Web 2.0 / Social Media in Local Government – Results

Please see the results of the recent study on Web 2.0 / Social Media in Local Government , providing an insight into trends and usage amongst local authorities in the U.K.

Local Government Web2 Survey Results

It was interesting to note that Web 2.0 / Social Media adoption on their Internet sites for public consumption was far greater than usage of Web 2.0 inside their organisations for their own employees. 

Although many private sector companies are now starting to embrace Web 2.0 inside their organisations (Enterprise 2.0/Intranet 2.0) empowering their employees, improving employee collaboration via wikis, communication via tools such as yammer and blogs etc,  the public sector seems to be focussing their Web 2.0 efforts primarily at the public.

MystarbucksIdea.com application on local government websites?

Many councils are now starting to experiment with Web 2.0 externally, ranging from a twitter account displaying press releases (which is not the most engaging use of the medium) to RSS feeds but I feel more could be done to really engage with citizens externally and its employees internally. 

Innovative websites such as fixmystreet offer true value to citizens and offers them another channel to communicate with their council and will help increase usage of local authority websites, which although rising it has still not reached mass market.  This is because there are very few reasons for a user to visit, apart from looking at the latest job vacancies – which is usually the most popular area of their website.

An example of Web 2.0 innovation that the public sector could take from the private sector and improve usage of their websites is the social media applications at MystarbucksIdea and Dell IdeaStorm - which are innovate user-generated discussion forums to allow two way communication and engagement with its current and potential customers.

Both are the first true two-way conversation points its customers and the companies to interact on a wide scale, with very high usage rates prviving that customers very much want to have this conversation with these applications becoming a major force in helping direct the future of the company.  Both are built on the Ideaexchange Force.com platform from SalesForce.com.

The key ingredient is allowing its users to vote on each idea, with the best suggestions rising to the top similar to the Digg site, where other customers, along with the Starbucks management, are likely to see them.  To engage with its users – Starbucks via a Blog then showcases the ideas that are actually implemented.

If  innovative councils launched similar services for its citizens externally to allow them to share ideas and insights and then this truly would be Government 2.0.  The same for usage within the Enterprise, nobody knows the business better than its employees.  Imagine the benefit to the organisation if employees could share ideas and best practices – creating a knowledge base on ways of working and innovation that management could listen to and implement in their future business planning.

If this approach is adopted by innovative local authorities to engage with its citizens and employees in an open and honest dialogue this would be the first great use of Web 2.0 within local government. However council’s can’t use this method of social media to ask its citizens what they think, unless they are willing to listen and respond, honestly.

Enterprise 2.0 Usage in Local Gov?

Enterprise 2.o over the last few months has grown in popularity with many books now being published on the subject such as Enterprise 2.0: How Social Software Will Change the Future of Work and being embraced by much of the private sector such as BT and Bupa.

I would be interested to learn if any local authorities in the UK have embraced Web 2.0 / knowledge management yet, allowing their employees to collaborate and share information and removing the hierachial structure of the organisation.

How would you define Government 2.0?

Who coined the phrase Government 2.0 and is it just a marketing buzzword like Web 2.0 / Enterprise 2.0 / Mobile 2.0?

How would you define Government 2.0? below is my stab at defining it

Government 2.0 is the adoption of Web 2.0 social platforms and tools inside government to help improve citizen engagement and collaboration between government and citizens.

Government 2.0 Predictions for 2009

As part of my ongoing research for my university dissertation, I have read and viewed many examples of Web 2.0 on Local Government websites over the past few weeks.  Many of these applications such as Twitter and Facebook have been a good start for citizen engagement and collaboration but I feel they need to be  focussed on topical issues or an approach used by Saturn or BA for social networking rather than a general one size fits all facebook profile page for it to catch on with users outside of IT, PR and blogging/tech enthusiasts.

However I feel that some Web 2.0 applications play a key part of the E-GOV or T-GOV program! and will allow local authorities and other government departments to deliver cost effective IT services to the public, instead of the delayed, over complicated, multi-million pound IT disasters that have occurred in the past. 
I would be interested to hear what predictions on what Gov 2.0 services they would like to see in mainstream government or their predictions in general about Local Government websites in 2009.

Listed below are some of my suggestions

1.) User Generated Content (UGC) is the key Web 2.0 tool I feel that should be integrated into LA’s website. Following the lead set by the Guardian newspaper and integrating a comments system throughout the website with user profiles, tags and clippings combined with a usable design (as many LA websites are still far from usable compared to the private sector) will help LA’s reach out to their citizens, and allow them to comment on topics that interest them and allow them to connect with fellow citizens on the LA website with similar interests.

2.) The potential now exists for local authorities to achieve significant efficiency gains by transforming customer service and delivering services to the public via low-cost, self-service, website channels instead of the more costly phone and face-to-face channels that they have traditionally used in the past, but LA websites must become highly usable  in order for that potential to be realised.

The integration of Web 2.0 style knowledge base /wiki with self service into the CRM to deliver multichannel web delivery of council services (ie. Web, Call Centre, 1 stop shop etc) will help reduce call volume, providing better customer service and efficiency savings.

In the private sector Easyjet use the Internet as their main delivery channel resulting in significant cost savings over traditional access channels such as phone and face to face.

