Re: [Soc Med] Best Practice initial draft - discussion

In my experience, there are no/few technical obstacles to use of social
media in government, exactly as there are no/few technical obstacles to
using SOA or any other whizbang you could name. The obstacles are always
non-technical, policy decisions accumulated over the years ("security" and
"governance" to name two of the largest). That's the main cause of the
"taxpayers are sick of waist(sic) and failure" problem you mentioned, not
technology.

Although policy is firmly outside the technical domain, I keep looking for
ways technology to at least grab an edge of it. One hopeful example is DODAF
V2 which is now based on NATO's IDEAS ontology, which puts DoD architecture
on a seemingly firm ontological foundation. The DM2 foundation defines
policy oriented terms alongside technology oriented terms, with IDEAS as the
foundation for both. This opens the possibility that architectural and
ontological descriptions could be cross-linked to support one another
seamlessly. Very notional at this point, but better than just giving up on
policy; govt's real problem, driven by the gotcha (checks and balances)
problem you mentioned.

I'd like to see more W3C involvement in ways technology might actively
engage policy issues, perhaps analogous to the web standards work.

On Wed, Mar 17, 2010 at 10:58 AM, Brian Gryth <briangryth@gmail.com> wrote:

> Chris, Owen, Jeff and others.
>
> I agree and I don't know why I did not add an evaluation element.  I
> suppose that is why this is a draft.  From my reading and research, the key
> measurement standards most use for social media is level of engagement and
> effectiveness of the application (i.e. accessibility and usability).
> Ultimately, Owen's assessment is correct that the evaluation must be based
> on what is the desired outcome.  Results are often overlooked unless the
> project a failure (and in many case evaluation after failure is used as a
> political tool to say gotcha to the opposing side).
>
> Jeff made a comment about the practices being policy heavy.  Although, I
> agree that some technical implementation guidelines would be helpful and I
> believe the W3C social media task group is working on such guidelines.
> Undoubtedly these guidelines will be helpful to government.  However,
> government use of social media does present special use guidelines and those
> guidelines center around sound policy decisions.  As it is the only thing
> guiding government execution of any project.  Social media is a relatively
> new field and experimentation is plentiful.  Experimentation is a great
> thing and I think government needs to more open to it.  However, as Owen
> implies from his comments, taxpayers are sick of waist and failure.  The
> failure and waist support needed for evaluation and also the need for clear
> goals.  If you look at government's use of social media today, you will find
> more lackluster performance than you will find success.  There are probably
> many reasons for this, but one is most likely a lack of a purpose or goal
> for using social media tools.  Whether the goals and purpose need to be well
> defined is debatable, but government needs to put thought into how social
> media is going to be used.  Furthermore, groups, like the US CIO
> council, have stated in reports that the decision to use social media is a
> policy decision and not a technical decision.  I agree with line of
> thinking.  Decision makers need help those responsible with execution by
> providing sound and understandable policy decisions.  These decision makers
> also need to be welling to clarify the decision when asked.  These decision
> makers cannot simply say "I want the agency to use social media to engage
> constituents."   In this example, they need to define what they mean by
> engagement because in the social media world that can mean different
> things.  If we want government to be effective, we need it to start working
> as a system with one understandable goal.
>
> Thanks,
> Brian
>
> On Wed, Mar 17, 2010 at 7:01 AM, Chris Beer <chris-beer@grapevine.net.au>wrote:
>
>> (Will reply to the draft more in depth later)
>>
>> Actually while I see your point Owen - Kerry I feel raises a valid point.
>> Evaluation, or rather, in the strict technie Social Media sense, analytics
>> around useage and engagement level of the technology itself (eg: facebook
>> compared to twitter compared to other SM techs), should constitute a best
>> practice in some way. Just as web content should always be evaluated
>> (accessibility and usability studies being perfect examples of, if not best
>> practice, then accepted practice as part of the use of the technology that
>> drives it) social media likewise should have evaluation/analytics attached
>> to it. In the technological sense, this certainly applies as a suitable
>> focus within the scope - no use having best practice around use if you're
