Tune in to hear from Dr Jennifer Robinson from the Utah University’s Center for Public Policy and Administration and Rich Olsen from Utah Interactive talk about the findings from the report, and the importance of  measuring the impact of online service delivery.

When we go to agencies, it’s really a great story to be able to say “We know times are tough, we know budgets are down, we know things are getting slashed – and it might sound a little counter-intuitive but maybe you should invest in an online service.”  The fact of the matter is, it saves money and in the long run it saves a lot of money.

About Dr. Jennifer Robinson

Jennifer Robinson serves as the Director for the Center for Public Policy & Administration at The University of Utah.  With a solid commitment to both scholarship and practice, Dr. Robinson works to ensure that research contributes to sound policy making, implementation, and administration.

Dr. Robinson is held in high regard in both the business and government communities for her work as well.  She is a member of the Salt Lake Chamber’s Capitol Club, the Utah League of Cities and Towns’ Policy Advisory Board, and the University of Utah’s Veterans Day Committee.  In the past several years, Dr. Robinson has done extensive research on elections, political participation, and governance. Dr. Robinson’s current projects include a number of research projects for local and state governments, co-editing a book with Dr. Patton on policies in the western United States, and developing a book on American Indian political behavior based upon the research completed for her dissertation.

About Rich Olsen

Rich Olsen is the General Manager of Utah Interactive, a subsidiary of NIC., the leading provider of e-government services in the USA.  He has more than 13 years of experience leading a wide-range of online service deployments on behalf of public sector entities. In his current role, Mr. Olsen leads NIC’s management of Utah.gov, including the ongoing development of Web 2.0, e-commerce and other digital solutions delivered by the State through Utah.gov.

Based in Salt Lake City, Mr. Olsen leads NIC’s team of software engineers, designers, project managers and marketing executives working solely on Internet initiatives that bring government closer to citizens. During his tenure in Utah, Utah.gov has placed first in the Center for Digital Government’s “Best of the Web” rankings, which honor outstanding government portals and Web sites based on their innovations, functionality and efficiencies, in both 2007 and 2009.

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Episode links and resources

• Utah.gov
• University of Utah’s Center for Public Policy and Administration
• Report on Financial Benefits of Online e-Government Services in Utah (pdf)
• Blog post from Utah CIO Dave Fletcher on the report: The efficiency of E-Government
• Utah Interactive

60-second snapshots

On why measuring online service delivery is important:

On lessons learned building Utah.gov:

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Content comes first when it comes to delivering sustainable digital public services at Devon County Council. Carl Haggerty, Digital Communications Manager for the Council shares his insights on the importance of a digital content strategy, where his approach to designing services, not websites or platforms, is transforming the way the organisation interacts with its citizens.

Carl also discusses the UK Digital Government Service, and asks the question of whether there needs to be a Local Government Digital Service.

Developing the digital content strategy was about asking: What is the content? What’s it saying? How is it managed? How is it being shared? How is it being governed? All those kinds of issues about the content – that’s the only thing that mattered, it didn’t  matter which technology platform it sat in.

About Carl Haggerty

Carl Haggerty is Digital Communications Manager at Devon County Council, which is essentially about championing and developing the digital agenda within the council as well as being responsible for the councils corporate web presence and intranet. Carl is fascinated and keen to explore how people interact with information and technology to enable and facilitate local and global change.

Carl is also the Citizenscape Product Owner with Public I – A leading supplier of e-participation products and services to the public sector by supporting the strategic use of technology for communication and engagement and democratic renewal. His role is to champion strategic technical enhancements and the end user experience.

Carl has worked in Local Government for 16 years, with the last 10 in and around ICT, Communications, Web and Social Media. He was the first county council employee to publicly blog about his work and has been instrumental in encouraging and exploiting the use of social technologies within the council. Carl continues to promote the benefits of the web and social technologies across the Council. Carl has had a varied background working in Local Government on issues such as Strategic ICT, Communications and Marketing, Sustainable Development, Community Engagement & Development, Tourism and Economic Development.

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Episode links and resources

• Carl Haggerty
  Blog: http://carlhaggerty.wordpress.com
  Twitter: @carlhaggerty
  LinkedIn – http://www.linkedin.com/pub/7/1b2/99b
• Devon
  Council website
  News Centre
  In Devon
  Devon Strategic Plan
  Devon SEND pathfinder
  Policy Devon
  Tough Choices campaign site
• Open Space South West
  www.openspacesouthwest.info
  http://carlhaggerty.wordpress.com/2012/05/16/announcing-open-space-south-west-openssw/
  http://carlhaggerty.wordpress.com/2012/05/25/behind-the-scenes-of-open-space-south-west-openssw/
• Blog Posts
  http://carlhaggerty.wordpress.com/2012/03/13/devons-content-strategy/
  http://carlhaggerty.wordpress.com/2012/02/03/news-centre-the-content-strategy-in-action-sort-of/
  http://digital.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/2012/03/07/does-local-government-need-a-local-government-digital-service/

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• Tags: #gov20 #localgov

In “Revolution @ State” Fergus Hanson – Visiting Fellow from The Brookings Institution – explores practical cases of what US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has called ‘creative diplomacy’ and 21^st Century Statecraft.

