Web 2.0 social networking tools

Agency Initiatives - Categories

The Agency Initiatives have been structured around categories, according to which best portrays the relevance of each initiative to achievement of the E-government Strategy:

Category 5: Web 2.0 social networking tools

Web 2.0 is a set of technologies that is becoming mainstream and will eventually affect the way government delivers services and engages with people. Agencies are beginning to experiment with these technologies in some exciting and interesting ways.

The initiatives discussed below:

• illustrate the range and diversity of, and enthusiasm behind, Web 2.0-based projects
• exemplify some important transformational steps in the ways agencies are beginning to engage with people outside government
• illustrate some of the ways that the edges of government are becoming blurred
• signal some of the many challenges and a few of the risks ahead.

What is Web 2.0 and what are social networking tools?

The term Web 2.0 is used to describe the social use of the Internet with tools that allow people to collaborate and share information online in ways previously unavailable. Web 2.0 is used for web-based communities, virtual worlds, and hosted services for social networking, social interaction, and information dissemination. The concept of social networking encompasses new patterns of use and behaviour, and changing culture, as well as new technologies to support these changes.

Some tools being used or considered by agencies include:

• weblogs, or blogs
• wikis
• online forums
• RSS
• mashups
• social network services (link to 'Web 2.0 social networking tools')
• services such as Flickr and YouTube.

Internal agency use

Some agencies are using social networking tools for internal purposes. Wikis or blogs have been established to improve collaboration between parts of an agency (that may or may not be geographically dispersed). Often these are being tried as an alternative to email, which can be less effective in tracking a particular line of discussion amongst a large group of people over an extended period of time. Furthermore, many people find it difficult to manage the daily volume and variety of email, and having a dedicated tool for discussion on particular topics is a sensible segmentation of this activity. It also makes it easier for an agency to archive a collaborative, online piece of work, or to share the collaborative history of a project with new staff. Other agencies are using wikis or blogs internally as an experimental stepping stone towards future public engagement on policy making or programme development. This develops in-house experience and provides important lessons on resourcing, risk management, and other practical issues.

Universities frequently use online discussion forums, to facilitate student collaboration or enable a teacher to engage in discourse with groups of students for example.

Across-government initiatives

Social networking tools are also being used across government agencies. The following are some examples:

• Government Shared Workspace – a suite of online tools that supports information sharing and working between government agencies. A common, secure platform to support these tools has been built and is operated by the State Services Commission on behalf of agencies. It supports interagency collaboration, enables secure sharing of information, and allows specialist groups and networks to share expertise, experience, and good practice. Its use has grown significantly since its inception in late 2004, to provide about 250 workspaces used by over 5,000 staff from about 50 agencies (including district health boards and local authorities). The workspaces are currently being upgraded to incorporate the functionality for blogging and wiki capabilities.
• E-initiatives Wiki – an online library of ICT projects across government, set up by the State Services Commission, to allow those working on similar projects to share information and experience. As one of the first wikis to be piloted in government, the E initiatives Wiki has yielded valuable lessons on the use of wikis in the public sector context.
• TiWiki – the Ministry of Education’s collaborative website for people from various agencies in the tertiary education sector.
• Principals Electronic Network – an interactive online community of principals and school leaders, established as a space for reflection and discussion, and to facilitate learning from colleagues' knowledge and expertise. The Ministry of Education provides the secure environment to which all New Zealand primary and secondary school principals are given access.
• Two State Services Commission blogs:
  • In Development – a blog providing a forum to build thought leadership around significant work programmes, including online authentication, strategy and policy, and web standards. It also provides a best-practice example of how to manage social media as part of public sector communications. It is open to government employees and interested members of the public.
  • Research e-Labs – a blog that explores web trends, open-source software, and technology in government. It aims to publish practical technical research and case studies, and generate conversations on related topics. The site is primarily for ICT specialists working for the New Zealand government, but is open to anyone with an interest in the topics.

