A blog about government-to-citizen digital communication and engagement, Government 2.0, GovDelivery, and other e-government issues
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CityCamp MN: It’s all about social media

November 21st, 2011 | Posted by Mary Yang for GovDelivery in Compelling Content | E-Government | Social Media - (0 Comments)

A couple weeks ago, I attended the first Minnesota CityCamp, hosted by e-democracy.org and the Public and Non-Profit Leadership Center at the Humphrey School (University of Minnesota).

With more than 150 attendees, this unconference’s theme – “Community 2.0” – was clearly one that spoke to people. Though the unconference was held in Minneapolis, some participants traveled four hours or so to attend. The attendees were also from various industries: government, non-profit, education, software development, consulting, etc.:

I had never been to a CityCamp before, so if you haven’t been to one either, the structure is interesting. Instead of a typical conference structure – with a keynote speaker and presentation sessions – CityCamp breaks that mold by crowdsourcing session ideas via the web which are then turned into break-out discussion sessions.

There were about 20 different breakout sessions throughout the day (4 to 5 concurrent sessions in 40-minute sections.) Session topics ranged from Code for America to hackers & libraries (I’m not really sure what that one was truly about) to revamping or visualizing the web with new technologies, but the main theme that stood out to me was social media.

Social media was simply inescapable at CityCamp MN. The first session I went to (which I think was the best session by far) discussed using social media for social change. It’s the age-old marketing question: “how can I get someone to do something (i.e. take action, sign a petition, recycle, vote, etc.)?” My answer: make your content memorable and people will connect with you. Make your call to action simple, and people will take action. Another session I dropped in on focused on leveraging social media to help organize and promote community arts more successfully. In fact, one of my colleagues who participated in a policy-making and data session commented that social media dominated that conversation, too.

In one session, an attendee asked a question that stood out to me: “How do I learn how to use social media tools if I don’t have a teenager at home?” In another social media session, we spent 40 minutes discussing tools to help measure social media ROI but at the heart of the discussion was the question, “What social media success even mean or look like?”

These interactions reminded me of a story I saw last week: Business Insider reported that AOL still had 3.5 million dial-up subscribers in the US. Yes, you read that right: dial-up.

To me, each of these examples reminds me that there are literally millions of people who aren’t yet part of the ever-changing “digital” age and who don’t know how to leverage social media. It doesn’t mean they don’t want to; CityCamp MN showed me that there was a clear thirst for this information. But sometimes we talk about social media success before we talk about the basics of how and where to start (especially if there isn’t a teenager willing to help.)

The best way I’ve learned to navigate social media channels – and the way teenagers today learn – is simply by doing. This may not be plausible in your government job – you probably shouldn’t create a Facebook page for your agency without knowing how Facebook works – but you can start at home. Create your own Facebook page or Twitter account or YouTube channel if you haven’t already. Start connecting with your friends and family and simply poke around. (My one caveat is you shouldn’t put anything out on the web that you don’t want shared with everyone. There is no recalling a message you send on Facebook. I learned that the hard way!) One of the attendees at CityCamp MN talked about “failing fast” with social media, and I couldn’t agree more. Once you start using social media, you’ll understand what works and what doesn’t fairly quickly – and then you can leverage that knowledge to determine what would work for your agency and what might not.

If diving into the deep end seems a bit scary, there are lots of resources out there: Mashable, GovLoop, Social Media Today. These sites are full of ideas, have tons of articles on the top 10 things you should know, and people willing to help you.

Want a little more? Watch this video from CityCamp MN of GovDelivery’s CEO, Scott Burns, talking about social media as part of an integrated, cost-effective digital communications strategy:

Have you attended a CityCamp before? How was your experience? Share your thoughts in the comments!

For a full list of the agenda, sessions, and other key documents/links, visit CityCampMN’s website.

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Maximizing Possibilities – CityCamp MN Experience

November 14th, 2011 | Posted by Dennis Still for GovDelivery in E-Government | Government 2.0 | Local Government | Web/Tech - (2 Comments)

From amazing metaphors involving adorable puppies to reflections about how data can transform generalities into actions, I was fortunate to attend the first CityCamp held in Minneapolis, Minnesota on 11/12/2011. This un-conference is designed to be more of an open exchange of ideas than the traditional professional conference that most of us are used to – whatever profession you work in.

Prior to the actual un-conference day, we could submit ideas about what kind of breakout sessions we would like to see. The organizers of the conference did this via email, website, and social media streams. When I got to the conference, I was shown the big board of ideas and asked to indicate which I might be interested in participating in. As a data guy, I tended toward those topics because I am always trying to learn about what others are doing with data, how to visual data, and really how to tell better stories with data to help my own company (GovDelivery), but more generally, to help citizens and governmental agencies “informatively” engage with data and the wisdom that comes from understanding that data.

We met in the morning for quick individual introductions of all 100+ registrants and then settled in to listen to 6 amazing “ignite” mini-presentations where folks like the CEO and Co-Founder of GovDelivery, Scott Burns, gave insights into the role of social media in cost effective communications. The presenters were limited to 5 slides in 5 minutes. While these presentations kept us revved up and engaged, the event organizers were collating all the ideas and trying to put together 24 separate sessions on a grid that covered the majority of the topic suggestions. Obviously, some ideas got dropped, but for the most part, organizers were able to combine and build a substantial grouping of 24 topic sessions.

Now, here is where I think the magic of this un-conference truly started. The CityCamp working grid was presented and we could see what topics were going to be discussed at what time of the day during the 4×40 minute sessions. No rules, no agendas, just real interactions amongst various types of individuals working in the public sector, private sector, governmental space, social services, consulting, and others.

I think the first session was the most awkward and disappointing of the day probably due to the fact that many of us didn’t know exactly what we were supposed to be doing. Who talks first? What exactly are we going to talk about when it comes to policy-making and the impact of data on that policy? The flow of the first session never really came together for me, mostly due to the fact that there was no moderation of ideas. My only feedback item to the conference was to say that perhaps a moderator needed to ask the first few questions and be available to pull folks back to the topic at hand during discussions.

My other three sessions were incredibly informative and interesting. I got to talk about how to visualize data and the analysis of that data, good tips, good websites, folks who are doing amazing things (Stephen Few, Tufte for example). The most profound things came in short bursts through the exchange of ideas. For example, Marc Drummond who works for the City of Minnetonka, MN, said something that I thought was so clear and simple about PowerPoint presentations – “Presentations should lead to actions!” It’s simple and concise, but powerful in its vision of what all of us who present information should try to remember.

The last session on the advancement of technologies related to data analysis was a small group who were trying to envision where data analysis is going in the future. I got to meet a fellow Govie named Amelia Brunelle and others who are passionate about the power of data. I got to talk about how remarkable a job I have with GovDelivery as the Client Performance Analyst and the investment they make in my abilities to take information and tell credible, important, and relevant stories to our clients and to help build our business intelligence within the organization itself. Always with the mindset of providing insights that provide agencies the best possible chance to drive efficiencies within organization, effectively communicating with their citizens, and helping them understand how to engage their citizens across multiple communication channels.

I would highly recommend attending one of these CityCamp events in your area. I got a chance to network with others passionate about data analysis, digital communications, social media, and the impact we can all have on the engagement of citizens. I loved my first CityCamp experience.

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