Tech

Emotion, Skype and Customer Service

Sterling is an Acquisition Freak and writes a blog called AllThingsSterling. I was reading a few articles on customer service this morning and something came to me. When we’re removed from our customers say through email or Twitter, it’s easy to dismiss them. This is because emotion and urgency don’t always translate through writing. EmotionsRead… Read more »

Project of the Week: UK’s Driving Standards Agency

Does your local DMV have instructional videos on YouTube? Do they use social media at all? Are they committed to “lifelong learning” among drivers in your area? If your answer was “no” to any or all of these questions, then you might want to tell them about the United Kingdom’s Driving Standards Agency (DSA), whichRead… Read more »

Deep Thoughts About Social Media

I was a bit sleepless last night and began thinking about some of the deep thoughts of social media that continue to resonate with me long after I’ve heard them. The first was a statement made at Gov2.0 camp I believe (heard vicariously through two co-workers that attended): “Social media is free, like a puppyRead… Read more »

Local government hero shout out

In my opinion you can never have too much shameless promotion, especially when it is for someone other than yourself. Chris Moore The concepts of Government 2.0 are picking up momentum and, as I have noted, will fit neatly within the concepts of the Social Ecosystem (note shameless plug for The Social Ecosystem 🙂 ).Read… Read more »

FHWA survey of State DOT use of Web 2.0 tools

We (Washington State Department of Transportation) were fortunate enough to be featured in a research study done by the Volpe Institute through FHWA surveying uses of social media tools by transportation agencies: http://www.gis.fhwa.dot.gov. The report offers a good overview of how transportation agencies are using social media each in their own distinct ways to reachRead… Read more »

Certifications in the Human Resources field – good, bad, your opinion?

Hi all Members of GovLoop, I need human resource practitioners’ assistance – can you help? I have Human Subject approval from the university and need volunteers who have PHR certifications to assist me with a survey as part of the empirical research required of me as a PhD student at Old Dominion University in Norfolk,Read… Read more »

McChrystal, Guns and Rock n’ Roll: A Cautionary Tale of Off-the-Cuff and On-the-Record

When your mission is on the line there is no such thing as “off-the-record,” and “deep background” can be nothing more than a description of the harmonies on a Beach Boys album. If you want to play with leaks and don’t think you’ll get wet, hand in your gold stars and go to plumbing school.Read… Read more »

Step 4 of My Master Plan Begins

My organization doesn’t like change. I do. I’ve been taking a patient, low-key, phased approach to transform this organization. Each step I’m taking, I am probing for a path of least resistance. 2 steps forward, 1 step back. It’s constant probing for what is acceptable and what will be acceptable. If you are too radicalRead… Read more »

The why of social media

By now you know that the Commonwealth of Massachusetts is heavily involved with social media. We tweet, blog, friend and follow. We have 10 blogs that received over 58,000 hits in the month of May. We have 26 agencies on Twitter, 10 agencies on YouTube and 7 on Flickr. We have toolkits that help agenciesRead… Read more »

Hours per week on Social Media

As you may remember, I started a survey in early June but, as often happens, I became busy with more projects than I should have signed up for at once. I guess we all have that failing at times. I wanted to share the early results with you based upon the responses by just overRead… Read more »