A blog about government-to-citizen digital communication and engagement, Government 2.0, GovDelivery, and other e-government issues
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Vine: Government’s 6 Seconds to Shine

May 24th, 2013 | Posted by Anna Stroncek for GovDelivery in Community Management/Engagement | Social Media | Tech | Usability - (1 Comments)

It’s likely that you have heard of Vine in recent months. For those of you who haven’t (or who have, but aren’t exactly sure what it is) Vine is a mobile app by Twitter that allows users to create and post short, 6 second video clips. In turn, the videos can be uploaded, shared and embedded into a variety of social networking channels like Twitter and Facebook.

 Vine

Vine made its debut in January of 2013 and was met with mixed reviews. While some were excited about the potential that Vine presented, others were skeptical of what could truly be accomplished in 6 seconds and what types of videos would be created. However, as of April 2013, Vine became the most downloaded free app in Apple’s IOS App Store.

The way Vine works is simple. Videos are recorded and created with Vine’s in-app camera (the camera on one’s mobile device or smartphone). The camera only records while the screen is being touched, allowing various shots or snippets to be mashed together for up to six seconds. The video & audio are then looped together, forming a Vine that plays continuously. These Videos are able to be instantly uploaded to Twitter or Facebook and posted on Vine for followers to see.

As adaption to Vine continues, many people are attempting to figure out what the best use of Vine is. While the six second maximum presents a challenge to some, it also cultivates creativity and allows for messages to extend beyond Twitter’s 140 characters.

Government and Vine

As of April 1st the U.S. General Services Administration’s (GSA) new media office announced that it had officially created government-friendly terms of service with Vine. As agencies and organizations create Vine profiles, they will be added to the Federal Social Media Registry, verifying official government social media accounts and distinguishing them from any fake ones.

So just because government can Vine, should it? I believe they should. While it may not be the most efficient way to send out important data and information, Vine opens a new door of communication and engagement with the public. While most communication between government and citizens is information focused, filled with text, data and some images, Vine allows citizens to engage with government in a completely different way and to see what is actually happening in government.

Vine takes a more “fun” approach to engaging with citizens and enables organizations to showcase their inner workings and share footage of things we would normally be unable to see, such as NASA’s visual tracking of Hurricane Sandy  across the East Coast.

Since its release in January, various government agencies and employees have taken to Vine and have begun to experiment with it.  Health.Data.gov posted a series of Vines during the 2013 Health and Human Services Innovates Awards and used Vine to promote and invite people to the Health DataPalooza in June.

My personal favorite government Vine was posted by California Congressman, Mark Takano, back in February. Takano chose Vine to offer up an inside look into his work in the House, featuring a Vine of him submitting his first bill.

The six second video showcases Takano’s steps from his initial signing of the bill to riding the Capitol subway, and concludes with him handing the bill in.

For government, the biggest struggle I see is similar to what other businesses are facing- deciding what to Vine. Six seconds is short and it can be a challenge to creatively think of things citizens would actually want to see or what messages could successfully be shared in six seconds. However, I think this is perfect for government communicators, who are constantly striving to simplify their organization’s message and share its most important points of information. To help begin the brainstorming process, I have come up with a few ideas of how government could begin to use Vine.

Introductions. So often citizens think of government as a compilation of organizations and agencies or entities. Rarely do we directly associate with individuals within organizations or think about what their office may be like. By taking to Vine, organizations can post 6-second introduction videos of various leaders and employees throughout the organization, putting faces to the organization’s name and making government a little more “personable”.  You can also create Vine shots of any fun happenings taking place at your office. This allows citizens to see inside the organization and an opportunity to witness a more “fun” side to government.

Ceremonies and Events. Government is engaged with a multitude of events at every level. Ribbon cuttings, national nights out, electoral events- these are all great opportunities to Vine and let those who aren’t in attendance in on the action. These Vines also promote what organizations are doing and draw attention to the various causes being celebrated or acknowledged.