Public engagement

By far the greatest number of social networking initiatives have been developed by agencies for the purpose of engaging with the public. The following are key examples:

• Police Act wiki – an initiative by New Zealand Police to encourage public contributions to inform the drafting of the new policing act. The wiki was one of a number of initiatives undertaken by Police to enable people to participate in the project. The experiment was trialled for one week in 2007, and resulted in thousands of visits and a huge number of ideas and suggestions from the public during that brief time. All were posted publicly online and this material was provided to the select committee considering submissions on the bill. The wiki also generated much interest from other governments wanting to learn from the experience and undertake similar initiatives themselves.
• Four initiatives by the National Library of New Zealand:
  • Create Readers – a blog about youth literature and literacy, run by School Services staff from around the country
  • LibraryTechNz – a blog on which the National Library’s technology and web development staff share their thinking about work in progress
  • New Zealand Poet Laureate – a blog by the 2007 New Zealand Poet Laureate, sharing her own poetry as well as poetry news and events
  • Photos on Flickr – a pilot project in which a selection of the National Library’s image collection is posted onto Flickr with the aim of helping people discover new material.
• Web Standards wiki – a collaborative space in which to share knowledge and make suggestions on the New Zealand Government Web Standards. These standards exist to ensure that government websites are accessible regardless of a user’s disability, web browser, mobile device, or connection speed. The wiki widens and deepens the discourse on standards development that would otherwise be likely to occur. Users discuss the rationale behind each standard and can see how their input has been integrated into the evaluation process. It also opens up the discussion to those who would previously have regarded web standards as impenetrably technical.
• Participation Project wiki – a vehicle for collaborative policy making, developed by the State Services Commission. This wiki attracted comments from more than 1,200 people over eight days during the process of developing the Guide to Online Participation – far more input than had ever been received from a conventional public forum. At the centre of the Participation Project is a diverse community of more than 300 practitioners from academia, government, the private sector, civil society, and other countries, all of whom share a common interest in fostering online, public participation. The project is also leading exploratory work using other participatory tools, in order to continue to derive practical lessons which support further development of the Guide.
• NZAID Field Blog – a forum for staff of New Zealand’s international aid and development agency, to which they contribute as they travel to New Zealand-funded projects and discuss issues relevant to development work.
• Three initiatives by the Ministry for Culture and Heritage:
  • Lively – a blog for "everyone involved in New Zealand's cultural sector" on topics such as national identity, social media, and cultural research
  • Signposts – a blog of Te Ara: the Encyclopaedia of New Zealand (an online resource), which showcases entries and resources from Te Ara and discusses related events and issues
  • New Zealand History Online discussion forums – occasional community forums on specific topics, for example, the 1981 Springbok Tour
  • Photos on Flickr – a selection of Te Ara's collection of images about New Zealand is posted onto Flickr, where users can comment on them and post their own photos.
• Sort Me blog – a blog trialled for two months in 2006 by the Retirement Commission through the Trade Me online shopping site, to help people better manage their personal finances. It was based on Steph, a fictitious mother of one who posted questions to Trade Me's community; the answers and commentary were placed on the blog.
• Digital Future Blog and Digital Strategy Forum – two "incubators of ideas" (led by the Ministry for Economic Development). They were established as a contribution to the Digital Future Summit 2.0 held in November 2007, and to feed into the public consultation phase of refreshing the Digital Strategy, held in March–April 2008. It is also noteworthy that during the Summit, discussion reflecting the conference's themes was organised in the virtual world of Second Life.
• Safe As Road Safety Forum – an online community discussion forum held in 2006–2007, launched by the National Road Safety Committee (led by the Ministry of Transport) to develop road safety policy proposals for government. The topics were derived from "pre-policy" community engagement workshops held throughout New Zealand in mid-2006. The process was made more transparent by allowing forum comments to be posted without first being viewed by a moderator, and by public servants participating visibly and actively in discussions as sources of information. About 300 people contributed more than 3,000 posts to the online discussion forum.
• Sustainability initiatives by the Ministry for the Environment:
  • Discussion forum – a website that encourages visitors to post comments on topics related to energy, water, rubbish, and reducing adverse impacts on the environment
  • Film competition – a website for people to show (and share with others) their films about what sustainability means to them. The films are posted on the Ministry for the Environment’s YouTube page
  • Sustainability Challenge group in Facebook – a site that encourages people to post ideas about steps that can be taken to reduce adverse impacts on the environment; anyone from New Zealand can join and invite others from New Zealand to join.
• TEd student discussion forum – "about anything and everything to do with tertiary education in New Zealand". TEd combines the resources of a number of government and non-government agencies to provide access to education-related information and services.
• The Couch – a forum enabling the Families Commission to receive New Zealanders' views on issues relating to families. Information is used to support advocacy, service improvement, and policy advice, and to identify trends useful for policy research. It also seeks to create community among participants through the sharing of experiences.
• Initiatives through the Ministry of Youth Development's website Aotearoa Youth Voices:
  • Touch base with your Minister – every few weeks the Minister of Youth Affairs talks online about a topical issue, seeking feedback through an email link, so that such views can be taken into consideration when the government makes decisions which impact on young people. People are also invited to submit ideas, questions, or feedback on any other issues at any time.
  • ID360 short film competition – an opportunity for young people to tell their stories through film about what identity and diversity means to them; the films are posted on YouTube with links from the Ministry’s web site, and the public are invited to vote and comment on them
  • Discussion forum – an online forum and blog for young people to discuss various topics and ideas about community participation.
• ePetitions – a Wellington City Council initiative to allow anyone to make suggestions relevant to Council business via the Internet, and for others to endorse them. Petitioners can provide links to background information to support their case. When an e-petition closes it is presented to a Council committee meeting in the same manner as a traditional paper petition.
• Audio Visual Wiki – an Archives New Zealand initiative to enable the public to view films online, add information about the content or context of the films, and discuss them with other users.
• ALAC Blog – a pilot blog established by the Alcohol Advisory Council of New Zealand, to attract comment on articles appearing in its magazine.

