Finding Australian government on social media

It can be quite hard at times to find out who in Australian government is doing what using social media.

However due to a new service from the Victorian government it is possible to easily see what Victoria's state and local governments are doing online.

Hosted at Victoria Online, the social media section provides,

a comprehensive list of social media pages for local, state and federal government. This includes RSS feeds, podcasting, photo sharing and various other online communication tools.

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What's the median age of social network users?

Often it's assumed that teenagers are the main users of social networking tools from Facebook to Twitter.

However the research conducted over the last few years indicates that the real situation is a little different.

Based on the most recent Pew Internet research (of US internet users 18+) the median age of popular social networks are as follows,

• Twitter median user age 31yrs (stable from May 2008),
• Facebook median user age 33yrs (up from 26yrs in May 2008),
• MySpace median user age 26yrs (down from 27yrs in May 2008),
• LinkedIn median user age 39yrs (down from 40yrs in May 2008).

Looking at Twitter in focus, Comscore reported that while 12-17yr olds only made up 12% of visitors to Twitter's website in June 2009 this was double the percentage reported at the same time last year, and 18-24yr olds increased to 18% of visitors compared to 11% last year.

Neilsen data from February also suggests that Twitter is most popularity among older demographics, with adults ages 35-49 having the largest representation on Twitter in February 2009, comprising nearly 42% of the site’s audience.

Pew Internet's profile of a (US) Twitterer also provides useful information on who is Twittering - and why.

Age Distribution of Twitter users (Comscore - April 2009)
Source: http://blog.comscore.com/2009/04/twitter_traffic_explodesand_no.html

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Are Australian public servants prepared to engage online?

At the Gov 2.0 Conference in Canberra last Monday, Minister Tanner said,

“We do want to ensure that we have the capacity for public servants to feel able to engage, and engage in robust discussion online."

His comments were captured in a CEBIT article, Tanner: Gov 2.0 about culture change, not technology - and in the record of the Minister's speech.

Given that there is this level of support, are Australian public servants willing and ready to engage in robust online discussions?

I've seen a lot of individual willingness from public servants to engage online.

There's also a number of projects underway which support this engagement.

On the other side, departments are still deliberating on how to best manage and control online engagement by their staff. Many are still deciding when, how and who they should give permission to engage online, given the potential risks they foresee.

What's been your experience of the progress towards online engagement by public servants?

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Have you entered the Webbys?

The world's top internet award, the Webbys, is now accepting early bird entries for their 2010 awards.

Early bird entries are accepted until 30 October (US time).

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AGIMO launches Web Publishing Guide blog

The Australian Government Information Management Office (AGIMO) in the Department of Finance has launched its first externally facing blog, the Web Publishing Guide Review Project Blog.

As detailed in its About page, the blog is designed to serve two purposes, consultation and demonstration,

1. The team needs to consult with site visitors to ensure the Guide will meet their needs. This consultation will be done via traditional focus groups and through the use of a project blog. The blog will provide a valuable source of user feedback to inform the redevelopment of the Guide.

2. The Guide provides practical information and examples on a range of different topics relevant to website design and maintenance. The team will use the Guide in order to model practical examples of the guidance contained within the Guide. The blog is an extension of this principle. It will provide an example of both a redevelopment project and a blog, demonstrating the processes and governance of each.

AGIMO have chosen to use a Wordpress blogging platform - which minimises the cost and time required to get such a site up-and-running (as do several similar services such as Blogger and Typepad).

The blog is using a post-publication moderation approach (comments are moderated after appearing in the blog - except for those detected as spam or inappropriate which are pre-moderated), which stimulates active conversation. This also indicates that AGIMO is trusting public servants and other web professionals to engage appropriately, which I expect they will.

I hope that this step into the world of online engagement helps other government agencies feel more comfortable with the medium, get past the apparent 'newness' of blogging and focus on the value they can derive.

This value includes being able to connect with constituents and stakeholders and participate directly in conversations, as well as providing agencies with a direct and authentic voice online, ensuring that their views are heard - rather than reinterpreted, or ignored, by the media.

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