>> using a fire and forget model in using the technology.
>>
>> Cheers
>>
>> Chris
>>
>>
>>
>> On 17/03/2010 11:41 PM, Owen Ambur wrote:
>>
>>  Failure to measure, report, and evaluate the effectiveness with which
>> public resources are being applied constitutes business as usual.
>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Program_evaluation  That is not an outcome
>> to which I would subscribe.
>>
>>
>>
>> Government is about laws, rules, and policies.  Evaluation of how well it
>> is serving those purposes is of the essence.  While laws, rules, and
>> policies are means to ends and policy-makers (e.g., law makers) should focus
>> on the desired outcomes (e.g., the greatest good for the greatest number of
>> citizens), the appropriate focus for the eGov IG is how the technology can
>> best be applied to support the laws, rules, and policies.
>>
>>
>>
>> Owen
>>
>>
>>
>> *From:* public-egov-ig-request@w3.org [
>> mailto:public-egov-ig-request@w3.org <public-egov-ig-request@w3.org>] *On
>> Behalf Of *Webb, KerryA
>>
>> *Sent:* Tuesday, March 16, 2010 5:55 PM
>> *To:* Brian Gryth; eGovIG IG
>> *Subject:* RE: [Soc Med] Best Practice initial draft - discussion
>>
>>
>>
>> How about some form of evaluation?
>>
>>
>>
>> Or is that too 1.0   <g>
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Kerry Webb
>> Policy Office
>> InTACT, ACT Government
>>
>>
>>   ------------------------------
>>
>> *From:* public-egov-ig-request@w3.org [
>> mailto:public-egov-ig-request@w3.org <public-egov-ig-request@w3.org>] *On
>> Behalf Of *Brian Gryth
>> *Sent:* Wednesday, 17 March 2010 7:02 AM
>> *To:* eGovIG IG
>> *Subject:* [Soc Med] Best Practice initial draft - discussion
>>
>>
>>
>> Hello all,
>>
>>
>>
>> I have drafted some initial thoughts on what are some of the best
>> practices for use of social media by Government.  I'd like to hear your
>> thoughts.
>>
>>
>>
>> Here are my questions for the group:
>>
>>
>>
>> Are there additional best practices that should be on the list?
>>
>> Do you disagree with any of the items?
>>
>> What should be clarified or expanded?
>>
>>
>>
>> I compiled my list from several sources. I will add citation later, but I
>> wanted to get something out for discussion.  Please feel free to edit and
>> revise these initial thoughts on the Soc Med best practices wiki page at
>> http://www.w3.org/egov/wiki/SocMed-bestpractices
>>
>>
>>
>> The top six practices that I have identified are as follows:
>>
>>
>>
>> 1) The use of social media is not solely a technical or tool based
>> decision.  It is rather a policy and operational decision that should be
>> based on organizational culture and whether such use advances the mission of
>> the entity.
>>
>>
>>
>> 2) Before using social media tools a governmental entity must clearly
>> define the overall goal and purpose of such use.  As with any project or
>> initiative, development of a strategic plan is critical to success and
>> smooth operation.
>>
>>
>>
>> 3) The governmental entity should develop a social media policy and create
>> guidelines for use by the entity and its employees.  The policy and
>> guidelines for employees should cover representation of agency by an
>> employee as well as how personal use can impact the agency.
>>
>>
>>
>> 4) The governmental entity should identify communities of interest or core
>> constituencies that the entity should actively engage.  Engagement should
>> not focus around the entities web presence rather constituencies should be
>> engaged where the constituents have a presence.  However, the entity should
>> be mindful that the entity is a guess of these groups when the entity begins
>> to engage and that online communities will more readily accept the entity on
>> its ability to add value to the community.  It is also important to be
>> mindful that constituent groups are both external and internal.
>>
>>
>>
>> 5) The governmental entity should assure that the entity is accessible.
>> Social media should not be the sole channel of communication or engagement
>> by a government.  Instead social media should be one of multiple channels to
>> contact and interact with the agency.  It is also highly useful for the
>> entity to create a directory of the entity's social media accounts and to
>> post this information on the agencies Web site.
>>
>>
>>
>> 6) A governmental entity needs to embrace a willingness to experiment.
>> Social media use should be initiated in small pilot projects that maximize
>> potential success and allow for the pilot to "fail fast and fail small."
>> Each pilot and the overall social media strategy must be allowed to evolve
>> and change (i.e. the social media strategy is in perpetual beta).
>>
>>
>>
>> Thanks,
>>
>> Brian
>> twitter.com/briangryth
>>
>>
>>
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>


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