Other agency-related social media initiatives

Agencies are also using social networking tools in collaboration with non-government organisations. In some instances, intermediaries are using them on behalf of agencies; in others, an agency's relationship with the service being provided is not made explicit. The following are examples of such initiatives:

• Wikipedia – nearly every New Zealand Government agency has a listing on this site (many of which are quite extensive) – yet these public profiles may not have been officially established, and may not be monitored or managed by New Zealand Government agencies. They typically include the agency's logo, and current information about its management, organisation, and programmes.
• Taranaki Wiki – a collaborative website (described as a "community initiative") established by Puke Ariki, which allows users to share their knowledge of "all things Taranaki" in the form of stories, memories, and anecdotes in various media. Although Puke Ariki is an initiative of the New Plymouth District Council, there is no mention of the Council on the website.
• Sustainable Living Forums – a forum provided by government for people to discuss "sustainable living and eco-building experiences with others on this journey". According to the Ministry for the Environment website, the Sustainable Living Programme is run by Marlborough District Council on behalf of 22 councils around New Zealand. The Programme web site itself says, "The Programme is independently managed in Christchurch for partner regional, city and district councils across NZ". The link to the Forums accesses an external web site called EcoBob, which appears to be that of a private company.
• Business online discussion groups – discussion groups accessed via business.govt.nz are in fact hosted by a private company, which in turn has relationships with various subject experts who comment on postings.
• LG Online Groups – a web forum and shared workspace for local government personnel to communicate about best practice and seek responses to general inquiries. This service is provided by New Zealand Local Government Online, a private company, established by the Society of Local Government Managers and the Association of Local Government Information Management.
• Canterbury Public Issues Forum – an online discussion service "to increase the opportunity for Cantabrians to participate in the local democratic process". This initiative was established and is managed by an independent voluntary group; it is actively used by government staff, elected representatives, and members of the public, to engage on public issues. Agendas for city council meetings are posted online in advance, for example, and people post blog entries commenting on and asking questions about agenda items. Council staff post information about government programmes and policies, and invite public comment or questions.
• "100% Pure New Zealand" layer on Google Earth – provided by Tourism New Zealand. Google Earth provides geographic information by combining satellite imagery, maps, terrain information, and 3D building imagery. The "100% Pure New Zealand" layer contains "placemarks" highlighting destinations around the country; placemarks contain photos, descriptions, and links to other web pages. Anyone can write articles in Wikipedia, post photos in Panoramio, videos in YouTube, or comments in Google Earth Community, and "geotag" them with coordinates so they appear in the Google Earth layer. This enables a user to browse other people’s comments, photographs and posts about a particular place.

Key points

• Significant early interest in use of these tools
• Blurring the edges of government

Significant early interest in use of these tools

There is obviously much interest and enthusiasm within many agencies to begin to make use of these social networking tools. Some have tested them in short-term pilots; others have used them continuously for as long as a couple of years.