Introducing new products. Government can also use Vine to promote their new products, such as mobile apps or online services. Vine allows multiple screen shots to be shown in one video. Showing what the app looks like, where it can be downloaded, and  showcasing product hightlights provides promotional opportunities for your organization and learning opportunities for your audience.

How-to Videos.  While six seconds may not seem like much, it’s long enough to provide some great how-to information if enough thought has been put into it. In fact, just the other day I watched a Vine and learned how to make a latte, complete with the fancy design on top! Government can use this as an opportunity to show citizens how to do things like sign up for an event, pay a bill online, download an app or use a new online resource. Taking quick 1-2 second shots of each step in the process allows for up to 6 steps to be shown, enough to get a basic how-to instructional across.

Promote Initiatives and Events. Government  has lots of initiatives and events to promote. Using Vine to create videos and spread awareness is yet another way to use Vine. Whether it’s national night out or a reminder that tornado sirens will be tested, creating a short video and sharing it on your social networks can bring even more attention to it. You can also use Vine to share public announcements. People need to be kept up to date and Vine videos are both to the point and entertaining. A 6 second vine featuring short clips of various public beaches could be used to announce the official opening of local beaches and lakes and may even inspire some viewers to go.

Engage with Citizens.  This is my final idea and a new way to expand the dialogue between citizens and government. Post a Vine that poses a question or promotes a trend and ask citizens to respond with a Vine post of their own. Going back to national night out, ask citizens to vine videos of their neighborhood gatherings and tag it with a special hashtag. Vines can also be useful for citizens to communicate problems with government. If a citizen sees a problem or situation they are unhappy with, they could create a Vine and share it with you via a tag on Facebook or mention on Twitter.

Hopefully the above list inspires some thought around the adaption and use of Vine.  I would love to hear any additional ideas you might have or how organizations are already using Vine today. Let us know what you think.

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How to Gain Subscribers During Special Events

May 22nd, 2013 | Posted by Mary Yang for GovDelivery in Community Management/Engagement | Events | GovDelivery | Government 2.0 | Usability - (0 Comments)

Many government organizations and agency departments plan and promote special events or seasonal occasions that relate to the constituency they serve and support. Highlighting these events through communications and digital content provides a fun and timely way to interact with the public, and can even serve as a platform for gaining subscribers and engaging citizens long-term.

earthThe Environmental Protection Agency replaced its normal home page with specially designed interactive presentations to commemorate Earth Day. The overlay, which included a stunning photo of Earth from space, was a visually pleasing way to inform the public about Earth Day and related events the EPA was sponsoring. The special home page provided slide shows, links to events for volunteers, and an invitation to send in photos from home.

While the EPA’s Earth Day home page is a great example of tailoring digital content to inform and educate stakeholders on issues that impact an organization’s mission, the organization missed a prime opportunity to offer an easy opt-in for email alerts. An out-of-the-ordinary web element like a special home page or highlighted overlay is one of the best ways government communicators can spark interest from a visitor and subsequently call attention to the proactive digital communications offered by the organization. Techniques such as these can even double or triple sign-ups to subscriber lists.

A sign-up form or link is easy to add on to a specially designed event home page and offers a convenient call-to-action for visitors attracted by special event information. This approach leverages the additional traffic that might result from a special event and also maximizes the long-term impact of the short-term custom content by offering ongoing email updates to visitors with specific interests.

On special days or events such as Earth Day, agencies like the EPA can turn new visitors looking for event-specific information into stakeholders by asking them to subscribe. Be sure to offer updates on a variety of topics, and consider a category of updates for subscribers interested in special events or holiday-related information in particular. Taking advantage of times of peak interest in your department or agency’s website can result in big wins in subscriber numbers and stakeholder engagement.

Has your department tied subscription sign-up opportunities into promotions for special events going on in the community? Share your tips on turning one-time special event visitors into lifetime stakeholders in the comments.

