a strategy, but also be confident enough to experiment. At the end of the day, election officials should always remember that these efforts are being undertaken on behalf of the public. You want to make sure they have accurate information about how to successfully cast a ballot. Get ahead of rumors and take advantage of this built in early warning system. Get unfiltered feedback, which all true leaders want. It may get weird out there, and it is normal to be scared, confused and excited. But you are helping more people and you are accomplishing your mission.

Insights

The archived video of the webcast is viewable here.

Here are some Tweeted insights from the @EACgov Twitter account from throughout the day …

More Information About the Event

Their Agenda included the following sessions:

• Social Media: What Is It?
• Social Media: Who Uses It?
• Journalism and Social Media
• Strategies & Stories from Election Officials

Participants included:

• Chuck Todd — NBC News political director
• Lee Rainie — Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life project director
• Chris Chambless—Clay County, Florida, supervisor of elections
• Alysoun McLaughlin — District of Columbia Board of Elections and Ethics public affairs manager
• Brian Newby — Johnson County, Kansas, election commissioner
• Dana Chisnell — the Usability in Civic Life Project

Also, see techPresident’s post about the event.

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Gov't & Technology, Local Government, Open Government, Tech Tips

accessibility, communication, county government, election officials, elections, engagement, gov 2.0, government transparency, local government, Open Data, open government, public information, public relations, public servants, social media, vote, voting

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It’s around that time of year when multiple local elections and primaries are happening. After coming across some posts on a local blog that talks about using social media (posts from that below), I thought it might be beneficial for those in the audience who are elected officials, to have a collection of resources/references to go to when trying to figure out how social media and campaigning go together.

If you have resources to add to the list, feel free to leave them in the comments below!

DATA

• “Social media and politics in 2010 campaign” [The Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project]
• “The Internet and Campaign 2010” [The Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project]

How To:

• “5 Tips for the Well Equipped Social Media Politician” [Inkling Media]
• “Eight lessons for social media and politics from Politico, Facebook and media” [gov20.govfresh]
• “Politics In The Social Media Age: How Tweet It Is” [NPR]

From Their Standpoint: What Citizens Want

• “An Open Letter to Politicians on Campaigning and Social Media” [Inkling Media]

Other Resources

• “Social Media’s Impact on the Midterm Elections [INFOGRAPHICS]” [Mashable]
• “Social media, local government and elections…” [gov20.govfresh]
• “When Campaigns Manipulate Social Media” [The Atlantic]
• Find out what elected officials are using what social media.

This list is incomplete! Please let us know of other resources that we should add… thanks!

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Gov't & Technology, Local Government, Miscellaneous

elections, elections and social media, gov 2.0, politics, social media, social media for politicians