Tonight we’ll have special guest Nick Grossman, of OpenPlans.org, to discuss the upcoming Transportation Camps – in NYC on March 5-6 and in SF on March 19-20. There is a ton of buzz about these events and some very interesting topics being thrown out for discussion. OpenPlans is doing some really exciting things with openRead… Read more »
Elections are over and new leaders are being introduced in local governments across the U.S. and certainly in the countries of many of our #localgovchat regulars. They are going to want to “hit the ground running” and will certainly be creating dramatic “The First 100 Days” lists. In the just the past two weeks, I’veRead… Read more »
This has post has been written before. But it can’t be written enough. I was having a discussion about how to structure a good communications staff. What level/grade should staff be? Does staff doing online engagement report to public affairs? How does IT fit into the picture? Those sorts of questions were being tossed around.Read… Read more »
The argument of whether to prioritize and set goals for transparency or responsiveness when implementing #Gov20 for local government agencies gets mixed reactions. It’s easy to say both should be a priority, but with limited time, money and man power this isn’t always a realistic option. So what’s the answer? It’s impossible to get evenRead… Read more »
Anyone complaining about not having enough staff to launch innovative projects needs to talk to Manor, Texas, CIO and Asst. City Manager Dustin Haisler. Haisler, one of just 35 government employees, has found amazingly creative ways to innovate. Manor, population 6,500, has become a model for local government innovation and has done everything from creatingRead… Read more »
How do you manage your relationship with social media AND the real people in your life? I was looking at old pics, like the one above from my wedding in 2003, and was started wondering: How many Twitpics would I have sent from the limo. Would I have updated my Facebook relationship status to “married”Read… Read more »
Today was an extremely busy day for #gov20 and #opengov events and tons of great topics. I was following the tweets from #govwebcon (especially @gwynnek and @levyj413) and thought this could lead to some great discussion on content, feedback, technology, public relations, transaction vs. information, and more. So anyone who doesn’t want the conversation toRead… Read more »
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 »
All I can say is wow. Despite about 45 nervous seconds of initial silence as Seesmic reloaded, the first inaugural #localgovchat went extremely well with more than 60 contributors and 295 tweets in an hour. We had localgovvies from Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Virginia City of London (Canada), Tennessee, Texas, Illinois, Australia, California, Toronto and more.Read… Read more »
So what exactly is #localgovchat and what do we hope to accomplish? As you can see from our first post, we want to start what we hope to be an ongoing, open dialogue between local government communicators – public relations, community outreach, webmasters, graphic designers – in hopes of sharing ideas, our successes and ourRead… Read more »