A useful reference for agencies of all sizes, this wide-ranging report describes how the US Department of State has infused the use of connective tech through all aspects of their mission in a whole-of-organization approach, from operational development through to public diplomacy.

It became apparent that the US State Department was in a league of its own… there was a real cultural difference I think where the Department had really taken a position on modernizing.

About Fergus Hanson

Fergus Hanson is the Director of Polling at the Lowy Institute and is currently a Visiting Fellow in e-diplomacy at the Brookings Institution in Washington DC. He has a Masters in International Law from the University of Sydney and his published thesis focused on regional stability in the Pacific.

Fergus worked for the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) from 2004 to 2007. From 2005 to 2007 he served at the Australian Embassy in The Hague where he was responsible for Australia’s relations with five international legal organisations and domestic political issues.

Prior to joining DFAT he was a fellow at Cambridge University’s Lauterpacht Research Centre for International Law. Fergus has also studied at Uppsala University.

Fergus was a visiting Vasey Fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Pacific Forum from November 2010 to January 2011. He was awarded a 2011 Professional Fulbright scholarship to pursue further research on e-diplomacy and the use of opinion polling by foreign ministries at Georgetown University.

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Episode links and resources

• Revolution @ State: The spread of Ediplomacy – Report by Fergus Hanson
• US Department of State 21st Century Statecraft policy
• US Department of State Office of eDiplomacy
• Initiatives
  • Diplopedia wiki
  • Communities @ State blogs
  • Corridor
  • Virtual Student Foreign Service
  • Tech@State
  • TechCamp
  • Enterprise Search
  • Idea Exchanges
  • Virtual Presence Posts (VPPs)
  • Collaboration Clearinghouse

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  @BrookingsFP
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• Tags: #ediplomacy

Amanda Eamich from the US Department of Agriculture joins us to share some insights into her approach to including new media as part of the communications mix for the Department.

I always stress that we have an “And / Also” approach – we’re not going to throw out talking to newspapers and radio – these channels are extremely important, particularly in the agricultural industry and communities.

Amanda also talks about how to infuse innovation, open government and new media channels into the broader activities of the Department:

We definitely think through the entire lifecycle before jumping into any new tool or service, just to make sure we understand it fully and how it will help us achieve whatever the particular objectives are.

About Amanda Eamich

Amanda serves the U.S. Department of Agriculture as the Director of Web Communications, Office of Communications. Here she manages the Department’s web site and new media operations and strategic planning. The policies and programs of the USDA impact the lives of Americans every day – from food, agriculture, and science to natural resources – and there is an ever-present opportunity to communicate our mission effectively using new media. New media provides an outstanding opportunity for USDA to connect with consumers, customers and employees in new and interesting ways on a wide variety of topics and issues.

Recent efforts include the Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food social media outreach, MyPlate, Apps for Healthy Kids competition, Open Gov efforts and developing overall strategic guidance for a wide range of communication campaigns throughout the Department.

Prior to joining the Office of Communications, Amanda served as a press officer for the USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service.

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Episode links and resources

• USDA New Media Channels
• Energy Investments Map, Matrix and Tool
• USDA at 150 – information and sign up for the Historical Facts and Photo series
• Recipes for Healthy Kids Challenge
• Apps for Healthy Kids Challenge and Game Jams that extended the conversation and expanded community of solvers
• Farmers market directory (also mobile optimized)
• USDA Results – example of “And/Also” approach of the standard 2-page PDF documents where key data points and accomplishments were extracted and paired with compelling photos from our the USDA catalog. Photos used throughout the Department, as Facebook cover, Flickr gallery
• “Think through the lifecycle” and “be prepared” – official one-page request form (AD-3022) that the USDA team requires that people think through before submitting new channel or tool requests
• Celebrating successes – a 2011 countdown with some favorites – new tools included!

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As the use of social and digital tools in the public sector increases, UK digital engagement advisor Steph Gray is helping to answer some of the knotty questions about how to maximise the value of digital engagement efforts and investment.  In March 2012, he launched the Digital Engagement Guide, a collection of ideas and practical help to use digital and social media in the public sector.

Digital engagement is about embracing the fact that these digital channels are interactive – that when you put something out there people reply to you: you need to answer questions, you need to respond to criticism, you need to engage in discussions that are already happening in places that you don’t control.

