Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Saturday, July 19, 2008
IPAC Page on Facebook
Yes, IPAC now has its very own facebook page. We have decided to join this social networking phenom. I started out by joining facebook last August and have connected with a few friends. A couple of weeks ago I created an IPAC facebook page and just today we added the facebook "button" (thanks Jess!!) to the website - it is on your right at the bottom of the column. If you are not a facebook member you can still see the page by clicking on the button. But if you want to see the pictures and and network and participate in the discussions, you must join facebook.
This is just another method of connecting across the country and around the world.
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
The Power of Public Information
A friend recently sent me a link to a very interesting website, from where else, but the UK.
The UK government has embarked upon an engagement process with its citizenry to make the reams of information that is produced by government more useful and relevant to users. This means developing better performance metrics as well as some simple things such as making relevant data more accessible and not hidden on some obscure website or some inaccessible publication. On this website they have created a wiki to engage with citizens and create a mechanism for idea generation and discussion. And they have created a contest, with a prize pool of £20,000 for the best ideas. Want to see more? Go to the “Show Us a Better Way” website
I think this is a great idea. We could probably use the same type of citizen engagement mechanism here is Canada given the plethora of information from the 3 orders of government, from educational institutions (school boards, colleges, universities), from health care providers (hospitals, regional health authorities, nursing homes, etc) and from many other public sector bodies. Would it be nirvana to think that we could develop measures that are comparable across the country? Would it be nirvana to provide citizens with the information they need in a clear, concise and easily understandable form? I’m giving some thought on how we can emulate the work in the UK here in Canada. You got any ideas on this, either comment below or you can e-mail me at gsekaly@ipac.ca or you can join the discussion on new IPAC facebook site! (Yes I have created an IPAC facebook site – will be publicising it more broadly shortly).
I want to thank my friend Peter MacLeod from MASS LBP for drawing this to my attention.
Nova Scotia AGM – “Excellence in Public Administration”
I recently attended (June 18th) the Annual General Meeting of the Nova Scotia Regional Group. In addition to the normal AGM business, the meeting featured a panel on “Excellence in Public Administration” that included senior representatives from the three orders of government, namely, Robert Fowler, DM to the Premier and Clerk and Secretary of the Executive Council; Deborah Windsor, VP of the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency; and Dan English, CAO of the Halifax Regional Municipality. The panel discussion was ably chaired by Rodger Gregg the New Professionals rep on the NS Regional Group. And I had the pleasure of saying a few words in introducing the topic of excellence in public administration.
The AGM was well attended and was run with upmost efficiency by the Jeannine Lagassé, chair of the Nova Scotia Regional Group. The panel discussion took place following the end of the “formal” AGM business.
Deborah Windsor spoke about leadership and the need to create an innovative environment for staff; where staff is committed to the organization’s objectives and its values and ethics. She also spoke about the need to take risks and learning from our mistakes. On the learning front, Deborah mentioned the requirement from the Clerk of the Privy Council that 90% of staff across the federal public service have a learning plan and the ACOA learning account for each employee of $2000.
Robert Fowler emphasized that the public service provides a “sense of purpose”. He recounted that he is an accidental public servant – started over 30 years ago with a plan to only stay a couple of years in the public service. He spoke about being proud of being a public servant and how to bring out the best in people. He recounted how he had received an e-mail from a young public servant who had been involved in the evacuation of residents outside Halifax as a result of the recent fire and how he described his sense of purpose as a public servant.
Dan English spoke about the need to implement a culture of continuous improvement and citizen centered delivery; and of the challenges of managing and recruiting staff within the generational diversity that organizations are now facing. The development of outcome focused indicators and performance reports that are understandable by citizens were also another theme of his talk.
All three spoke about the pride of working in the public service and contributing to the development of Canadian society.
It was a great session and I was very happy to be back in Nova Scotia.
Monday, July 7, 2008
Social Networking
On June 16/17thIPAC held its Governance Dialogue Knowledge Network. The theme for this meeting was “Virtually Yours: Leveraging Social Media and Building Relationships with Citizens”.
I unfortunately could only attend part of the session as I was flying out to Halifax to participate in the Nova Scotia Regional Group’s AGM (subject of my next post). But what I did hear about social networking and the increased use of web enabled technologies confirmed that governments in Canada still have a long road ahead of them.
On Monday evening, Brent Bernie, President of comScore Canada gave us an overview of the penetration of the internet into everyday life in Canada and around the world. From its start in the mid-1990’s the number of people now online has reached 815 million and is projected to hit 1 billion by March 2010! That’s a lot of people interacting in cyberspace. And the connection to the internet is a worldwide phenomenon – in 1996 66% of users were US citizen; in 2007 US citizens accounted for 20% of the 815 million users. In Canada, nearly 24 million Canadians are on-line – an astounding 72% of the population. This surpasses the US (60%), the UK (54%), Japan (42%), etc. And, Canadians spend the most time on-line at 45 hours per visitor per month (and you are doing it right now while you read this blog!!). What is even more interesting is that this “addiction” to the net is in all age and demographic groups – 77% of 2 to 17 year olds are on-line; 89% of 18 to 34 year olds; 87% of 35 to 54 year olds and 49% of those over 55 years of age. Canadians are not only addicted to the web in general terms, they also top usage of Social Networking sites like facebook, MySpace, etc. An astounding 84% of Canadian web users are using social networking sites. This same trend is evident for sites such as YouTube and for blogs. This means that Canadian citizens are using the internet to connect to government information and services and that government may be better able to connect with citizens using these networking sites.
On Tuesday morning, Joe Thornley, CEO of Thornley Fallis spoke about how governments can utilize the social networking explosion. He pointed to some examples where public organization have used the web – such as the Privacy Commissioner of Canada who has established a blog that pulls no punches, a video on YouTube and a youth site – go to http://www.privcom.gc.ca/index_e.asp and have a look.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown is using YouTube as a “Question Period” from the public. Citizens have been encouraged to send in (via YouTube) questions for the PM and he will be answering the top-voter user questions. Check it out here - http://www.youtube.com/10DowningStreet . This may become an ongoing QP for the PM. The UK is also using the web for e-petitions. Basically, citizens can send in their petitions via the website and then one response is posted (see http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/ for information). Imagine the time savings if you only have to post a response to a petition rather than sending out individual letters to every person who has sent in the same form letter!! And here’s a helpful tip for those in the communication business – the UK uses Twitter to send out short updates to journalists and others interested in the news from No. 10 (http://twitter.com/downingstreet).
It is not only No. 10 that is using the web – the Foreign Office is as well. The Foreign Secretary, members of different embassies, and a new professional each have blogs on the site (https://blogs.fco.gov.uk/roller/ ). As I write this today, there are blog posts from embassy staff in Zimbabwe.
So what does this all mean? According to Joe, this social networking phenomenon means that we are returning to the direct participation of citizens in government given the ease by which groups can be formed and people can come together. It also means that the government can no longer control the conversation – rather it can only play a part in it. The ease at which people can gain access to information (the democratization of information) means that no one has a monopoly on knowledge. Government is a source of authoritative information, but it is no longer the only source! Whereas in the past, governments may have focussed on a “campaign” to get their message out, we have now moved to a time when governments must develop a relationship with citizens.
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