• Easyjet cost to sell seat on the phone £2.60
• Cost to sell seat on the internet £0.05p
• 98% of sales are online rather than by phone
• 70% of their customer service queries resolved online

The Royal Mail has also reduced the number of email and call queries by 50% overall, since providing their new web self service FAQ facility which many local authorities could emulate and improve upon.

3.) Interactive Mashups – like the example used by the City of Amsterdam, who use mashups and googlemaps to provide real time daily refuse runs.  Citizens can also report issues by clicking on a location on the map.  Previous issues and their status are also displayed on the map, which citizens can view. 

4.)Use of applications such as ‘Dell’s Ideastorm’ ’My Starbucks Idea” or OracleMix by local authorities – this is  the tool that if not overly moderated by councils/government can transform local/central government.  This could be used for citizens to provide their ideas and thoughts on how their to improve their communities and the council, how the LA could improve tourism in the area etc.  This would provide an interactive brainstorming session that the LA could gather ideas on topics they may not have been considering or on new ways on achieving goals.

Does anybody know if this platform has been developed in-house by Starbucks or is it an open source application?

5.) Widespread use of blogs – not just because everybody else is starting to have them so the organisation just creates a blog but creating blogs of value to the public.  Such as Blogs by every local councillor, allowing citizens to engage with their elected official and find out what they have been doing to benefit the local community.  This would be a much better medium and service to the public than the usual quarterly newsletter that I doubt many read when it is posted through their letterbox.

Blogs could be used by Chief Executives, heads of service or staff to engage more effectively with new audiences within the local community and to demonstrate that their local authority is committed to engage with its citizens in more cost effective and personal ways.

6.) Increased number of personalised websites such as LB of Redbridge who are the trailblazers in this field at present.  However I feel they can learn from examples such as Amazon or Netflix to deliver personalised websites that are of true benefit to the user.

7.) Greater collaboration/integration with information from other government departments  such as the Police, DVLA via mashups, xml feeds etc and delivered on the LA website.

8.) Improved search and tagging – The majority of LA websites are difficult to navigate around to locate the information you are looking for. By integrating an auto suggest facility on the search field and tagging  throughout websites will allow the public to locate the information they are looking for quicker and easier.

9.) Video and Images – By using tools such as YouTube/Flickr and integrated into the LA website could encourage citizens to post video or images, such as their favourite walk in the county borough  helping generate interest in tourism in the area etc or the use of video for walkthroughs/tutorials as being used by corporates such as Homedepot.  Perhaps how to be greener or how to complete a planning application? .  To increase engagement with younger audiences LA’s could also deliver certain news stories via Video and Podcasts.

10.) Further applications could include mobile applications where it will be possible to take a photograph of a street scene issue such as graffiti or an abandoned car, tag it with a geographic reference using the GPS system, and then send it to the local authority and the police for attention.

But for Web 2.0 to be successful as it has been in the private sector i.e. Dell, Starbucks, NorthWest Airlines etc local government/government will need to let go of control which many will find difficult. However in the local authorities that do and truely embrace these tools will deliver services that will transform government and the services they provide, developing relationships and engagement with the public.

Any other solutions or ideas you would like to see on your local government website?

Why do Local Authorities Need to use Facebook?

I have read on several blogs and articles of government around the world now setting up a facebook page.  Why?  Is it from this new craze around the buzzword Government 2.0?

What are the benefits to taxpayers of having a facebook page set up by their local authority.  What is the point; this is what I can’t understand?  Using facebook to connect with friends and family I can understand – it’s the same as Friends Reunited in the Web 1.0 days and is great for keeping in touch.

However a council having a general facebook page, I just cant see the benefits or any citizens outside of a select few who work for the local authority actually thinking of having their local council as a facebook friend.  Is facebook just another webpage to dump council press releases, job vacancies and events or does it offer more than just regurgitating the same content that is currently on the local authority website?

I would be interested to hear your views on this, If I had to sell the idea of why a local authority needs a facebook profile in a pitch what would it be?

I am not against facebook or Social Networkingbut I can’t see the benefits within e-government.

Twitter – Whats so special about this Web 2.0 tool?

After reading a recent post over at LGEO Research about the use of Web 2.0 tools in local government, it mentions that several councils are now starting to use Twitter.

I have looked at several of the twitter feeds from these local authorities, and I am yet to be convinced about the true value of this tool both for Government at Private companies.  Many were just displaying Press Releases, which I doubt many citizens etc will want to subscribe to.

Are these local authorities just using Twitter just because of the hype surrounding it, or can it bring benefits to citizens and local government?

Working at a local authority I feel that the following questions still need to be answered, and I would be interested in hearing readers thoughts.

1.)What benefits do you feel using Twitter can bring a local authority?

2.) How would you explain to senior management at a local authority what Twitter is, as the majority of employees and most local authorities would not have heard of Twitter?

3.)Why would citizens sign up for a council twitter feed, do they really want to know that a new council press releases is available on their twitter account.

4.) Why not use a RSS feed over a twitter account, as they both do similar things?

5.) Any other benefits of using Twitter for a local authority?

6.) Can twitter feeds be personalised to the user, so they only receive information (i.e. latest payroll vacancies) from the local authority that they are interested in, instead of receiving all content.

E-Gov and Web 2.0 – What benefits can it bring?

This is my first posting on this blog I have created during the writing of my dissertation on E-Government and Web 2.0

The aim of this blog is to gather opinion and research Local Government and Web 2.0 or Government 2.0 as many now call it, to learn how these tools are currently being used and their actual benefits.