Posts
Bang the Table has released a fantastic little handbook for online community engagement.
Titled 100 Ideas to Help Engage your Community Online the book provides 10 ideas in each of 10 topics.
The book has been released under Creative Commons (BY) - allowing organisations to reuse, share and mash it up for their own needs - provided they attribute the creators.
To help this along, and in recognition that online community engagement is a living topic, I have converted the book into a wiki, allowing anyone to add their own topics and ideas.
I hope this proves useful, and becomes a living resource for online community managers across governments and the private sector.
View the wiki at: http://engageonlineideas.pbworks.com
Or download the original book from: 100 Ideas to Help Engage your Community Online
Thursday, July 08, 2010
100 Ideas to Help Engage your Community Online - the book and the wiki | Tweet |
Tuesday, July 06, 2010
The most popular eGovAU posts for 2009-10 | Tweet |
I've been looking over my posts for the last year and thinking about how many people may have missed some because they didn't notice them for the few days they were on the front page.
So I thought I should highlight some of the most read posts in my blog over the last year. How many had you read?
Where's the payoff? Convincing citizens to engage with government
Governments regularly hold consultations. However what's the payoff for the public? This post explores some of the reasons people engage and how to build online mechanisms that encourage participation.
28 reasons why organisations avoid social media - (try it as bingo)
There's many reasons - good and otherwise - that organisations give for avoiding use of social media. This post provides a guide to 28 of them - designed to be used as 'social media bingo' in your meetings. See if you can address all of them!
Australian government Twitter accounts
One of the most popular posts on my blog isn't a post at all, it's a page listing as many government Twitter accounts from Australia that I can find. Listing around 200 accounts it's a strong reminder that government is already actively engaging online.
Australian Gov 2.0 Taskforce publicly releases final report - and most project reports
The Gov 2.0 Taskforce broke ground internationally in providing recommendations on Government 2.0 to a sitting government. Their final report received accolades globally and the project reports released alongside it have been a treasure trove for aspiring Gov 2.0 professionals.
Youtube offers free branded channels to government departments globally
The news that YouTube was giving away free branded channels to government departments was not widely discussed, however my blog post on the topic has been of ongoing interest to government agencies around the world.
What does 'transparent' mean for government?
This post looks at what transparency really means for Australian governments. It discusses what should and can be transparent and what needs levels of secrecy to run effectively.
Creating a social media policy for your department - here's over 100 examples to draw on
If your agency is engaged via social media you need to consider whether your staff need guidance on when and how to effectively engage to protect both them and you. This post raised awareness of the resources available to develop such guidance.
Saturday, July 03, 2010
Recognising the first followers in Gov 2.0 | Tweet |
When I started this blog the level of online discussion in Australia around Government 2.0 was almost nil.
I didn't set out to be one of the leaders in the Gov 2.0 space, I simply wanted to have good conversations with my peers, to share expertise and knowledge and thereby improve our collective professional skills.
Now there is significantly greater involvement with hundreds of people getting involved in developing and introducing Gov 2.0 initiatives across government and in the not-for-profit and private sectors.
Mandates, to varying degree, are in place at federal, state and local levels and while not all public servants embrace or understand Government 2.0, almost all are aware of it as something they must consider in their planning and future programs.
Government 2.0 could be seen as a movement, beginning overseas and now embraced in Australia. However how does a movement start?
The below three minute video from Derek Silvers's post, Leadership Lessons from Dancing Guy was brought to my attention by Tim Longhurst.
In my view it demonstrates how movements may grow, recognising the vital importance of the first followers - those who are willing to stand alongside a leader and embrace a new movement before it is popular. Those who dare to risk ridicule (or worse) in order to support something that they believe in.
Have you ever dared to be a leader or a first follower? If so this video recognises the risk you took.
And if you're someone who has always hung back until you'd look ridiculous by not joining in - consider being a first follower in the future. You might find it liberating.
Thursday, July 01, 2010
Still on the Internet Explorer 6 web browser? Microsoft tells organisations to ditch it | Tweet |
Microsoft has just released a beta version of Internet Explorer 9, however is still having to ask organisations to stop using Internet Explorer 6 (IE6).
Despite lacking the ability to fully view the modern web IE6, released nine years ago, is still used by a number of Australian organisations, including some government agencies.
The Sydney Morning Herald, in the article Microsoft begs users to ditch IE6 quotes Microsoft Australia's chief security officer, Stuart Strathdee as saying “IE6 has a lifecycle. We’re well beyond its expiry date”.
The article also stated that,
Strathdee said corporate users who haven’t yet upgraded to IE8 fearing the loss of customised ERP and CRM systems were probably running outdated versions of those and should look to upgrade them all. He said the company would be happy to help customers do so.
“It’s only a very small number of queries on those systems that would be locked to IE6,” he said.
“For us security and privacy are closely related. We’re really pleading with people to upgrade.”
Is your agency still using IE6?
If so the question becomes, are your senior management aware of the security and reputation risks they are taking by doing so?
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
The next level for Government 2.0 conferences | Tweet |
Gov 2.0 conferences have become very popular in Australia in the last year, however many are still focused on introducing the concepts of Gov 2.0, rather than exploring some of the aspects, and challenges, of the topic in depth.
Geoff Mason is currently working towards a series of more advanced events, covered in his blog post, Sick of conferences telling you what you already know?.
So if you're finding the regular fare of Gov 2.0 conferences a little too basic or repetitive, have a read of Geoff's post and consider how you could be involved.
