Comments on: How the federal government could “go social” http://www.contentious.com/2008/12/19/how-the-federal-could-government-go-social/ Amy Gahran's news and musings on how we communicate in the online age. Thu, 09 Feb 2012 16:36:42 +0000 hourly 1 By: The future of social media, including in the federal government « New Media Team http://www.contentious.com/2008/12/19/how-the-federal-could-government-go-social/comment-page-1/#comment-1225268 The future of social media, including in the federal government « New Media Team Tue, 23 Dec 2008 16:09:14 +0000 http://www.contentious.com/?p=2262#comment-1225268 [...] about 12 minutes in.) The conversation continued on blogs, including one I follow occasionally:  contentious.com So much information, so little time! But excellent food for thought. [...] [...] about 12 minutes in.) The conversation continued on blogs, including one I follow occasionally:  contentious.com So much information, so little time! But excellent food for thought. [...]

]]> By: Dave Smith http://www.contentious.com/2008/12/19/how-the-federal-could-government-go-social/comment-page-1/#comment-1225188 Dave Smith Sun, 21 Dec 2008 04:04:28 +0000 http://www.contentious.com/?p=2262#comment-1225188 Some excellent points - actually Jeffrey and I had also both come across this excellent post with an analysis of the approach taken by http://change.gov: http://blog.sunlightfoundation.com/2008/12/03/yes-we-canuse-comments-web-services-on-government-web-sites/ - discussing effective ways to allow comment and interaction. There is huge potential in social-media approaches in government, which allows responsiveness, allows the public and stakeholders a voice, and allows them to feel empowered, yet also reducing potential for abuse of the system. Some excellent points – actually Jeffrey and I had also both come across this excellent post with an analysis of the approach taken by http://change.gov: http://blog.sunlightfoundation.com/2008/12/03/yes-we-canuse-comments-web-services-on-government-web-sites/ – discussing effective ways to allow comment and interaction. There is huge potential in social-media approaches in government, which allows responsiveness, allows the public and stakeholders a voice, and allows them to feel empowered, yet also reducing potential for abuse of the system.

]]> By: Denise Olson http://www.contentious.com/2008/12/19/how-the-federal-could-government-go-social/comment-page-1/#comment-1225163 Denise Olson Fri, 19 Dec 2008 23:17:00 +0000 http://www.contentious.com/?p=2262#comment-1225163 I agree with Jeffrey. We in gov't have rules protecting citizen's privacy but which also prevent a lot of interaction. These rules need to be updated to support the web as a platform for citizen involvement. I agree with Jeffrey. We in gov’t have rules protecting citizen’s privacy but which also prevent a lot of interaction. These rules need to be updated to support the web as a platform for citizen involvement.

]]> By: Brian Boyer http://www.contentious.com/2008/12/19/how-the-federal-could-government-go-social/comment-page-1/#comment-1225161 Brian Boyer Fri, 19 Dec 2008 22:59:54 +0000 http://www.contentious.com/?p=2262#comment-1225161 Annotation that works is a feature missing from the web. <a href="http://www.djangobook.com/en/1.0/chapter19/" rel="nofollow">The Django Book</a> does a nice job gathering notes, questions, etc., in a similar fashion to News Mixer (my baby) on technical documentation. The WikiPedia does a nice job of hiding the chaos of a community editing a document by collecting dissent/comments/whatever in the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Agile_software_development" rel="nofollow">Talk Pages</a> about an article: Re: <a href="http://twitter.com/agahran/status/1068044109" rel="nofollow">your recent tweet</a>: Since this information is all in the public domain, I don't see why an enterprising geek or two couldn't write a mashup to put an annotation layer over this information. Annotation that works is a feature missing from the web. The Django Book does a nice job gathering notes, questions, etc., in a similar fashion to News Mixer (my baby) on technical documentation.

The WikiPedia does a nice job of hiding the chaos of a community editing a document by collecting dissent/comments/whatever in the Talk Pages about an article:

Re: your recent tweet: Since this information is all in the public domain, I don’t see why an enterprising geek or two couldn’t write a mashup to put an annotation layer over this information.

]]> By: Jeffrey Levy http://www.contentious.com/2008/12/19/how-the-federal-could-government-go-social/comment-page-1/#comment-1225158 Jeffrey Levy Fri, 19 Dec 2008 22:32:18 +0000 http://www.contentious.com/?p=2262#comment-1225158 Hey there! Thanks for a very interesting post (found you through your posting it on Twitter). Couldn't agree more re:using social media for rulemaking. In fact, we're looking at that very much right now. Your post provides some intriguing new mechanisms, too. Much of what we're doing now is partly to learn these tools so we can apply them well to policymaking of all types. As for EPA's site being a mess, well, to some extent I won't disagree. But remember it's a very complex agency with a zillion and one topics. Oh, one favor: could you please correct the link to my Twitter? It's http://twitter.com/levyj413 Hey there! Thanks for a very interesting post (found you through your posting it on Twitter). Couldn’t agree more re:using social media for rulemaking. In fact, we’re looking at that very much right now. Your post provides some intriguing new mechanisms, too. Much of what we’re doing now is partly to learn these tools so we can apply them well to policymaking of all types.

As for EPA’s site being a mess, well, to some extent I won’t disagree. But remember it’s a very complex agency with a zillion and one topics.

Oh, one favor: could you please correct the link to my Twitter? It’s http://twitter.com/levyj413

]]>