Thursday, June 04, 2009

ACT government launches online public consultation about how citizens wish to be engaged

The ACT Chief Minister's Office, in conjunction with Bang The Table, has launched a consultation asking Canberra residents how they prefer to be engaged by the government.

I've been taking a look at some of the comments being made and there are some very clear preferences for not using telephone consultation, ensuring that people get the opportunity to speak in physical consultations and ensuring that engagement occurs before political decisions are made.

If you're a Canberran, take a look at the consultation and have a go at participating in it if you wish to better understand how this form of online consultation can work.

The consultation is online here.

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Wednesday, June 03, 2009

How Australian journalists are using Twitter

If you've been attempting to advocate the use of Twitter for your Department or Agency, as I know a couple of people have been attempting to do, this article by MediaShift on How Journalists Are Using Twitter in Australia provides some large calibre ammunition.

So does this Internal Comms Hub report discussing Why crisis planning is now incomplete without social media, which is also supported by P&O Cruises who are currently using Twitter to address swine flu concerns, as reported in Thumbrella, P&O use social media for swine flu updates.

If you do want to see which Australian journalists and media outlets are now actively using Twitter, refer to this list from Earley Edition, Australia’s top 100 Journalists and news media people on Twitter.

And in case you need more tips on how to get started, here's a couple of posts I wrote earlier, Getting started with Twitter in Australian government and Creating appropriate guidelines for Twitter engagement

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Tuesday, June 02, 2009

IAB publishes social advertising best practices guidelines

The Interative Advertising Bureau (IAB) has published guidelines for best practice in social advertising, prefacing it with the statement,

Social media has overtaken email as the most popular consumer activity, according to a recent Nielsen study
If your department or agency is looking to use any of the online social channels that now exist, from Facebook to Youtube to Twitter, to reach your audiences, these guidelines are a must read.

To quote the guidelines,
This document outlines recommendations for these key social advertising topics and is intended for social networks, publishers, ad agencies, marketers, and service providers delivering social advertising. These best practices were developed via a thorough examination of the critical consumer, media and advertiser issues to help social media further realize its advertising potential.
They are available at the IAB website's social advertising section as a PDF download.

The IAB also provides definitions of social metrics for measuring social media sites, blogs, widgets and social media applications.

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Monday, June 01, 2009

New group for Australian Government 2.0 practitioners/interested parties

If you have an interest or are involved with Government 2.0 endeavours in Australia, take a look at the new GovLoop group Government 2.0 Australia.

Overall there are more than 12,000 participants in Govloop from around the world (though largely from the US) - meaning that there's already plenty of information and conversation from people at the coal face of government 2.0 activities.

While the Australian group is still small it has already seen some interesting discussions.

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Open Government Public Sphere Camp on 22 June at Parliament House - call for speakers and attendees

EDITED: Monday 9 June, 2009: The Open Government Public Sphere Camp has been renamed 'Government 2.0 Public Sphere Camp'. This more effectively communicates the content and purpose of the event. Other details have not changed.

The second of Senator Kate Lundy's Public Sphere series has been combined with the Canberra BarCamp unorganisers' Gov 2.0 concept to create a jointly-run Open Government Public Sphere Camp.

To quote from Senator Lundy's site,

Open government is a rising topic of debate across the world. Trends in technology, media and public opinion have made it both more possible and more necessary for governments to reconsider what and how information is made freely available to the public.

This Public Sphere event will gather views on how creating an even more participatory form of government in Australia will improve the effectiveness of public administration, enable communities to better help themselves, promote renewed engagement in the democratic process and enhance our capacity to respond to emerging complex social, geopolitical and environmental challenges. We expect the topic and resulting event to bring together government practitioners and decision-makers, and interested parties outside of government.

If you have an interest or are formally participating in open government initiatives, there are opportunities to both attend and speak at this event.

There will be two distinct sessions during the day, the morning will concentrate on government policy, engagement and leadership, as well as issues that limit the capacity for Open Government.

The second session in the afternoon will focus on open government systems, standards, data and best practices.

To learn more or sign-up for the event visit Public Sphere #2 - Open Government: Policy and Practice.

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