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Digital communications improve customer service

March 29th, 2013 | Posted by Mary Yang for GovDelivery in Analytics/Data | Community Management/Engagement | Compelling Content | Current Affairs | E-Government | Government 2.0 | UK Government - (0 Comments)

In an era of limited resources, governments need to build strong hello my name isrelationships with citizens and stakeholders, and what better place to start than by improving customer service. That’s just what public sector entities in the United Kingdom plan to do. In a GovDelivery survey of almost 100 UK government employees, respondents identified customer service as the top trend taking centre stage in 2013. At the same time, more than two-thirds of respondents said that government is already working to improve customer service.

Take a look at this infographic that provides a visual overview of survey results. As one of the graphs depicts, customer service is far and away the top priority for the UK government compared to budget or big data. Collaboration, however, comes in at a healthy second place. For a full analysis of the survey results, download the white paper.

The white paper notes that communication with citizens is the first critical stage of customer service for most public sector organisations and one of the easiest to modify to improve services. One way the UK government is improving communication is via strong support for social and digital programs.

UK_digital_govFor example, the Government Digital Strategy published by the Cabinet Office calls for government organisations to embrace digital services to constituents. New or redesigned services must conform to a “digital-by-default” standard. It also calls for the Central Government to consolidate publishing on the GOV.UK site and raise awareness of digital resources. With such a strong focus on digital communication, the government has an opportunity to engage with and consult the public, establishing the collaboration that develops into good communication, which ultimately leads to excellent customer service. In addition, digital tools can help departments meet their objectives of improving customer service, even during times of constrained budgets.

Despite the government’s emphasis on a strong digital program, only about half of respondents said their departments use social media to communicate with citizens- so there is room for improvement. Find out more by downloading the white paper, which provides an in-depth analysis of the survey findings and to learn how the three top UK government trends for 2013 are related.

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Collaboration is a hot trend for state & local governments

March 19th, 2013 | Posted by Mary Yang for GovDelivery in Community Management/Engagement | Compelling Content | Local Government | Mobile | Social Media | State Government | Tech | Usability - (1 Comments)

For state and local governments, budgets have been cut across the board while technologies have advanced, earth and groupswhich has led to the concept of “shared services.” Shared services, with technologies hosted in the cloud, would allow many state and local governments to combine the use of specific technologies or solutions. Organizations using those services would help contribute to the overall financial cost. It’s easy to see why many state and local officials have begun to explore new collaborative relationships with neighboring public sector entities. Perhaps that’s also why respondents to a GovDelivery survey rated collaboration as the top trend affecting state and local agencies in 2013.

The survey of more than 400 individuals in U.S. state, county and city government found that collaboration with other government organizations as well as citizens tops the list of trends taking center stage in 2013 for their organizations.

This infographic highlights survey findings, and you’ll notice that although collaboration is the clear top trend, customer service is not far behind and mobile government is also considered important. In contrast, big data was considered less impactful to state and local government employees.

Collaboration has always been important for every level of government, according to the white paper that provides full details of the survey findings. The white paper states:

  • County and city governments must work with state and federal agencies to implement programs.
  • Cross-agency collaboration is critical for public safety, law enforcement, public health and other vital services that cross jurisdictions.
  • Streamlining inter-agency collaboration can reduce costs and duplication of effort.

Driving the increased need for better collaboration are:

  • A demand for increased productivity and efficiency with existing budgets.
  • A new generation of individuals entering the work force with collaborative work practices.
  • The increasing use of social and digital media by individuals from every walk of life. Today, an increasing number of citizens want to collaborate with their local government officials on social media or get assistance with services online or via mobile technology using their own devices.

hands world24 percent of survey respondents report their agency is already addressing the need for collaboration. That might be because historically governments have collaborated on providing programs and emergency services. The survey indicates that particularly in county governments, many respondents are not yet making use of social media for collaborative purposes. Within the state and local sectors, city governments have made the greatest strides in using social media to share news and information from their organizations.

Given the upward trend in social media and digital usage by the public sector, one implication of the survey findings is that government officials need to make more use of these media to help them engage with customers as well as to collaborate with each other. For example, programs and communications can be cross-promoted on the websites and within digital technologies of various agencies. Also, government entities can use dedicated communities and channels for inter-agency collaboration.

