Communications

Research and Best Practices eNewsletter

Research Guide for Public Participation (07/2011) – The Welsh government’s ‘how to’ guide for public engagement practitioners leads officials from the beginning of the planning process through the evaluation of the activity. It also includes a template to help them plan and think through the engagement. http://www.participationcymru.org.uk/advice-support/practitioners-manual-for-public-engagement Mobile Trends (07/2011) – A new report predictsRead… Read more »

Collaborative Management Day (from 1300 kilometres away)

On June 9, 2011, thanks to an amazing organizing team and the Canada School of Public Service, I attended Collaborative Management Day via webcast. My viewpoint for the day. This was an event by public servants for public servants. The day was packed full of guest speakers talking about different ways to collaborate and manyRead… Read more »

For Your Consideration: Facebook More “Private” Than Google+? A Closer Look Down the Rabbit Hole..

I have seen a lot of discussion on the privacy of Facebook vs. Google+ and have felt the need to really dive into this topic as it seems most are unaware of the functionality and/or actual usage of information we as end users provide to Facebook and Google. Unlike facebook, which allows access controls atRead… Read more »

The digital press office

One innovation in the way that local councils communicate is the developments of digital press offices, or newsrooms. There are two elements to these, I think. The first is having a digital savvy communications team, who get the growing importance of online new sources and the need for mixed media; as well as the increasinglyRead… Read more »

Papaloi and Gouscos on E-Parliaments and Novel Parliament-to-Citizen Services

Aspasia Papaloi and Dr. Dimitris Gouscos, both of the University of Athens Faculty of Communication and Media Studies, have published E-Parliaments and Novel Parliament-to-Citizen services, JeDEM: Journal of eDemocracy and Open Government, 3(1), 80-98 (2011). Here is the abstract: In an era of citizens’ discontentment on democratic institutions, parliaments as a democratic cornerstone, are constantlyRead… Read more »

Oh, Google+!

Well hell Google. You can’t do GIS. I’m sorry but you can’t. But when it comes to social networks… Actually, I’m going to confess something. Firstly, I seem to be in some kind of weird group on Google+ that a very nice person suggested I be in which means I get messages telling me I’mRead… Read more »

In Defense of the Twitter Town Hall

On Wednesday, Umair Haque, well-known columnist and blogger for Harvard Business Review, shared a few thoughts on the then about-to-go-live Twitter town hall with President Barack Obama: AskObama Is a Meaningless Marketing Stunt His piece read roughly like this (selectively paraphrased for illustrative purposes): “… a tiny dose of digital dumbification… grumble grumble… a cynicalRead… Read more »