Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Tipping point for Social Media in Government

Greetings from the Gov 2.0 Canberra lunch in member's dining room of Parliament House, Canberra. Margaret Manning, co-founder of Reading Room (UK) is speak on how social media is changing what people think about organizations. She argues that the Internet has moved on from the web to social media (but with email still being popular).

Margaret identified the iPad as the key point for change (although she is using a paper notepad for her notes, while there is a row of three of us reporting on the talk from an iPad, a netbook and an Android phone. She talked about the "bright young things" from Asia, trained in new IT techniques using concepts such as "gameification"and the use of Facebook. In contrast the UK is relatively conservative in its use of the Internet.

However, I am not sure that there are really substantial changes. But are the new forms of technology really providing for a new need, but aren't these just ways to satisfy individual and group needs which have existed for thousands of years?

The talk was followed by a very lively discussion of the use of social networking in government by people who do Internet for government, in agencies or as consultants.

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