About Steph Gray

Steph is a digital engagement strategist and practitioner. In plain English: he writes digital strategies, manages projects, builds websites and delivers training and mentoring.

Steph was formerly Head of Digital Communications at the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, leading a team managing corporate websites, digital engagement/social media, online public service delivery and internal digital channels. Under his leadership, the team earned a reputation across and beyond Government for practical innovation in support of the Department’s work, including pioneering approaches to online consultation, work with online communities and social media monitoring.

Steph is now a consultant, developer and coach to clients, helping them to use low-cost digital tools and techniques including social media to engage their audiences, work more collaboratively and save money. About half his work is still with UK central government. He also hosts a number of events aimed at digital practitioners, including MailCamp, a seminar on public sector email marketing and UKGovcamp, which brings together over 200 people interested in the public sector’s use of digital.

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Episode links and resources

• Digital Engagement Guide by Helpful Technology
• UK GovCamp as well as MailCamp and GrantsCamp
• Social Simulator
• Martha Lane Fox report Directgov 2010 and Beyond: Revolution Not Evolution
• UK Government G-Cloud service
• UK Government Digital Service

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• Tags: #mailcamp #ukgovcamp #ukgc12

We’re hoping that this event starts to spawn some conversations about making technology work for everybody – making technology work not just for large jurisdictions, heavily populated jurisdictions, urban jurisdictions but also working for some of those rural jurisdictions and all those places in between.

About Jessica Jackson and Michael Walter

• Jessica M. Jackson, Regional Crisis Information System Administrator for the Southeast Texas region has served the state of Texas in different capacities in the field of Emergency Management since 2006.  Jessica has worked several major incidents throughout the State of Texas including numerous Hurricanes; winter weather storms; wildfires; wide-spread flooding events; and other severe weather related hazards. Her area of emphasis focuses on emergency management technology systems, which help prepare for, respond to, recover from and mitigate natural and man-made disasters.Jessica graduated from the University of Houston with a Bachelor’s Degree in Public Policy and Political Science and received her Masters Degree in Public Administration from Walden University.
• Michael Walter is the Public Information Officer for the City of Houston’s Mayor’s Office of Emergency Management.  In his position, he coordinates and administers the emergency public information system for the nation’s fourth-largest City.  In his work there, he has been instrumental in the development of strategies for using social media as an emergency communication tool, and the development of a mobile-optimized website for emergency public information. As part of the Houston Urban Area Security Initiative (UASI) he also plays a key role in developing partnerships that seek to use emerging and advanced technology to help residents prepare for, respond to, and recover from catastrophic incidences.Michael holds a Bachelor of Arts in Electronic Media from Northern Arizona University and a Master of Public Service & Administration from the George Bush School of Government & Public Service at Texas A&M University, where he focused on emergency communication response planning. He has previously worked in television news production, higher education, and for a local emergency management agency in southern California.

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Episode links and resources

• 2012 Regional Technology Seminar & Fair

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Tune in for a conversation with Gwynne Kostin from the U.S. General Services Administration about new innovations in m-gov and the programs being developed by the GSA to support agencies in delivering of government services using mobile devices.

The focus of the Mobile Program Management Office is to help Federal agencies to make government information and services available to the public any time, anywhere and on any device… it’s critical for government to try to figure out how to move into this [mobile] space and make government make more sense to where people are.

About Gwynne Kostin

Gwynne Kostin is Director, Mobile in the Office of Citizen Services & Innovative Technologies at the U.S. General Services Administration. She is working with federal agencies to clear a citizen-centric path for mobile access to government.

Gwynne previously was director of GSA’s Center for New Media and Citizen Engagement, where she worked to make it easier for government to engage with citizens and citizens to engage with government through the development of cross agency tools, policies and services. There she launched the government’s free, policy-compliant “build-a-blog” platform apps.gov NOW and the contest platform challenge.gov.

As Director of New Media for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, she drove the use of new technologies to solve business problems creating the department’s first social media strategy, developing a cross-agency web communications model for disaster response, and leading new media communications and strategy for the department’s 22 agencies.

Prior to joining public service, she spent ten years in new technologies, including founding a successful Internet start–up in an association and leading strategic Web communications in health care and education. She enjoys talking to interesting people and figuring out how things work.

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Episode links and resources

• Mobile Gov Community of Practice to support agency practitioners in delivering mobile services
• Making Mobile Gov Project
• Apps gallery inside apps.data.gov which gives agencies some good ideas for mobile apps
• Mobile Gov Wiki to share knowledge
• Mobile Gov Wikithon #5 – a focused gathering to develop the knowledge on the wiki
• Post from Gwynne Kostin on Govloop on the challenges of Gov 2.0 – “Doing Gov 2.0 backwards in high heels”

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• Tags: #mobilegov