Communications

Should I have posted this?

My boss and I had an exchange last week that a couple hundred people overheard because it happened online: I wrote a blog about having a bad week at work, and she responded. To be honest, I wasn’t sure if her post made me feel uncomfortable or whether I was fine with it. I gaveRead… Read more »

The need for social media training is larger than ever

I had the honor of chatting with the Boston SPIN group yesterday during their monthly meeting. The group, primarily engineering minded professionals, developers, QA, project managers, turned out to hear me discuss the topic of extending thought leadership positions via social media. Now, to be honest with you, I had expected to have a smallRead… Read more »

Tweeting from Frontline & ‘Jumping the Queue’ – Tonight on #localgovchat at 9 pm EST

Over the past few months, many participants in #localgovchat have suggested government agencies are ready or should at least strongly consider having their frontline staff – the ones who answer questions on the phone, at the counters and via email everyday – start tweeting to citizens as a customer service option. Why not? They apparentlyRead… Read more »

How is your government “building local community” online? Invite to Locals Online

In many cities, neighborhood councils have been established through a mix of citizen-up voluntary and government-led activities. Often established as non-profits, the resulting entities experiment with a mix of models and activities. My sense is that below the radar, often unregulated by open meeting laws or broadcast communication models, many are experimenting with social mediaRead… Read more »

Measures of Success for Social Media?

I was involved in an interesting discussion today about how the government should measure the success of social media. Just how do you measure it? Certainly, there are tried and true statistics (page hits, numbers of fans, followers, minions, etc) but that doesn’t really measure success. Is it even viable impact data? I never visitRead… Read more »

Yer Welcome!

I said, “Thank you” to a server. Response, “No problem.” Full stop, system crash, Reboot. By the time I got back up, she was gone. No further communication. Not much tip, either. When someone takes the time and effort to thank you, if you can’t acknowledge their effort, you are training them not to thankRead… Read more »

RecoveringFed writes on The Power of Pull

This is a repost from my blog recoveringfed.com About halfway through their new book The Power of Pull, John Hagel III, John Seely Brown, and Lang Davison write about how individuals can use emerging social networking capabilities to harness personally the power of pull–pull being their term for the capability of institutions and individuals toRead… Read more »

Weekly newsletter on leading-edge knowledge that will help us create a more open government

Research Reports 1. OpenGovernment Reports from the UK and Australia (12//2009): See how Australia and the U.K. have developed plans similar to the U.S. Australia encourages “info-philanthropy” (such as a tax deduction for sharing data) and having employees engage online and experiment with new ideas. The U.K. is opening up data, integrating cross-jurisdictional information, emphasizingRead… Read more »

Social Media Has Changed Our Lives Forever – What About You?

Social Media has changed our personal and professional lives forever. Some people use it purely recreationally, while some are unable to break away from it on their mobile device. Businesses are starting to see the “double-edged” sword of social media. While some users are able to utilize the media as tools, others abuse it forRead… Read more »

Service Leadership highlighted at yesterday’s Excellence in Government Conference

Originally posted on http://www.andrewdwelch.com at http://www.andrewdwelch.com/2010/04/service-leadership-highlighted-at.html. I spent the day yesterday at the “Excellence in Government Conference” focusing mostly on developing a leadership culture within organizations, but to a lesser extent (at least in the sessions I attended and discussions I had) on citizen engagement through social media, a culture of service, and managing actualRead… Read more »