I’m speaking at @northernvoice #nv10
Earlier this year, I submitted three panels to Northern Voice 2010, as you may have read on my blog. One of the three got accepted, and I am very honored to be joined by the fantastic folks who will be part of this panel. Joining me in the panel are David Hume, Andrea Reimer and Ian Capstick.
Government 2.0: Politics, Policy and Social Media in Canada: A Multi-Level Exploration
US President Barack Obama has been touted left, right and center as “the social media president”. Prime Minister Stephen Harper has a Twitter account, yet fails to engage with his constituents. Politicians, bureaucrats, policy makers and public service providers have been heavily criticized for their inability to incorporate social media into their political campaigns and overall platforms and strategies. Yet, we find a dearth of analytical explorations of successful experiences and lessons learned. This panel will explore how the government at various scales (federal, municipal, provincial) is working towards incorporating social media, what are the challenges. etc.
Andrea Reimer will speak to the political circumstances that led to approval and expansion of social media tools in the local government in Vancouver. She will describe the experience in Vancouver with social media, open government and a number of other initiatives she has championed. Andrea’s work was instrumental in having Vancouver approve the open data initiative.
Ian Capstick brings bring a perspective from Ottawa (federal implications) and as a citizen who organizes in-person open source events and consultations which almost always start as a reaction to a need from digital grassroots.
David Hume will share his experiences as the government of British Columbia’s first-ever Executive Director for Citizen Engagement in BC’s Ministry of Citizens’ Services and the lessons that this provincial government has learned from the past 12 months.
Raul Pacheco-Vega, PhD will describe his experiences as the editor of BCVote.ca (a pluralistic, non-partisan aggregator) during the BC Premier election of 2009. He will also aim to provide an analytical framework that can be used to outline best practices of social media use in public policy and politics.
Our panel will take place on Friday May 7th, 2010 from 10:30am to 11:30am at the UBC Life Sciences Centre building and will be moderated by David Eaves (thanks Dave for accepting the invite!).
I organized this panel mostly because of the fact that I teach in a Department of Political Science, that I teach Public Policy (both at the domestic and comparative level) and because a lot of my own consulting work is in the field of public policy. Moreover, for those of you not following at home, I have conducted research on information dissemination policy instruments for pollution control (pollutant release and transfer registries), and online tools are the best platforms for citizens to use these PRTRs to put pressure on polluters to reduce their emissions.