Agencies are recognising that the social and community dimension of these tools enhances their ability to involve and engage people more directly. They are being used to enable people to participate in proposing and shaping policies and laws, and to reach different and broader constituencies. People are providing feedback on programmes and services, and in some instances are beginning to influence service design. Some initiatives are allowing people to collaboratively and freely tag content on webpages, creating new associations and ways to navigate government information that are more user-centric than anything government itself could design.

Agencies' experiences with Web 2.0 are still relatively new, and many agencies have yet to use these tools at all. Some initiatives appear to provide an additional channel for consultation that is otherwise similar to paper-based channels. However, most reflect new dynamics, providing entirely new ways for agencies to engage with people.

In some cases, the agency actively manages or drives the engagement process; in others, the agency appears to be acting more as a facilitator or participant, allowing people to engage with both the government and each other – on their own terms and in ways that suit them – as they contribute ideas and information. For some, the experience is transformative, changing both government and user expectations of how they might engage, and what might be achieved from these processes.

It is still early days for government use of these tools, and there has been little opportunity as yet to gauge the results of agencies’ experiences with them. While some experiments have apparently generated limited engagement with users, others have resulted in levels of participation and useful contribution far beyond expectations. Many agencies are actively planning their next phase of using Web 2.0 tools, and others are carefully monitoring lessons learnt by their peers as they contemplate how these tools might add value to their own organisations.

Blurring the edges of government

These initiatives vary widely in the degree to which government is responsible for them, and the extent to which their relationship to government is made clear. In some instances, this blurring of the edges of government – in fact, or in appearance – presents some interesting implications.

Transparent government initiatives

Half the initiatives described above are clearly presented as government initiatives, with .govt domain names (website addresses, or URLs) and websites that clearly identify the government agency or agencies responsible for the content and services provided. A visitor to the Police Act wiki or the Create Readers blog, for example, would be able to tell from the site's .govt domain name that it is a government initiative, and would know which agency is responsible from its identification within the domain name and clear explanation or branding on the site.

Nontransparent initiatives

The other initiatives have widely varying relationships to government, including being managed by agencies directly (although the relationship might be less obvious than for those with a .govt domain name), intermediaries on behalf of government, or other organisations in which government is only one of a number of participants.

Some are evidently a government initiative, but it is difficult to tell which agency or agencies are responsible for the content and services provided. The Digital Strategy Forum, for example, has a .govt domain name, but nowhere on the site does it explain that this initiative is led by the Ministry of Economic Development.

Some have domain names that are not .govt, such as .com for Lively (hosted by the Ministry for Culture and Heritage) or .org for The Couch (hosted by the Families Commission) – but in these cases the relationship to government is made clear through branding and explanation on the site.

Sometimes government has (perhaps inadvertently) made it difficult for people to tell that a site is a government initiative. An agency might have deliberately chosen a domain name that is not .govt, in the expectation that a particular target audience will engage better with a service that does not appear to be a government service, or for some other reason. While they may serve an agency’s particular purpose, they do make it more challenging for the user to know whether they are dealing with government through a particular site. The Retirement Commission’s Sort Me blog used a .com domain name, for example, and gave no explanation of its relationship to government.

Sometimes a service or content is provided by an intermediary whose relationship with government might, or might not, be made explicit. Business online discussion groups, for example, are provided by an intermediary; this relationship is not apparent until a user clicks on the discussion group link, which connects to an external website (clearly branded as different from government).

The relationship a website has with government is usually evident when an agency uses social networking tools provided by other organisations. It is obvious, for example, that the Ministry for Culture and Heritage’s use of Flickr to post photos of New Zealand (and invite others to post photos and comments) is making use of a non-government website. However, what is less obvious is whether photos and comments that members of the public post on that site assume “official” status. It is not clear, for example, whether they are considered to be within the government domain, or are covered by the Public Records Act and will be archived within New Zealand.

Implications for users

Benefits

Government use of social networking tools is expected to enable people to participate more easily in government policy making and service delivery planning in a manner that best suits them. If such processes are made clear and transparent, people might more readily see the results of their participation, and more might participate than would otherwise be inclined to engage with government.

Such tools might also enable people to learn from and contribute to the wider community's engagement with government, with positive, synergistic effect. People might feel a greater sense of ownership and vested interest in their community and government.

