Community EngagementOnline

Diana MounterLocal Government and Shires Associations of NSW

Recognising the potential of the web and new media

technology

“...the thing that really grabbed my attention about the web was that there was suddenly this planetary scale infrastructure, where it wasn't just computers to connect to computers, it was millions and millions of eyeballs and human brains connected together... ”

- Professor Nigel Shadbolt, Web Science Research Initiative

Anyone can start a movement

The Blogosphere, Matthew Hursthttp://datamining.typepad.com/gallery/blog-map-gallery.html

Times have changed

the web is accessible to more people

The pressure is on deliver up-to-date information to everyone

who wants it...

in the format they want.

Web 1.0‣hierarchal information structure‣static web pages‣140,000 PDFs‣crafted communications‣approval chains‣one-way communication‣risk-averse‣reactive

Web 2.0: We Believe in Community

‣user centric‣social‣open data‣honesty‣collaborative‣discussions‣publish now‣pro-active

The WEBRecognising the potential of

People are talking about your organisation

(even if you are not online)

Building blocks for creating your

online community

before you start...

It can’t be bought or instantly created

give it time to grow.

Why develop a community?

Where is your community?

What is the purpose?

INFORM CONSULT INVOLVE

Provide services

Increase traffic

Issue awareness

Marketing events Idea generation

Feedback

Case studies

Improvements

Crisis management

Community partnerships

Knowledge sharing

Beta testing

InformUse your homepage

RSS

Email

Blogs

Photos

Video and audio

ConstultFeedback forms

Surveys

Blogs (allow comments)

Discussion forums

InvolveCreate a group

Feedback results

Keep them updated

Be honest

Recognise champions

Understanding the benefits and assessing the risks of

social networks

What’s Twitter?

http://current.com/items/89891774_twouble-with-twitters.htm

...Who is using it?

What about all the other stuff?

A few examples...

Digg

Del.icious

Facebook

Flickr

Twitter

Webchat

RSS

Subscribe

YouTube

*Photo taken from: http://www.flickr.com/photos/barackobamadotcom/3063053014/in/set-72157610170567235/

“Social media rush as Victorian bushfires rage”smh.com.au

Using YouTube, more exposure

Encouraging you to share, making it easy

Leading you discover more of the siteIncentive to subscribe

http://www.islandreefjob.com

Making it easy to follow and view

more media through other

networks

Big call to action

http://www.makepovertyhistory.com.au/

But what if they say something

bad?

Comments?

Risk analysis

• What is the topic?

• What is the environment?

• What are your Resources?

• What’s the Cost?

• Oh, and all that legal stuff...

Experiment!

Don’t worry,it’s just a trial.

Tools you can use

• Wordpress.com and Blogger.com to create blogs, you can customise the design, and control commenting

• Flickr.com or Picasa.google.com for uploading and sharing photos

• YouTube.com or Viddler.com - video sharing networks

• Twitter.com - micro-blogging (VERY popular!)

• Tumblr.com – easy & simple blogging (great for posting multimedia)

• Dapper.net - create RSS feeds step-by-step from your web pages

• Feedburner.com - turns an RSS feed into an Email subscription, and gives you stats!

• Sites.google.com - create your own wiki, share documents, and blog

• Groups.google.com - online and email discussion forum

Low tech tools that are free or low cost:

More info?Find these slides on: http://slideshare.net/diana.mounter

Learn and connect with other web people in the public sector: http://lgwebnetwork.org

Follow me on Twitter: twitter.com/broccolini

Diana MounterLocal Government and Shires Associations of NSW