Ratcheting up expectations
I just got my "Council packet" tonight. Included in it is the magazine American City & County. It normally doesn't have too much of interest to me, but one of the cover stories this month is "Blog City: New Communities Grow from Online Journals." (by Nancy Mann Jackson) The article starts out by offering real life examples of local officials who are using blogs to communicate with residents who may not attend meetings, but are very much interested in the their towns. And the article continues:
Why blog?
"I see blogs as another step in the evolution of civic engagement" said Dave Ruller, Kent, Ohio's city manager.
And what's the future of blogging? According to David Wyld, author of The Blogging Revolution: Government in the Age of Web 2.0, "We're at the early stages by any measure, but five to 10 years out, blogging or other uses of interactive Web tools will just be part of the ratcheted up expectations people have for their governments."
Anyway, I found the article interesting in terms of where local governments are heading in terms of openness. Three cheers for the tubes!
Tim White
Town Council, 4th District
2 comments:
Surveys show that 75% of Americans access the internet from home. That figure is lower for minorities and higher for whites (and therefore for towns like Cheshire). This includes a majority of seniors age 65-plus.
With the internet rapidly becoming as common as TV in the home, public officials ignore it to their peril. Tim is to be applauded for efforts to make government more accessible to citizens via the internet.
Thanks Woodridge.
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