Communications

Weekly Round-up: March 23, 2012

This post has been updated to include Dan Chenok’s contributions. Gadi Ben-Yehuda Can you hear me now? Kaifeng Yang, whose 2008 study on citizen particiaption I link to whenever possible, is the principal author of a new book of collected essays and studies on, what else? citizen participation. The State of Citizen Participation in AmericaRead… Read more »

Facebook As a Social Media Tool

Facebook has developed apps for business and government to make it easy to use as a channel for individuals and business/government to provide and exchange information. Does it work? Yes – but it’s not magic. Creative design and vibrant content are required. Here’s illustrations of an innovative approach – one by business and one byRead… Read more »

Let’s Praise AT&T, CenturyLink, Comcast, Cox, Sprint, TWC, T-Mobile and Verizon for this

For all our complaints about our ISPs and their service we should all reflect on some of the great things these firms do. Individually they seek to innovate and win our business and loyalty. And collectively they can come together to do great things too. One great, positive thing just happened because of collegial actionRead… Read more »

Don’t dumb me down! (guest post)

With the permission of Geoff Mason (@grmsn), I’ve republished his blog post Don’t dumb me down! from 21 March this year below. I thought this was a very good post on a topic that, as increasing amounts of information and discussion only appear online, is increasingly affecting how effective public servants can be and theRead… Read more »

Google responds, claims new privacy policy will not effect sensitive data

Last week, CivSource reported on several concerns over Google’s new privacy policy raised by government IT consultants Jeff Gould and Doug Miller. In the article, both men raised several concerns about Google’s new privacy policy and what it might mean for government customers. Google has responded, in an attempt to address those concerns. On MarchRead… Read more »

EPA’s Public Participation Guide

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA) is proud to launch the “Public Participation Guide“, an international public participation toolkit. It is a resource for agencies and organizations to help develop, plan for, and implement programs that engage the public in environmental decision-making. U.S.EPA has worked on developing this guide since 2009, initially for useRead… Read more »

GovBytes: NY emergency call center: Consolidated and over-budget

Consolidation of services and streamlined systems are a good thing, and usually cut costs. But what if the project costs billions? New York City has consolidated its emergency call-taking system, a project that began in 2004, and was implemented this month, 7 years behind schedule. It was also $1 billion over-budget. Contract managers for theRead… Read more »

Disruptive Tech: using the Netflix model in government and you’ll meet the Johnny Appleseed of Open Source

Disruptive Tech: the Netflix model in government and you’ll meet the Johnny Appleseed of Open Source by GovLoop Insights We start off with a topic we come to so often… your money… The House Budget Committee passed the Republican version of the fiscal 2013 budget yesterday — but just barely. Ezra Kline in the WashingtonRead… Read more »

Introducing Kind of Digital’s digital engagement training library

Quite excited about this! Affordable, scalable digital engagement training for your whole organisation. Get access to over one hundred instructional videos on how to use digital tools to engage with citizens and communities. From getting started with Twitter and Facebook to publishing open data and developing a social media strategy. We offer the best valueRead… Read more »