Stap isi

21 June 2009

Coal face gang

Has anyone considered using customer services staff to update the website? They speak to people all the time, know the information people ask for, know how to answer questions. They are a valuable communications tool with a good “general” knowledge of the organisation.

Gecko84, local government web editor, in his blog post CMS control, who does what – a rant inspired by Sarah

I like the idea. Customer service staff – from the front counter to the library’s circulation desk – should be part of a council’s web team.

They’re accomplished referrers, have lots of experience dealing with sensitive items and difficult customers and are aware of the issues that arise when representing council in a public space, so they’re a good fit for social media channels.

When you’re working on an information architecture or considering keywords for search engine optimisation, customer service staff have particular value. They know how constituents ask for information – what words they use, how they frame the question – and what information is in demand. By contrast, senior staff advantage what they think people should be asking. And some are lapsed English speakers, hopelessly lost to organisational jargon.

Finally, if your web services are not satisfying customer requests, customer service staff are the canary in the coalmine.

The second part to this post is about crowdsourcing in government.

We generally take this to mean offering constituents an opportunity to innovate solutions or frameworks. But over the last year – as social media has matured and mainstreamed – more and more council employees are using these tools to discuss issues in their workplace.

It may be born of frustration but the motivation for these blogs or Twitter streams is usually positive – to affect change.

This is incredibly valuable for managers – if they choose to listen!

— b3rn   management, user generated content, web teams   Jun 21, 10:16 AM   #   Comment

6 November 2008

Getting great images for local government websites

Here are a few resources that I use regularly:

• stock.xchng – good variety and quantity, with clear licence terms; just note that ‘premium results’ (commercial products) appear at the top of search results, so scroll down a bit
• Our Community Photo Bank – Australia and community-specific images free for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons licence; lots of great ‘real people’ and authentically Australian shots
• Flickr advanced search – this popular photo sharing site can help with more abstract concepts as well as images of your local area; tick the box Only search within Creative Commons-licensed content
• Multicolr Search Lab – Idée Inc. – browse 10 million of the most “interesting” Creative Commons images on Flickr by colour
• Wikimedia Commons – public domain and freely-licensed educational media content (images, sound and video clips); often has both contemporary and historic images on a place or subject
• Picture Australia – massive library, great for specialist images, but getting permission to publish can take some time

Image credit: Community members who contributed their time, effort and money to the building of their new Wemen hall. Oct. 08 by Sabina Savage for Wemen Progress Association

— b3rn   flickr, images, user generated content   Nov 6, 01:25 PM   #   Comment

12 October 2008

Flickr & Local Govrnment

If your Council and Library service are not on Flickr, they should be.

In the first 4 weeks […] we had more views of the photos than the same photos in the entirety of last year on our own website — Seb Chan, Powerhouse Museum

He’s talking specifically about their Tyrell Collection – historic images from two of Sydney’s principal photographic studios in the late 1800s and early 1900s – in The Commons on Flickr. But the point still applies.

More people will see you and your content.

A challenge for Council websites is getting information across to the people who are not visiting us online. Many visits are motivated by a specific purpose — getting a resident parking form or the minutes of a Council meeting. But if we’re linked as a contact on Flickr (or any other social networking space) there’s always a chance we can grab some attention from their peripheral vision.

And what better way than with a photo?

That’s a good starting point to argue for US$25 a year (the cost of a Pro account) and the time required to set-up and administer your Flickr space.

Continued...

— b3rn   flickr, maps, user generated content   Oct 12, 10:50 PM   #   Comment [1]

28 September 2008

Reality CV

Council websites tend to provide very dry information. It’d be good to associate real experiences with that information. Social media allows this. And here’s a good topic as an example.

Street parties. Many Councils outline the process. They may even say they encourage street parties. But the list of requirements – baldly stated, as they should be – seems more a discouragement.

This street-level report by Ed Mitchell is fantastic. Imagine how it’d work alongside Council information – whether as just a link, a quoted section, some photos used with permission.

And then, what if more residents reported back with their experiences or even just some photos?

Real knowledge sharing, bottom up, aligned with Council’s community goals. And probably, more street parties.

Continued...

— b3rn   street parties, user generated content   Sep 28, 08:58 AM   #   Comment

9 September 2008

Toponymists get open

An article by Laura Kostanski in the September newsletter of the Australian National Placenames Survey alerts us to the recent upgrade of the VICNAMES website.

VICNAMES is the online Register of Geographic Names in Victoria.

It knows more than 190,000 names for suburbs, localities, towns, cities, regions, lakes, mountains, rivers, roads, reserves and schools.

What’s new?

Historical information on placenames can now be submitted by the public as well as naming authorities.

The stories behind placenames are often of interest to local residents, Local Studies librarians and those researching past residents and other notable people whose names live on in the area.

VICNAMES can capture some of their knowledge as they pass through.

Continued...

— b3rn   user generated content   Sep 9, 11:04 PM   #   Comment