LocalGov 2.0

Is there anything ickier than dog poo in your path?

Stirling Council has a print/radio/social campaign to remind people to bag it and bin it. And there's a great council web page which brings all the elements together.

Corrinne Douglas writes: "We wanted the message 'bag it bin it' to come from everyone, not just the Council so we got the national charity Dogs Trust to support us and designed the campaign around participation by dog owners and their dogs via a Facebook album that will eventually be replicated as a wall of honour in our next Council magazine. We also made a humorous film for YouTube to give our campaign a light hearted feel while getting a serious message across too."

Normally, the LocalGov2.0 blog is reserved for matters local, sometimes state and regional. But never national! Oh dear, making an exception. But this is a good one, this is the kick off to Obama's 2012 campaign. And we know what a campaign2.0-er he is, so no doubt there will be lots to learn.

They've revamped the barackobama.com site today in time for the kick-off. And less is more in this case with a completely stripped back site, looking clean and ready for the fight. (I'm sure we'll see stuff added in over time.)

Already there's one cool feature...the prominent use of Facebook connect. Yes, you can sign up to the site with just an email address and a zip code (you'll be asked to provide more later) - but just as prominent is the Facebook connect button. And if you look at the graphic above, you'll see just how much information and power you'll be giving to the campaign. Which, of course, as a supporter - you'll be happy to do.

Are any local parties or candidates using Facebook or FB connect well in the UK? I can't feature you during campaign times, but I would LOVE to know so I can feature you in revamped Connected Councillors or I might know a friendly service that can share what you're up to. Tweet me or drop me an email at ingrid.l.koehler AT gmail.com

This example kinda stretches the boundaries of this blog (examples of social media use in local public services) but it's an important boundary to cross. The Guardian is trying to build up a map of where library cuts protests will be taking place across the UK this weekend (5 Feb 2011). Local campaigners across the country (world?) are using Twitter and the hash tag #savelibraries to galvanise, organise and swap ideas.

The Guardian is asking for Twitter based reports (and they also provide an online form if you're not on Twitter) simply using the postcode and a bit of info about the level of protest - to map where these are occurring.

One to watch.

It's been in the news (see this Guardian article). Manchester police have been tweeting all calls over a 24 hour period. It's been an interesting and effective way to show the range of police calls - it's not all break-ins and bust-ups. A lot of it is what's been described as 'social work' - 'confused man reporting his television isn't working', etc. My favourite was the tweet that described a call to deal with a man who was holding a baby over a drop to the water below, but it turned out to be a man who was carrying his gephyraphobic dog over a bridge.

Of course, this was a short campaign - and by all accounts an effective one. But why not share this kind of information publicly more often? Where I grew up, people listened to police radio traffic on a scanner and the campus police reports were a daily must-read in my university newspaper, e.g. "Complainant reported student asleep on lawn of Baptist student center holding a rubber chicken" (And the Crimelog is now published online.)

If we had access to information on the daily delivery of public services, it wouldn't be talked up every day on the Today programme of course, but open data and social media tools can help public services become transparent in a way that was never possible before.

You can see all the tweets here across the three accounts they used courtesy of The Guardian.

It seems like we're miles away from an election right now, but the next local polling in England might just be the social media election we didn't quite get in May.

Stephanie Noble describes a local election in Newark, New Jersey and the role that social media played in getting an 'underfunded', underdog candidate a place on the city council. Since she's a social media consultant, we probably need to take it all with a teeny grain of salt and there are certainly questions I would ask about ROI of certain tools.

However, she does describe a whole array of social media tools including the first use I've heard of Foursquare (a location based game) in a local campaign. I doubt Foursquare would work in the UK, but since it began in New York it may have greater penetration in a city just across the river. She describes how they measured penetration of messages using link-shortening service (bit.ly) and includes certain measures of success on Twitter and Facebook and YouTube.

In the end, her candidate won by just 11 votes. A squeaker! In hotly contested races, social media may just provide the edge.

The previous government proposed to introduce charges in Richmond Park, the largest enclosed park in Europe and an oasis of calm in the hustle and bustle of London.

Park users who were used to a free parking in several lots within the park opposed the plans (vehemently). Residents who lived near pedestrian and roadway gates in the park also opposed them as they feared that park visitors would use residential roads to park especially on Sundays when there's traditionally no enforcement of parking. The surrounding councils (Wandsworth, Richmond and Kingston) opposed the charges on their behalf. The other side of the argument was that imposing charges could be used to maintain the car parks and that it would encourage use of public transport and cycling to access the park. There was a public consultation on the charges and despite overwhelming opposition from consultees the charges were to go ahead.

So naturally opposition sprang up on Facebook. Wandsworth Council started a Facebook group. And a far more popular group was also started that was associated with Zac Goldsmith - then a Conservative PPC. (As far as I can tell, the only dispute between ZG and the incumbent he beat - Susan Kramer - was an arcane procedural bun fight over who was using the best tactics to defeat the charges.)

So were the Facebook campaigns a success? Who can say? The government changed and the charges were scrapped. But the Facebook groups provided a useful point of information and opposition to the charges. And perhaps the Facebook groups were less about providing leadership than demonstrating that politicians and institutions understood the concerns of those living in Southwest London.

