Government 2.0 Transforming the Dialog

In July 2011, the Iceland government crowd sourced the creation of its constitution. The draft, which was presented to Iceland's parliament, was an outcome of the constitution councils engagement with its citizens through Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Flickr. Although a ballsy move by the government, no verdict can be reached immediately on whether it was the right thing to do. Nevertheless, Iceland's out-of-the-box thinking and conviction in the wisdom of the crowds aligns with their strong belief in their educated citizens and the democratic process. There is no doubt that social media has helped democratic movements to express dissent against authoritarian rulers or underperforming governments. But now, governments globally are starting to listen to the public pulse, opinion, and attitude on social networks and are taking action based on it. They are also finding innovative applications to engage public in the conversations.

If done right, listening gives governments the ability to assess, reinforce, or recalibrate based on their findings. It allows them to engage in an honest and open manner with citizens encouraging civic participation. It can be used to preempt disruptive and unlawful behavior to ensure that peace is maintained. It can also be leveraged for a variety of civil services that improve the effectiveness of central and state government initiatives.

Social media is mainstream. There's really no debate any more.

The numbers look like this1 bn people worldwide and approximately 60 mn in India are using various social networks. We can argue whether social networking is accelerating mobile usage in India or vice-versa, the trend globally has been real-time social media (used for information sharing, gaming, and commerce). It has been a huge driver for people wanting to use the broadband services on smartphones. Real-time social sharing features and mobile support have been the main triggers for widespread adoption and significant growth.

With the popularity of the medium used for information sharing, comes expectations.

Transparency, Authenticity, Engagement

Governments globally have integrated social media into their communications and media policies. In the US, 90% of the public sector organizations are using social media for one or more of the following reasons-inform policy decisions, communicate externally to citizens and other organizations, and internally for their own employees and contractors. In India, weve just started to see it emerging. The Ministries of Defense, Space, Youth Affairs and Sports, External Affairs, Tourism, and Law and Order have taken initiative to engage with the public through Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.

Here are a few simple examples of how the

state government and citizens will benefit from

social media

• Real-time updates and communication on crimes and public call-to-action during times of crisis
• Real-time traffic updates on peak traffic times, congested roads, location of public transportation (exact location and status of bus number 7, etc)
• Advance communication on planned and initiated infrastructure expansion projects
• Crowd source ideas and opinions for urban planning initiatives
• Mobilize volunteers and social workers for variety of public help initiatives

In all honesty, there are lot of open questions that still need to be answered.

The rate of adoption and the rapid growth of it for a variety of reasons including human psychology and inclination to build relationships, create networks, engage with people, and drive action indicates that social networking is here to stay and keeping away is not an option. To quote Dave Saunders, madisonmain.com You cant tiptoe into social media. You have to jump into the pool. People have a natural fear of it. But the scary part is not being there. Your customer is already there.