Download the full white paper to learn more about collaboration, customer service, mobile government and how these top trends overlap.

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Going All Digital: How to Move Paper-Based Transactional Messages Online

March 15th, 2013 | Posted by Mary Yang for GovDelivery in Current Affairs | E-Government | Email Communication | Federal Government | GovDelivery | Government 2.0 | Local Government | Usability | Web/Tech - (0 Comments)

I don’t have to tell you how constrained government budgets are these days. If you work in government, you know the depth of budget cuts and lack of resources – but this doesn’t mean that you stop doing the important work you’ve done before. money computerYou still need to communicate with your citizens and stakeholders about your services, from recycling updates to open park times to tax updates.

A recent white paper titled, Cutting the Costs of Paper: Digital Delivery of Government Messages & Statements, may provide another perspective on how to better reach citizens and stakeholders with important, personalized messages while working within constrained budgets. The white paper notes:

Many government agencies are achieving efficiencies through e-government initiatives that move processes and communications online. Yet paper is still an essential part of many communications between agencies and the public. These paper-based processes are often a bottleneck, slowing down essential processes such as payments while increasing costs for handling paper.

Some agencies send high volumes of these transactional messages, which often represent a sizable cost to the agency. The cost of printing and mailing is just the tip of the iceberg. Keeping these business processes on paper creates significant follow-on costs for handling inbound forms or calls. By moving these printed messages to electronic mail, agencies can realize significant cost savings while streamlining business processes and becoming more efficient.

What’s a transactional message? The white paper gives some examples, but it may be easier to start with a private sector example. For instance, if you have a credit card, you can usually set up a recurring email alert to notify you when your balance reaches a certain threshold. I have one of my credit cards set up to send me this kind of email alert; but it doesn’t just tell me that I’ve reached a certain balance, it also tells me exactly what my credit card balance is in the email. And then it gives me the option of clicking on a link to see more information through my credit card portal.

How would this work for government? An easy example would be property tax statements. Usually this information is mailed to the citizen or business, with a paper statement for payment,tms if that’s required. Because of the very specific information contained in the statement, it’s been easier for organizations to collate this information and print it, then mail it. The other option has usually been to implement or install an enterprise system that’s expensive and large to manage. But with advances in technology, especially with application programming interfaces (APIs), this is no longer the case. Legacy financial or citizen relationship management systems can remain intact while APIs do the work of pulling in personalized information and then sending out these transactional messages to their intended recipients. Transactions with government organizations that were generated from paper-based communications can move to an all-electronic process, saving your organization time, money and resources.

The white paper goes into more depth. But why not hear from an expert? GovDelivery’s Technical Product Manager, Tor Flatebo, is discussing this very topic on a live webinar on March 27. The webinar is free, and you can pick Tor’s brain on all the ways transactional messaging can work for your organization. Register today.

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The Mayors Challenge: Cities Compete for Innovation Prize

March 6th, 2013 | Posted by Mike Bernard for GovDelivery in Community Management/Engagement | Events | Government 2.0 | Government Success Stories | Local Government | Uncategorized | Usability - (0 Comments)

By Mike Bernard, Digital Marketing Manager, GovDelivery

Innovation in government is a hot topic these days. One of the ways innovation is being encouraged is through the Mayors Challenge. The Mayors Challenge, created by Bloomberg Philanthropies, seeks to “celebrate the creative problem solving and incredible innovation that is happening in the city halls from coast to coast”.

Here’s how it works:

Cities from across the country, who have a population of 30,000 or more, submit an application outlining their most creative solution to a major issue within the city. For this years’ challenge, 394 cities submitted a proposal. From there, submissions are reviewed and scored by a team of judges. The top 20 finalists are then announced. Those 20 finalists take part in an intensive two-day collaborative session focused on strengthening and stretching their ideas called Idea Camp. Once the Idea Camp concludes, finalists are given a few additional months to fine tune their ideas. Final drafts of the proposals are submitted and one grand prize winner and four runners-up are selected. The grand prize winner receives $5,000,000 to implement their plan and the four runners-up receive $1,000,000 apiece.

