A common complaint among many people is that government, politicians and government entities are not responsive to the needs and concerns of average, ordinary citizens. That there are no easy, direct routes for ordinary people in order to have meaningful communications and relationship with government and the people who run it.
An initiative I wrote about a while ago called Government 2.0 is an example of a massive effort on the part of government to directly engage citizens through the creative and innovative use of social media such as blogs, Twitter, Facebook, RSS feeds, and other web 2.0 technologies. I’ve been wading into the pool of government 2.0 initiatives the past few months and have found some very fascinating stuff. On the surface, a lot of it seems to be good, ready access to officials. The true test of whether or not these efforts are sincere and truly an honest effort to engage citizens, is if average, ordinary folks who wish to be engaged with government can actually engage government using these tools.
By that, I mean does the government entity or official using social networks censor critical comments in blogs or Facebook pages? Do government officials actually monitor their Twitter and Facebook accounts and do they actually read the messages from citizens? Do these officials act on these messages that are directly or indirectly apparent in their work? Do these regular citizens who contact government officials actually get a response? Are these responses real responses instead of just form letters?
Another measure which I think is more telling is can activists — another name for engaged, politically active citizens who are organized into interest groups — avail themselves of these technologies and are these technologies useful to their advocacy work? Do activists find using these technologies easy and communicating with officials through these channels an effective way to engage with government? Does the use of these technologies actually result in access for activists? In short, does the use of such technologies actually result in a more transparent, more responsive government? By doing, so, is society more democratic as a result?
Engaging with Gov 2.0
OK, now that we have established that government offices, officials and politicians are on Facebook, Twitter, blogs, etc., now what? What’s the best way for ordinary citizens and activists to engage government using these tools? Should you just start Tweeting away? Should you start Facebook-friending your government official, office and politician of interest or become a fan of their Facebook page? What about blogs – do you just start reading and commenting on the blogs?
I guess I am trying to ask the question of how does one have meaningful engagement using these tools? If you are an activist organization which generates lots of press releases, for example, is it a good idea to inundate a government office or official with your press releases? Or how about Twitter messages? How much is too much before someone starts treating your attempts at meaningful communication as spam and therefore ignores you or worse, blocks you?
I think it all goes back to social media 101 — be polite, be respectful, go to it with an attitude of wanting to have an honest conversation, do some listening and observing first before you dive in and start engaging. When you do engage make sure to observe proper behavior and decorum. This should get you started on good footing. The rest is just following the blog, Twitter or Facebook conversation regularly and trying to be a productive and engaged part of the community. After all, isn’t that what social media is all about—fostering community?
Some examples of Government 2.0
Given that I am interested in Philippine-American relations and human rights, Government 2.0 as practiced by the Department of State is something worth looking into. Visiting the web site of the Department of State yields their main links to social media:
Another person of interest is the U.S. ambassador to the Philippines and wouldn’t you know, a simple Google search yields the info that she is a blogger!
The Personal Democracy Forum blog is an excellent source of information about technology and its political use. I saw an article there recently that detailed a new initiative by the State Department to engage with activist groups directly called “Ask U.S.” Their initial effort is a meeting with representatives of activist groups from the Save Darfur Coalition and the Genocide Intervention Network that will be broadcast online. One piece of info I got from that is Special Envoy to Sudan, Scott Gration, is keen for direct channels of communication with the public and civil society groups. His posts in the DipNote blog, therefore, are worth watching out for by people interested in the Sudan and human rights activism in general.
A citizen or activist group, therefore, who wishes to engage the State Department in some way is well-advised to take advantage of these free resources to have a direct conversation with these officials. It is all online, it is all free and it sure as hell beats trying to write emails and letters in hard copy and waiting for a response. Another way a group can use this is to put their press releases online and to put messages in Twitter or Facebook with links to these releases. While it is no guarantee that they will be read, it is good to put the releases out there for the officials (and the public) to see and if they are curious to actually link to it and read it. I would say at the very least, social media is a good supplement to traditional means of disseminating news and press releases through the press and by email to official channels.
