Tuesday, April 07, 2009

Getting started with Twitter in Australian government

Twitter has emerged as a significant channel for breaking news, announcement and discussions on political, social, environmental and commercial topics.

Over the last three years the service has grown to over 25 million users globally, including many senior business, political and entertainment figures. In fact it's been the fastest growing online channel, with over 750% growth through 2008.

Australians are major users of the service, with Neilsen estimating that there were 149,000 Australian Twitter users in January 2009.

So with 150,000 Australian Twitter users, how many Australian government agencies are using the service?

Well there are three councils, Wyong, Mosman and the City of Sydney, and the Training.gov.au project from DEEWR has an account.

Both the Prime Minister and Leader of the Opposition are using Twitter, as are The Greens and a few other politicians at Federal and State level.

This compares to over 90 UK councils using Twitter, plus many national government agencies and 10 Downing Street. In the US, well lets just say they're now a major user of the service, at both agency and political levels.

Below I hope to explain a little more about why and how government agencies can use Twitter.

What is Twitter
Twitter allows people to send 140 character messages ('tweets')to others around the world from their computers or mobile devices on a near-instant basis. If you think of the success of SMS on mobile phones, Twitter has extended this onto the internet.

After registering for Twitter you can choose to follow others to see their tweets and others can choose to follow you. You can send direct tweets to people following you, which are only visible to the recipient, but most tweets are visible to the public.

It is also possible to 'protect' your tweets which means that your tweets are hidden to anyone other than those you authorise to see them.

Tweets can contain links to websites, photos, videos or audio which can provide more information on any topic.

Using someone's Twitter name, starting with an '@' symbol (such as @CraigThomler) in a tweet makes it show up as a reply.

It is also possible to 'retweet' messages from others, and courtesy is that the name of the original message sender is included with 'RT' before their @name.

Using a hash symbol '#' before a word is used to designate a particular subject as a 'hashtag', for instance #BCC2 was used as the hashtag for the recent Canberra BarCamp. This is useful for grouping tweets on a given subject to make them easier to find later.

What can Twitter be used for?

  • Listening
    Firstly, with 150,000 Australians using Twitter there are a lot of conversations occurring. It's possible to track mentions of topics of interest to you in almost real-time using Twitter search tools, such as TweetGrid. This makes it possible for a government agency to keep on top of what people are saying about them and potentially identify emerging trends before the media picks them up.

    It also allows government a means to gather a feel for public sentiment on various policy-related topics and, finally, is a great way to experience and even ask questions at conferences that you are unable to attend.
  • Talking
    Twitter is a fast and low overhead way to distribute information, making it ideal for getting emergency and other types of announcements out very quickly.

    By linking to web pages with more information it becomes an effective way to send out disaster messages. Of course Twitter won't reach everyone, but people pass on the message, retweeting and speaking to others. Media outlets also monitor Twitter for breaking news.

    Twitter has already had an important role in a number of disasters, such as the Victorian bushfires, Hurricane Katrina, Mumbai attack and Sichuan earthquake and has the attention of disaster experts (here is a video featuring the Mayor of San Francisco and a found of Twitter discussing Twitter's uses in emergencies).

    Twitter also can (and is) used for traffic announcements, media notifications, new developments and basically any other form of outbound communication, to help spread information more rapidly in a targeted way.
  • Conversing
    Twitter is also useful as a conversational medium. While messages are very short, conversations occur all the time across a number of topics. People ask for support, information and share experiences all the time.

    Telstra, along with a number of international companies, uses Twitter as part of their customer support framework, listening for mentions of their name and then potentially sending tweets addressing questions or issues.

    It can also be used for asking what people think of a particular service, although this use is still limited to services that are appropriate to an online audience.
Starting out on Twitter
There's some simple steps to getting started
  • Personally set up an account and try out Twitter
    This will give you a personal feel for the service and how you might use it officially.

  • Build the business case
    Decide how you intend to use Twitter and why, explaining how the service will help you achieve your goals. While Twitter is free to use it does require a time commitment, so match your goals with appropriate resourcing.

  • Get the required approvals.
    Twitter could simply be a tool like your website, email or RSS for distributing your media releases - if so you might not require high-level sign-off to begin using the service for this purpose. if you're intending to respond to tweets, that becomes more of a public engagement issue and higher-level approval might be required.

  • Set up your account
    Setting up the account is simple, but you might want to spend some time thinking about the name you wish to use. Many names are already in use so you might need a few options in case your first choice is taken. You can set up your account as protected at first in case you do not want it visible yet.

