Citizen Engagement

Healthcare.gov – 3 Tips for Improvement with Clay Johnson

Last Tuesday the Obama Administration unveiled healthcare.gov. Affordable Care Act mandated the Department of Health and Human Services to build an online exchange, or Internet store, to let uninsured consumers compare and buy plans offered by private insurance companies. But almost immediately problems started to pop up. The website was overwhelmed by up to fiveRead… Read more »

How to Successfully Communicate Digitally – 5 Lessons Learned

How do you get your message through the wild west that is currently digital communication? Think about it, TV and Radio news bulletins have been replaced by text-messaging, Twitter, blogs, Facebook and Google+ updates. There are millions if not billions of tweets and facebook posts alone, so it is almost impossible to break through theRead… Read more »

Going Mobile

In a FCW recent article, Nolan Jones, Director of eGovernment Innovation, NIC, discusses why the federal government must plan now for going mobile and states, “mobile implementation is unquestionably difficult. Yet, it also is essential.” Of course there are many reasons the federal government hasn’t fully jumped on the mobile train, despite the benefits ofRead… Read more »

Engaging Youth in #Democracy Abroad – Plus your weekend reads

“One in five people living in the Middle East and North Africa are under the age of 24. 60% of people across the globe are under the age of 30. 65% in the middle east and north africa are under the age of 35. This is not only the future, but it is a demographicRead… Read more »

Is the key to bridging the digital divide social media?

Cracking the digital divide is no easy task. The barriers for success are high. But a team from the University of Wisconsin was able to make major inroads by using social media to educate and inform community organizers. Jennifer Smith is the communication officer for the University of Wisconsin Extension Center for Community Tech Solutions.Read… Read more »

3 Ways GIS is Powering Civic Engagement Initiatives

The following post highlights our latest guide on GIS, The Mapping Revolution: Incorporating Geographic Information Systems in Government. The report features case studies and best practices from the Census Bureau, Geoplatform.gov and United States Department of Agriculture and insights from Esri President, Jack Dangermond. (Download PDF or view online below). This blog post is anRead… Read more »

Making legislation readable – 3 Ways

Have you ever sat down to read a Congressional bill? Probably not. They are difficult to understand, use bureaucratic language and are generally unreadable. So it’s no wonder that most of us don’t have the inclination to pick up a bill and read through it. But this lack of understanding is creating a void betweenRead… Read more »

Meet the gov guru who reinvented websites #engagement – Plus your weekend reads

Martha Dorris has been a driving force behind the use of technology to help citizens more easily and quickly obtain government services and information, whether the contact comes through a website, email, telephone call or social media. At GSA, she created the agency’s two federal Web platforms — USA.gov and its Spanish-language counterpart, GobiernoUSA.gov. InRead… Read more »

7 Tips to Help Collaboration

In a a recent blog post I shared some tips to get your employees thinking creatively. One of these tips was to encourage working in groups, sharing ideas (even the “bad” ones) and basically creating a culture of collaboration. Like encouraging creative thinking, promoting collaboration is often a lot easier said than done. With budgetRead… Read more »

3 Ways to Create a Positive Customer Vent

According to a study conducted by the Society of New Communications Research, “59 percent of respondents say they regularly use social media to “vent” about their own customer care frustrations.” Social media has changed the way organizations (public and private) interact with citizens. Organizations can have people fill out surveys in under a minute, shareRead… Read more »