Plans are judged on the basis of boldness of vision, strength of planning, potential for impact, and replaceability of the idea.

Finalists:

Finalists have been chosen from all across the US. Here’s the full list of the 20 finalists for this year (in alphabetical order).

  • Boston, MA
  • Chicago, IL
  • Cincinnati, OH
  • Durham, NC
  • High Point, NC
  • Hillsboro, OR
  • Houston, TX
  • Indianapolis, IN
  • Knoxville, TN
  • Lafayette, LA
  • Lexington, KY
  • Milwaukee, WI
  • Philadelphia, PA
  • Phoenix, AZ
  • Providence, RI
  • St. Paul, MN
  • San Francisco, CA
  • Santa Monica, CA
  • Springfield, OR
  • Syracuse, NY

topfinalists_inpage_new

Highlights:

You might be wondering what ideas were submitted that got these fine cities to the finals. Well, allow me to highlight two examples I especially like.

High Point, NC – Offender Focused Domestic Violence Initiative “For the first time anywhere, High Point, NC is adapting the focused deterrence model to control domestic violence offenders to protect our mothers, daughters, sisters, and children, simultaneously changing the overall narrative on domestic violence.”

St. Paul, MN – Permit St. Paul “Permit Saint Paul will spur investment in our city by enabling developers, entrepreneurs, and residents to secure their licenses and permits through a user-friendly, web-based consumer portal.”

Congrats:

At GovDelivery, we love it when government organizations think outside the box by leveraging great ideas, technology, community partnerships and lots of hard work. Congratulations to all the finalists and good luck on winning.

Check out summaries of all the finalists for 2013 and winners from years past. What they’ve submitted might spur on innovation within your organization. Finally, be on the lookout for the winners being announced next quarter.

 

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Reaping Big Results from Big Data

February 21st, 2013 | Posted by GovDelivery in Analytics/Data | E-Government | Government 2.0 - (0 Comments)

By Lance Horne, General Manager, GovDelivery Federal Team

big data business manI’ve covered a variety of topics in the past few weeks, including better government-to-citizen communications and cloud computing. Today, I’m going to delve into an area that is quite intriguing to me: big data.

As a government agency, effective outreach to citizens can deliver a vast set of data to target audiences and bring data from targeted audience groups back to you. Your next step is determining where you’re having the greatest impact – or what you can do to improve areas that may be lacking. When you really think about it, being able to effectively communicate with citizens and gather meaningful feedback from them will help you further deliver a powerful effort to live out your mission as a government agency.  This means big results from big data.

Many government agencies realize that building big data capabilities on their own would take quite a bit of time and money. In fact, according to a recent article on nextgov.com, “while 64 percent of IT professionals surveyed said their agency’s data management system could be easily expanded or upgraded, they estimated it would take an average of 10 months to double their capacity. That doesn’t even include the costs involved in new or upgraded IT infrastructure and training staff to manage and analyze the data”.

big data keyClearly, leveraging industry partners that have both deep expertise and broad experience to develop a big data strategy is a great move for government agencies to make.  These partners can help you set up a data collection system and query existing data to help you drive even more mission-critical results. By taking this route, you are able to capitalize on years of experience and continue to focus on what you do best: managing programs for citizens. In the long run you could save time that would have been spent trying to develop a strategy on your own, uncover savings, and discover opportunities for operational efficiency.

You probably realize that using traditional technology to wrestle out meaningful data is difficult. New data – extracted from the best G2C outreach and communications efforts via the cloud – will allow you to query gigantic data sets that have not been available in the past. You’ll be able to glean information such as where subscriber growth is coming from, and when people are most interested in specific documents or information.

