Social Media & Candidates
You may want to read Christina Commisso’s excellent article on candidates using social media to campaign before reading further. Candidates really have a lot more social media presence this time around, but all presence isn’t equal. Simply creating facebook and twitter accounts, and registering a blog isn’t enough. If they are not engaging in a meaningful two-way conversation then they might as well have no presence. Many candidates use social media sites purely for marketing, and not to form connections and start dialogues. Those candidates are not getting...
Read MoreMilton.ca and web feeds
A web feed (news feed, RSS feed, syndicated feed) allows users to subscribe to frequently updated content. All blogs, all news sites and most personal websites have feeds readers can subscribe to. It takes the need to frequently check the site away. You get notified when there’s new content. Why does milton.ca not have feeds for every subsection (it does for the main page. Even if you are in a sub-section, you only get RSS for the main page)? I want to see the list of all registered candidates for the 2010 municipal election. I do not want to have to check the...
Read MoreWeb streaming council meetings …
Based on Halton’s experience, it will cost around $30,000 in yearly operating expenses to “web stream” Council meetings (thanks Tim for pointing it out). That means we’ll be able to watch council meetings, live, from the comfort of our homes. To put it in perspective, $30,000 represents 0.04% of Milton’s operating budget (basically a rounding error). Worth it? Totally! Milton needs to get more involved in Social Networking anyway. This is a great way to start....
Read MoreMunicipalities are antiquated
Every so often I have to send a fax. Rarely do these places accept a scanned copy as an e-mail attachment (it’s the 21st century, can’t they just print it out?) As annoyed as I get at businesses refusing to let go of an antiquated technology most people don’t have access to (fax machines) and adopting technology virtually everyone in Urban Canada uses (e-mail), municipalities are worse. Much worse. Here are some things municipalities must do to modernize their affairs:Put all documents and meeting minutes online, promptly. Do virtual public input session...
Read MoreInternet isn’t changing the character of civic engagement. Sad!
Pew Internet & American Life Project published a study on the Internet & Civic Engagement. Here’s their overview: Political and civic involvement have long been dominated by those with high levels of income and education, leading some advocates to hope that internet-based engagement might alter this pattern. However, a new report by the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project shows that the internet is not changing the fundamental socio-economic character of civic engagement in America. When it comes to online activities such as contributing money, contacting a...
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