Social Media and Governance

Bimal Pratap Shah

What is Social Media?

Websites and applications used for social networking

Engagement

The opportunity of social media and

government is not economic or

technological. Its emotional

Aneesh Chopra CTO of U. S. Government

Humanize

Social Media is not a second website, it’s a community

-Tristram Perry, U. S. State Department

Current Status

• 1.1 Billion Facebook users • 550 Million Twitter users• 1 Billion YouTube users• Pinterest and Tumblr fastest growing social networks• 78% of US Facebook user are mobile• Despite privacy concerns, we still share on Facebook• 27% of time spent online is Social• 7.40 Million photos are posted in Instagram per Day,

When you give everyone a voice and give people power, the system usually ends up in a really good place.

Digital Natives

Political Participation

• Social Media has created new forms of political participation– Like/promote material– Encourage others to vote– Post thoughts on issues– Repost political content– Encourage others to act– Post links to political stories– Belong to political group on SNS– Follow officials/candidates on social media

Gov 2.0

Government 2.0

• Using technology to realize a more open, transparent and consultative form of government.

• Citizens are invited more openly into a participative and empowering relationships with government in at least three main areas:– Service design and delivery– Workings and arrangements of the public sector and

governance– Public policy and decision making

Twitter

Followers• Barack Obama - 33 Million • Turkish President Abdullah – 7.2 Million• Jordan’s Queen Rania – 1 Million +• Russian President Dimitry Medveded • Brazil President Dilam Rouseff• Argentinian President Cristina Fernandez De

Kircher• Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos• Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieton• Prime Minister of UAE Sheikh Mohammed

Cases

Australia

• 50 Federal Agencies now have Facebook page• 100 agencies now have official Twitter

accounts• Agencies are frequently blogging• 133 Web 2.0 related initiatives are currently

being run by government agencies.

Varied usage

• Regulation• Law enforcement• Cross-agency collaboration, • Knowledge and human resource management• Political participation and transparency• Public sector information• Service provision

US Government

• Immediacy, ease of use, and low barrier to entry

• Gov can receive information from population• Connect large populations and remote groups• Entire generation of voters and taxpayers now

expect to communicate and conduct transaction through social media

Australian Government

• Make democracy more participatory• Improves quality and responsiveness of

services like education, health etc• Cultivates and harnesses the enthusiasm of

citizens• Unlocks immense economic and social value• Makes polices and services more responsive

to citizen’s need.

Iceland• Pioneer of the social media use• Constitutional Council posted draft clauses on its

interactive website for public to join a discussion on council’s Facebook page.

• Interviews of members were regularly posted on YouTube and Twitter

• The council received 16,000 suggestions• The council wrote 15 different versions• The crowd-sourced constitution was approved in

a referendum by a 2-1- margin

New Zealand

• Citizen participation in legislation• Police Act wiki was created in 2007 for citizens to

suggest the wording for a new act of Parliament • Wiki produced hundreds of constructive edit• Three main outcomes– Fresh ideas were raised– Increased awareness and engagement in the police

Act’s review– Increased awareness on government’s use of social

media

E-rulemaking

• Use of new digital technologies in the development and implementation of regulations

• US has been implementing e-rulemaking since 1990s

• Social media in E-rulemaking has led to Rulemaking 2.0.

Rulemaking 2.0

• Use social media to – Alert and engage stakeholders and members of

the general public about rulemaking– Build online discussion communities that are able

to support effective rulemaking participation

Regulation Room- a joint initiative of Cornell University and the US Department of Transport.

Knowledge Management

• Diplopedia- a wiki-based encyclopedia for State Department personnel developed to improve diplomacy through information sharing

• 18,000 articles including biographies of foreign leaders and 1200 acronyms

• Nearly 6,000 registered contributors• 35,000 + page views every week• An average user visit of 3.5 minutes per article

Information Sharing

• City of Jakarta- 10 million citizens- considered the second worst city after Bangkok

• Each day six million commuters take two to three hours to travel to Jakarta

• Jakarta police helps the citizens by using a social media application to give real time information of traffic condition

• The Social Media account has a huge following

Using Social Media in Government

• Describe how you can use social media to address the five topics discussed in the chapter– Constitutions and Laws– E-Rule Making– Knowledge Management– Combatting Corruption– Local Government Application

Challenges

• Open is a real challenge• The Desire for control is ingrained in our

genes, our lives, our education• Open can mean out-of-control & chaotic• Openness can create risk• Open may feel unsafe

Open

Anything ‘Social’ must be Open

Extreme Reputation Economy

• The absence of accurate, real time and verified data about you or your business may soon mean that you virtually don’t exist

Privacy

Privacy becomes an action we must take

Thank You