Extracting meaningful information from raw data is a trend not only within government agencies, but also in private industries. Every online interaction you have with your target audience can be analyzed and evaluated for audience preferences and interests to help you continue improving your outreach and communications.  For example, if you offer hurricane-preparedness information on your website and have a steady stream of visitors viewing that information, it would probably make quite a bit of sense to give them the option to get updates specific to that topic as it’s produced.  Helping to keep more people safe in the event of a natural disaster, such as a hurricane, would obviously be a huge victory for such an agency in terms of achieving its mission.

Please tell me how your agency is realizing big results from big data. What are you doing? What works well? What would you like to try next?

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Choosing the right path

February 18th, 2013 | Posted by Mary Yang for GovDelivery in E-Government | Government 2.0 | UK Government - (0 Comments)

By Anna Stroncek, Marketing & Communications Intern, GovDelivery

It’s easy to get swept up in the love affair that is digital communications; really, what’s not to love? The opportunities that digital communications can produce are numerous for any given organization (imagine, once and for all, not having to lay out that newsletter month after month!) However, it’s also easy to forget a crucial component of digital communications, one that can make or break the success of any effort: your customer.

For most, the ideal digital communications transformation would encompass moving everything online and driving self-service. However, Dr Gerald Power points out in his discussion at the GovDelivery UK Event that, like anything else, high self-service rates are not easy to achieve.Channel Shift - path Simply put, customers need guidance. And before you can provide guidance, you need to understand the customer journey. To move customers to online channels and off of more costly forms of contact, such as face-to-face or phone, government organizations need to invest in more proactive communications. Proactively promoting online capabilities allows you to preempt the call from a resident or the citizen’s visit to your office.

“Proactive Communication?” you ask. “That just seems like another thing to add to my seemingly never-ending to-do list.”

With a deeper understanding of the customers’ journey, finding at which points throughout the process frustration develops and drop-out points are formed, a successful plan for automated communications can be put into place, lessening the work you have to do.

Dr. Power illustrates this process using an example very near and dear to my heart: college applications. Not so long ago, I was a high school senior in Minneapolis filled with ideas of the vast number of schools I was going to apply for all across the nation! Then I sat down to fill out my first college application and about two-thirds of the way through, that number decreased significantly. I watched the same thing happen to my   brother earlier this fall. I listened as he spent hours (literally) on the phone with admissions offices and various college representatives trying to determine exactly what he needed to do to finish his application; whether all of his information was received; the status of his application; and so on. Needless to say, he expressed frustration with the seemingly endless process behind applying to college. After all this, I found it easy to agree with Dr. Power’s depiction of an application process:

Applying for a school place

While some of the process is now online (great!), when your customer moves into any of the other various channels, it’s costing you time and resources you may not have (not so great…).  The hope, after implementing a digital communications strategy, is that your process would look more like this:

Applying for a school place, part 2

But the truth is that many customers’ tend to choose their own path. It’s unlikely that all your customers will follow the purely web-based, digital scenario above if you don’t provide guidance first.

This is where that proactive communication comes into play.  Dr. Power stresses that you need to communicate with your customer before they communicate with you. To execute that effectively, you need to analyze your customers’ digital interactions, find those points at which they give up on the digital process and pick up the phone to just call for information (For example, when they can’t find the correct phone number). It’s at those points you need to provide the desired information in an obvious manner for your customer (such as a large contact information box on the top of the screen), giving them the guidance to continue self-serving.  Dr. Power notes, to find the success you desire, it’s necessary to “seize the customer’s agenda, control the process, and get them to where you want them to be”.  Ultimately, automating communications along a good process is what will keep your customer using self-service channels.

Applying for a school place, part 3

Automated communications provide a win-win situation for all. While we all strive for a great customer experience, oftentimes the start of that experience depends on the success of the process used. With a solid digital communications strategy ready to support online self-service channels, citizens interacting with your organization will create good experiences that will lead them to spread the word to their friends and family – and ultimately increasing usage of online self-service channels.

To hear a Dr. Gerald Power’s full discussion of the desired path and how to make digital work, watch the short video below.

