making sense

progressive bokeh pt. IV © Raffaella Loro

I've recently been thinking about how various levels of government use various new media/social media tools to engage with their constituents. I've been reading all sorts of studies, reports, conversations about this topic, trying to make sense of portions of it so I can apply it in my job. Although this is above and beyond what I was hired to do, it is not an unnatural extension of my job. This is something I'm doing willingly and on mostly my own time. Have I finally found a niche?

Of the things I've been reading/observing...

Bernie Hogan's "Networking in Everyday Life" via danah boyd

Twitter is Not a Strategy via e-politics

Change Camp Strategy Session Vimeo Summary via (roundabout) Change Camp

Pre-Expert Policy Forum - Draft Research Report Who is Getting the Message? Communications at the Centre of Government via Oliphant Commission

Those are just a sampling of the ideas I've been processing and attempting to draw connections between. I'm trying not to get caught up in the hype of certain tools and instead focus on the issue of apathy. How do we make people interested enough to participate meaningfully? This should be fun.