Changing behaviour and expectations

User behaviours and expectations are being shaped by their experiences – as customers of businesses and online organisations, and with virtual communities and social networks. As government begins to use the same Web 2.0 tools that are being used by others, members of the public are likely to demand similar (or perhaps even greater) user-driven services, and have high expectations about their influence over the manner and timeliness of their exchanges with government. That agencies have already taken the initiative to go where their users are – to MySpace, Facebook and similar communities – might herald an increasingly important approach to government service delivery.

Transparency and trust

Such initiatives illustrate the wide range of approaches agencies are using to inform users whether the service being provided is a government service – and this might have implications for people's trust in government. A user will not perceive consistency across government via websites with inconsistent domain names, government branding, or explanations of agency responsibility for information provided. Furthermore, they will not always be able to tell readily whether a government service or information is being provided directly by government or through an intermediary. It is unclear at present what effect this might be having on people's confidence in the reliability of the information they are receiving, and on their trust in government.

As the edges of government become increasingly blurred – through nearly seamless linkages between sites, or mashups that make use of authoritative government data on third-party sites – it is likely to become increasingly difficult to define whether a particular service is being provided by government.

Implications for agencies

Better engagement

By using these tools, agencies are expected to be able to increasingly tap into wider pools of expertise, while broadening and deepening the nature of stakeholder involvement. It is likely that consultation and engagement processes will be able to be undertaken more quickly – over weeks rather than months – while contributions will be received from many more individuals and grassroots community groups, rather than only from well-resourced organisations and lobbyists.

Resources

Web 2.0 technologies are challenging agencies to apply appropriate expertise to the deployment and management of these new tools. To ensure that their information is discoverable by anyone who may wish to use it (such as through mashups), agencies will need to develop policy and apply a new model to the creation, sharing, pricing, and publication of government-held information. This will require management skills for reinventing business processes, and technical nous to make content available for mobile devices, for example. As agencies make increasing use of wikis and blogs, they will find that the resources required to moderate social media sites 24 hours a day can be significant.

Knowledge management and archiving

In future, government staff might use external social networking tools such as MySpace to discuss work-related issues or collaborate on policy development. In such instances, vital information could slip away from agency control, reducing the institutional knowledge base and potential for the reuse of information. Agencies' use of third-party sites (such as FaceBook, Flickr or YouTube) to engage with the public raises questions about the status of uploaded information, such as whether it comes under the jurisdiction of the Public Records Act, and whether (and how) such information should be managed and archived within New Zealand.

Communications strategy

Agencies' early Web 2.0 endeavours may or may not have been planned as part of their organisation's overall communications strategy, but strategic planning for Web 2.0 initiatives is expected to become increasingly important in the future. When setting up a public-facing wiki or blog, agencies will need to consider how it fits with other communications channels and activities, how to engage most effectively with bloggers and other social media users (e.g., on other sites covering similar issues), the extent to which user engagement will drive service delivery and planning (and how this should be communicated to participants), branding, application of the Code of Conduct, and legal matters such as terms and conditions. As agencies begin to participate in third-party sites, or consider setting up places in virtual worlds (such as Second Life), they may need to establish virtual government strategies that define how they will engage in a variety of virtual communities, ranging from internal communities to external communities where they reach out to the public.

Quality of, and accountability for, information Agencies will need to consider how to maintain the quality of government information when it is delivered by non-government organisations. As government moves from electronic service delivery to administering mashable Web services, non-government organisations might mix government information with content from other sources on their own web applications. Agencies will need to consider the boundaries of their responsibility and accountability for information they provide. Furthermore, increasingly, agencies might present information sourced from outside government on their own sites; this will raise questions about the extent to which government is responsible for the quality of that information, and whether it is important for the user to be able to differentiate between government and non-government sources of information.

Governance

Government services are expected increasingly to be accessed from channels outside government (such as banks, insurance companies, retailers, search engines, utilities, mobile operators, and social networks). Service delivery will require cooperation between different government agencies and other parties with responsibility for various elements of the process. This will lead to interesting governance challenges, requiring frameworks to be developed for managing these relationships. Furthermore, a new generation of governance processes and tools will be required to manage the evolution of electronic services that are cooperatively designed by constituents, as well as information (such as wikis) that can be modified by hundreds or thousands of different people.