Dr. Gerald Power- Trapeze Transformation from GovDelivery on Vimeo.

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How to Reach 400% More Audience

February 11th, 2013 | Posted by Mary Yang for GovDelivery in E-Government | Email Communication | Government 2.0 | Government Success Stories | State Government - (1 Comments)

Michigan_DNR_logo

This post was revised to include updated information on the webinar.

As a government communications professional, being able to reach your stakeholders is possibly the most important part of executing your responsibilities. If you need to send out communications to a specific group of people, being able to reach them is critical. It doesn’t matter what how well-written your communications are if they aren’t read.

So how do you increase your reach? Some recent posts can give you a tip or two: Let it snow! and Are you sitting on a pot of gold? But why not hear directly from a government agency that increased its outreach by 400%, growing their digital communication subscriber list from under 240,000 stakeholders to nearly 1 million.

Tomorrow, Christine Schwerin, Marketing Account Manager for the Michigan State Department of Natural Resources (DNR) sat down with us and offered up best practices, lessons learned, and tips on how to increase your communications reach. View the webinar recording on our website.

Still, for many, outreach is just the beginning. Engagement and customer satisfaction is often the elusive “true” goal. In reality, you’re competing with other communications (from businesses and friends and family). How do you increase engagement and customer satisfaction despite all the other things competing for your audience’s attention? You have to deliver information that is pertinent and resonates with your stakeholders. To that end, Christine is going to share how their communications strategy and execution has led to a 95% satisfaction rate with the DNR’s digital communications.

Webinar details

Topic: Best practices & successes from Michigan Department of Natural Resources

Duration: 1 hour

View the webinar online now.

 

 

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How to Get Citizens to Dig Each Other Out After a Snow Storm

February 8th, 2013 | Posted by Joseph Porcelli for GovDelivery in Community Management/Engagement | Current Affairs | Government 2.0 | Social Media - (0 Comments)

On December 26, 2010, a #snowpocalypse dumped a ton of snow in the tri-state area of New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut. As a result of the storm, something very cool happened in Newark. Mayor Booker’s (@CoryBooker) constituents began tweeting requests for help with shoveling at their homes. He responded by taking action, and surprised many when he began digging people out. What was even cooler was the fact that others started showing up at the requested addresses to help him. Reading this story gave me an idea.

I wondered if I could coordinate a crew of my own neighbors to go out and shovel others in need. I also wanted to solve the bottleneck Mayor Booker created by having to physically be at every location that needed to be shoveled out. Consequently, in 2010, I launched the first pilot of what is now called #SnowCrew in Boston. It was successful in getting both shoveling requests and volunteers, but the process was directly dependent on me handling the requests and directing crews to locations. I was proud but not satisfied.

I wanted to see if I could create a system that did not require the intense facilitation required to plot shoveling requests and coordinate volunteer teams. It turned out that this could be accomplished using SeeClickFix.com, which was implemented in 2011. It worked and required much less coordination. I still needed to work on getting the word out and provide support to those who could not plot their own needs, but it took me about 80% less time.

Fast forward to present day. Beginning this morning, Boston is expecting a “historic blizzard” with up to 3 feet of snow.  Yesterday I re-activated #SnowCrew and already elderly, disabled, and sick neighbors have begun posting their shoveling assistance requests.

Here’s how it works:

Neighbors who need shoveling assistance can go to the website NeighborsForNeighbors.org (a social network for Bostonians that I founded) and click on the page entitled SnowCrew. Neighbors can add assistance requests, notifying nearby users on SeeClickFix that a neighbor needs help. I also tweet out new requests using the hashtag #snowcrew. It works, and it’s awesome!

snowcrew

While we’ve been able to prove this works on the neighborhood level, this storm (called #NEMO) will provide an opportunity to see what can happen at the city level. Wish me luck.

I hope my post sparks your interest and expands what you think is possible using technology that is readily available to any organization or citizen.

What problems do you envision that could be solved utilizing this kind of technology to empower citizens in partnership with government?

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