  • Decorate your account
    Add a simply bio and customise the look to reflect the official status of the account. While Twitter supports limited customisation you can adjust colours and add a logo.

  • Get the word out
    This is best done initially online, via a website link 'Follow us on Twitter', via blogs, emails and tweets from staff members. This helps build an initial awareness of the service and potentially should happen before media releases in order to build a follower list.

  • Start tweeting
    Try and send out regular messages - potentially up to a few per day. This keeps the account active and, as people can view your history, allows them to see that you are active and the account isn't dead.

  • Monitor replies and conversations
    Keep an eye on the replies you get and any discussions that occur online out of your announcements. Even if you are not prepared to respond yet, knowing what people are saying will provide you with further announcement opportunities and builds a future case to engage in two-way conversation.
More information
Here's a great video explaining how Twitter works.

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Monday, April 06, 2009

What's the government's role in improving access to information about government online?

I love the work that Matthew Landauer and a small group of non-partisan, patriotic Australians have done to set up OpenAustralia.

If you're not aware of the site, it's designed to make the discussions on parliamentary floors visible to the public in an easily accessible way.

The site also provides information on Members' interests (on the record) and with further development could also support parliamentarian voting records, track bills and their amendments (and who is proposing them) and more.

OpenAustralia is modeled on (and uses the open-source software developed for) a similar (not-for-profit) UK site, TheyWorkForYou. Further sites of the same type are appearing around the world and attracting significant audiences - demonstrating there is a public interest in political processes and activities by elected representatives.

My question is, should this type of site be developed by individuals in their spare time, or it is an area that the Australian government needs to invest in itself to support the democratic process?

Below is a presentation with more information on OpenAustralia.



And here is a video by the founder/developer of TheyWorkForYou.

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Friday, April 03, 2009

Is Australian egovernment innovation on life support?

I've been reading a post by James Dellow at his Chieftech blog, Using Twitter as a benchmark for Australian local government use of social media.

He compared the 90 out of 468 (approx. 20%) UK councils using Twitter to the 3 out of 677 (less than 1%) Australian councils using the tool to engage online, asked the question,

If you work in local government in Australia I would love to know more about what’s stopping you from experimenting with social media and social computing.


Of course the UK isn't the only nation making extensive use of Twitter and other online tools to engage citizens. The US is on a similar path, with over 300+ US government agencies and politicans officially using the service.

Governments across Europe and Asia are also adopting this and other online tools in a strategic and integrated way.

If anyone has an answer to James' question, I'd like to read it as well.

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Organising a Government 2.0 event in Canberra

Following on from the Canberra Barcamp last week, a subset of the organisers and a group of other volunteers are busy organising a government 2.0 event in Canberra.

The event, which is in initial planning stages, aims to bring together a group of government online professionals to share their experience and knowledge, building a reference group who can support each other in achieving their Department's egovernment goals.

While I am not expecting the event to be as large as the recent Government 2.0 Camp in Washington D.C., which had over 300 attendees and attracted a range of international visitors, I expect many of the most innovative egovernment professionals in Australia to attend and present.

You can find out more about the event, and be involved in the planning process at Gov2.0Canberra.

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Wednesday, April 01, 2009

Google maps talk in Sydney by creator

Google maps were originally developed in Australia and one of the founders of the original company, Dr Lars Rasmussen, now a Google employee, is giving a talk at the Powerhouse museum, "From Australia to the World – The Rise & Rise of Google Maps" on 2 July.

It should be an interesting presentation both on how an Australian company 'made it' on the world stage (having to sell itself to a US company in the process) and on the importance of maps for visualising data.

Google maps have played a key role in informing and supporting people through a number of disasters (including Victorian bushfires) over the last several years - picking up the load where government provided services were not able to cope with peak traffic.

Note this isn't a criticism of government emergency services - it's a reflection on how public agencies rely on the private sector to support them, just as the government relies on traditional media to get disaster information out to the community rather than creating its own specific disaster TV channels, radio stations or newspapers.

Governments can use existing online services to support them in the same way - just as the Vic Premier's office relied on a free gadget creation tool, Facebook, Youtube and other free online services to communicate messages about the bushfires.

I think there is an ongoing need for increasing government collaboration with private services such as Google maps and other mapping services provided by companies such as Microsoft, OpenLayers and open street map.

Why should government provide a service where the private sector does it as well, if not better, than the public sector can?

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