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Local government, the internet & community engagement online

11 February 2009

My Twitter Class of '08 by mallix (Flickr)

Aussie councillors AWOL from Twitter

Twitter has been getting lots of media coverage, here and abroad. For the goverati, Ingrid Koehler’s post gives a good overview of its use by elected representatives in Britain. (Councillor James Cousins of Wandsworth is an exemplar.)

It’s now becoming clear to me that it’s just as important for your councillors as your council to be online. No yin without yang.

Apparently Australia has about 6,600 elected councillors. I’ve been able to find about 12 of them blogging. And I haven’t found any using Twitter. I hope that’s more a reflection of my search skills than the reality.

Take a look at the UK – there’s loads of them. Given their weather, sporadic bathing schedules and innings of 51, you’d expect plenty to be bashing the keyboards indoors. But so far they’re keeping a clean sheet against us on Twitter.

As k3nd said – cmon local authorities, lets jump into the 20th century, u may even like it.

Update April 2009: see OzGovLocalClrs.

— b3rn   , ,    Feb 11, 08:11 PM   #

Comments

I would be interested to know the amount of time UK councilors have to their job – given that UK councils combine our local/state responsibilities (and budget).

In Australia, being a Councilor is often an ‘extra’ responsibility on top of a full time day job.

Blogging, even Twittering, is a time-consuming exercise and as a politician, councilors must also take time to triple-check what they post… perhaps this is a factor in why Aussie local government is slow off the mark?

— Jane    Feb 17, 12:06 PM    #

True, the setup in the UK is different – so it’s not really comparing like with like.

However I don’t think blogging or twittering is necessarily more time-consuming than other forms of communication – in fact, once Councillors get into the swing of it, they’re likely to communicate with more constituents more effectively. That’s certainly the experience of elected officials interviewed on CivicSurf.

And the fact that the conversation is public wouldn’t make much difference – surely they’re conforming to the relevant codes when in private conversation anyway?

My post was tongue in cheek, but I do think it’s important that Councillors get involved online.

PS thanks for the comment – do you have a local gov web network in Vic?

— b3rn    Feb 17, 12:28 PM    #

Here we go… (but you’ve got to help me out here…)

More here: OzGovLocalClrs

— b3rn    Apr 3, 03:52 PM    #

Hi there

I also have a blog

www.councillorboskovitz.blogspot.com

— Anthony Boskovitz    May 13, 12:33 AM    #


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