One small step for public services…
Yesterday hailed a bit of a landmark for our forward-thinking local council in how they use the web to serve local residents.
Like lots of other other councils in the UK, they’ve had a presence in social spaces for a while now, with a Facebook page, Twitter profile and YouTube channel. In the meantime they’ve been working out how they can best use these spaces to actually engage rather than simply represent (disclaimer – this is something we’ve been helping them with).
A simple Twitter conversation yesterday proves that they absolutely do get it. Of course this example is just a start and there’s more that can be done (the conversation happens over a few hours), but it’s a great indication.
One local resident spotted a pedestrian light stuck on red, and tweeted about it at the Brighton & Hove City Council twitter profile:
Not only did the Council respond to thank the person and reassure them it was being looked into…
…but really did have it fixed and tweeted back to confirm:
As I say, this is just a small step, but one that points in a massively positive direction.
Some cities in the US have pioneered the use of social platforms as tools for communicating with their local residents – San Francisco’s SF311 non-emergency Twitter reporting service being a prime example.
Here in the UK however, most of our public sector bodies are still working out how these channels can be used for real public engagement. A quick check through the 129 UK local councils on twitter shows that, with a handful of exceptions (props to Derbyshire County Council), Twitter is used mainly as a means of pushing information out, at best soliciting feedback via surveys on their own websites.
Given the logistics involved in communicating with all of the residents of Brighton who are on Twitter, I’m not suggesting this single event sets a definite precedent (though others may disagree), but it is indicative of a forward-thinking attitude towards how the social web can be used and has definitely generated some good karma.
Max St John wrote this on 06.11.09 – 3 comments
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On November 6th, 2009 at 12:14 pm, Tweets that mention One small step for public services… @ NixonMcInnes: Social media goodness. Translated. Created. Delivered. -- Topsy.com responded:
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On November 6th, 2009 at 6:49 pm, Adam responded:
Brilliant. There’s been countless times that if there were an easy way to report – or comment – on whats happening in my ‘hood I’d have used my voice.
This is a really nice example of encouraging conversations – and putting a type of organization typically associated with being inaccessible within easy reach of their audience. Good on the council for daring to embrace the ‘new’.
IMO this an application of good common sense that other public bodies should take note of .
On November 9th, 2009 at 12:24 pm, Nigel Cooper responded:
Great to see local councils embracing social meda… the more access points they create and the closer we are to being able to contact them the better we will feel about our public services. Nice to see Brighton and Hove are still ahead of the curve :-)