I was reminded of the campaign this morning when reading through my council's magazine which included a feature on the issue. Apparently, not only are the parking charges to be scrapped, but so are any plans to re-surface the car parks. Instead they will be kept as they are 'preserving their rural character'. Ha!

(Disclosure - I am a Wandsworth resident and park user. I opposed the charges, responded to the formal consultation and joined both Facebook groups. I don't mind if the car parks maintain their 'rurality'.)

The New York Public Library may well be the queen of municipal libraries. Featured in films and fabled among the public radio listening classes of the US, I've admired it from afar my whole life even though I've never climbed its famous steps guarded by stone lions.

But even such hallowed institutions are not immune from budget cuts and the New York Public Library system with all its many branches across the city was facing cuts of at least $37 million which would lead to reduced services across the city and opening hours slashed to a mere a three days a week in some branches.

But everyone knows how unpopular cuts to libraries area and NYPL leveraged social media to save its services. Many of its users are already remote as it has a significant e-library offering and online information services which are used by people across the city and state (and beyond).

NYPL used its Facebook page to campaign against cuts. You won't see much there now, as the campaign was largely successful and a recent Facebook update linked to their website thanking those who campaigned on behalf of the library. (And interestingly there's still a donate button, as in the US it's accepted practice for people to donate to public library book funds.)

But while the campaign was going on, NYPL was using its Facebook page and its blogs as it always does, to promote its service in a a fun and uplifting way. For every message asking for support against cuts, there were two sharing stories of success, promoting reading programmes or letting people know about special events or sometimes just some fun link related to reading or libraries. (Like this one to the funniest library videos ever made )

In the US as in the UK, there are disclosure rules around political ad materials, leaflets, etc. In Florida, they've just passed new legislation which recognises that online ads are different. In response to a legal wrangle from a mayoral candidate who bought cost-effective Google ads and Facebook margin ads, but who didn't want to include the usual disclosure link - as it would have been the whole ad.

As reported by Oh My Gov:

Authored by state Rep. Eric Eisnaugle (R-Orlando) and Sen. Victor Crist (R-Tampa), the new law stipulates that online advertisements under 200 characters long are exempt from traditional disclosure requirements --- the "I'm Blahdy Blah & I approve of this message" spiel and accompanying small print that says "Funded by the Group To Get Joe Schmoe elected." --- as long as the online ad links to a website containing the required disclosures.

The measure, tacked onto a larger Florida House Bill and signed into effect by Gov. Charlie Crist, is in response to a local suit between Scott Wagman and the Florida Elections Commission. Mr. Wagman, one of 10 mayoral candidates for St. Petersburg, bought cost-effective ads that popped up whenever his opponents' names were Googled, in addition to some generic Facebook margin ads. Wagman's campaign maintained that disclosure laws for traditional media needed to be translated for new media because of the limited text space on such ads and the inclusion of a link to his actual campaign website. Last summer, Mr. Wagman was merely another mayoral-hopeful. Little did he know that his online ads would spark a precedent-setting lawsuit on campaign disclosure in the state of Florida.

Changing times requires sensible changes to regulation.

I'm not sure what the rules would be in the UK, given that Facebook and Google allow you to target very locally and inexpensively enough to be within local campaigns budgets.

You may know Al Franken from his comedy stylings, but now he's the junior Senator from Minnesota. And he's supporting the city of Duluth in the Google Fiber for Communities programme. This video campaign is encouraging residents (and I guess fans) of Duluth, Minnesota to receive truly transformational internet infrastructure in this Google experimental project.

According to Google:

Google is planning to launch an experiment that we hope will make Internet access better and faster for everyone. We plan to test ultra-high speed broadband networks in one or more trial locations across the country. Our networks will deliver Internet speeds more than 100 times faster than what most Americans have access to today, over 1 gigabit per second, fiber-to-the-home connections. We'll offer service at a competitive price to at least 50,000 and potentially up to 500,000 people.

From now until March 26th, we're asking interested municipalities to provide us with information about their communities through a Request for information (RFI), which we'll use to determine where to build our network.

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Cool. The deadline is nearly upon them. I can't say I wish them luck, because I don't know if any Tennessee cities are in with a chance (and I gotta support my state). But I'm really impressed with this effort and how Duluth is integrating its city's aspirations with better access to the Internet.

Maybe Google could do something like this in the UK?

(via @newscoma - Can we have fiber in Hoots?)

After months of campaigning, the Oyster Card readers at Highams Park station were finally activated on 2 January 2010.

Although they were installed months and months ago, the weren’t activated, meaning people using the station were having to pay higher rail fares.

The Lib Dem Focus Team have been as frustrated as anyone that the readers weren’t working - as my picture shows! We’ve been campaigning with the Lib Dem group in the Greater London Authority to get the readers working. Now travelcard and Pay As You Go customers can use the machines.

We appreciate the pressure residents have been putting on the Mayor’s office, TfL and the national rail operators to get the readers working. It is long overdue, but still good news.

Liberal Democract Cllr nominated himself for the Glum Councillors for this photo on Twitter. But I'm picking it up here because it's a good example of a councillor blog being used for issues campaigning. In this case, being able to use Oyster cards on overground trains in London.