Posts By Ines Mergel

Maxwell School to offer #electionclass on social media during 2012 presidential campaign

Reposted from the Maxwell School’s official press release: In the lead-up to a presidential campaign that promises to capitalize on the internet more than any previous election, a class at Syracuse University’s Maxwell School will allow graduate students to study the role of social media in campaigns and government. In the fall semester, Assistant ProfessorRead… Read more »

America’s coolest mayor: John Fretterman is redefining public service motivation IMH!

I watched this amazing video by director Morgan Spurlock (you know the “Supersize Me” guy) on Hulu.com yesterday and was really inspired: Morgan followed John Fretterman, mayor of zip code 15104, Braddock, PA, for a day and showed the daily efforts to revive a town: Mr. Fretterman, a graduate from Harvard’s Kennedy School MPP programRead… Read more »

What a Twitter map can and cannot tell: The Gates Foundation Twitter network

The Twitter network below was created by Marc Smith, Social Media Research Foundation. He used it in a recent workshop on Social Media Network Analysis that I organized here at Syracuse University on January 19-20. I picked it up and posted it here on my Social Media in the Public Sector blog, because it relatesRead… Read more »

#FedTweets network going strong…

Yesterday, I created the first #FedTweets network and shared the relatively sparse initial set of connections. Today, Justin Herman, Scott Horvath, Tammie Marcoullier, and Stacey Palosky presented their insights on how they use Twitter in their agencies. The presenters encouraged the participants to heavily use the #FedTweets hashtag to keep the conversation going beyond theRead… Read more »

Policy Informatics Book Chapter: Knowledge Incubation in the Public Sector – Ines Mergel

Policy Informatics Book Chapter: Knowledge Incubation in the Public Sector – Ines Mergel. I am participating in book project that is featured over on the “Policy Informatics” blog. Here is the abstract for my chapter to be published in 2012: The use of social media applications has become acceptable practice and is adopted by manyRead… Read more »

PA Times: Crowdsourced Ideas Make Participating in Government Cool Again

The PA Times, published by the American Society of Public Administration, has just issued a special edition called “From Bureaucratic to Cool: A Call for Public Service”. My article on “Crowdsourced Ideas Make Participating in Government Cool Again” describes how government agencies on all levels are turning to Open Innovation platforms to collect the wisdomRead… Read more »

List of federal social media policies & regulations

I compiled a list of publicly available social media policies, handbooks, guides, rules, etc. of federal departments and agencies on my blog: Social Media in the Public Sector. This is a rolling page and I will add more policies as they become available. Please email me iamergel (at) maxwell.syr.edu with additional policies for federal, stateRead… Read more »

Department of Veterans Affairs publishes updated social media policy

The Department of Veterans Administration has recently published an updated social media policy (VA Directive 6515 – Use of Web-Based Collaboration Technologies). Prior to this release the Government Accountability Office has published a report for Congress titled “Federal Agencies Need Policies and Procedures for Managing and Protecting Information They Access and Disseminate” – highlighting thatRead… Read more »