Hummingbird604.com » Politics 2.0

My interview with David Berner on The Power of Social Media in Public Policy

Raul — Fri, 20 May 2011 03:07:15 +0000

A couple of weeks ago, I was asked by David Berner to be a guest on his show on Shaw Community TV on The Power of Social Media in Public Policy. Given my experience in the field (I teach and do research on Public Policy, and I have a strong social media presence and work and consult on this topic), I felt particularly honored and felt that this was an incredibly fitting opportunity to discuss issues of how we use social media in public policy. Below is the full 30 minute show.

Thanks to David for inviting me to his show and giving me the opportunity to discuss issues that I’m passionate about and that I’m currently working on. It was a wonderful conversation. And I think it’s particularly timely.

I’m speaking at @northernvoice #nv10

Raul — Sat, 17 Apr 2010 23:45:27 +0000

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.

Guest post by Jane Sterk – Leader of the Green Party in British Columbia

Raul — Thu, 07 May 2009 19:04:05 +0000

Following the model of my previous interview with Premier Gordon Campbell, I opened the forum to both Jane Sterk and Carole James to answer my interview questions. Here are Ms. Sterk’s answers. Thanks SO much for answering my questions!

Credit: Greens For Allen

Q: Give me 3 reasons to vote for each one of the other parties (NOT to vote for yours).‬‪

I certainly cannot recommend that you vote for the other parties or give you reasons to vote for the other parties. If the Green Party was not running I would not vote. There is one thing that the other two major parties here in BC have that the Green Party does not have – experience in government at the provincial level although I personally have municipal government experience. Of course, the experience of these parties is both a good and a bad. ‬ The Green Party is a newer and smaller than the old political parties. As such, we have significantly less political baggage or special interests to which we are beholden (for example, the Liberals have many big business connections and the NDP have many big union connections). So, although we are untested in government, we are ready to enter the BC Legislature as MLA’s beholden only to the citizens that elected us. I would like to encourage each citizen of BC to consider the various parties positions and track records and to vote for the one that best represents your values – the one that you think will work hard to build a better BC. The Green Party platform may be found at http://www.greenparty.bc.ca/greenbook ‪

Q: Explain to me what the main differences you see in your platform as opposed to the other parties‬

I think there are two things unique about the Green Party that are really becoming explicit in this election:

(1) our understanding of the connection between a healthy environment and a healthy economy and

(2) our commitment to a new kind of politics.

First, we understand that a healthy environment and a healthy economy go hand in hand. Our 2009 Platform is based upon this basic insight and you will find that our practical solutions are designed to ensure we see genuine prosperity for generations. Because we think long-term, we work hard to bring in ecological tax-shifting, to diversify our energy production, to invest in education, and much more.Second, we seek a new kind of politics. We recognize that the negativity of the partisan bickering between the two parties in power – the Liberals and NDP – is turning people off politics and leading to poor governance. We are proud of our ability to embrace good ideas that come from either the right or the left and our eagerness to work with other parties for a better BC. We hope that you will consider voting for BC-STV in the referendum to ensure we can move toward more positive politics in BC.

‪Q: Explain to me your social media strategy, long term.‬

One of the key principles of Green politics is Participatory Democracy. We understand that this means an active engagement of citizens through multiple mediums and through mediums that are a part of their everyday lives. In other words, the communication needed for a healthy democracy needs to be understood as taking place within the information-sharing infrastructure of our day-to-day lives. Mobile communication technology is revolutionizing how people communicate and our methods of campaigning (as well as our methods of staying in tune with the political will of BC citizens while in government) is changing. We Greens are campaigning on facebook and twitter and I have a YouTube channel, but much more needs to be done. We are excited about the possibilities of policy development through wiki’s and the potentials for flash referendums. Advancements in communication and transportation technologies have dramatically changed our society in the past 15 years. As a result, the nature of government is changing and it is an exciting time to be involved in making it happen. The most important thing is that citizens get involved and work together for a more healthy and prosperous BC.

Related posts:

Carole James guest post – Leader of the NDP

Premier Gordon Campbell’s Guest Blog

Green shoes, green taxes, green hypocrisy?

Premier Gordon Campbell’s Guest Blog

Raul — Wed, 06 May 2009 18:30:48 +0000

Credit: Frozen Reflections Photography (used with permission)

A few days ago, Premier Gordon Campbell (leader of the British Columbia Liberals) offered to answer up to 5 bloggers’ questions and be a guest writer on our blogs. I’m glad I was one of the 5 bloggers whose questions were answered, given that I’m the editor of the non-partisan, pluralistic blog BC Vote. Furthermore, having taught Public Policy before (and knowing that my former students would expect me to be involved in the policy-making life of British Columbia) and being interested in environmental policy and politics in the province that I call home, it makes sense for me to write more about politics and policy in BC (although I have done so in the past, just for the record). I actually think one of my best posts was this one (Putting back the public in public policy). Premier Gordon Campbell’s responses to my questions are presented below. Thanks for taking the time to answer my questions!

Q: Give me 3 reasons to vote for each one of the other parties (NOT to vote for yours).

A: I think everyone entering public life does so to make a positive contribution. Having said that, it should come as no surprise that I would not actually vote for the other parties. The NDP’s policies would put jobs at risk and that’s something I can’t and won’t defend. I do think the Green Party is committed to the environment and that is good but I believe the way to restore it is through a strong economy.

I would encourage all voters to compare platforms and decide what direction they feel would works the best to keep BC strong. The BC Liberal Platform can be found at http://www.bcliberals.com/platform/

Q: Explain to me what the main differences you see in your platform as opposed to the other parties

A: The BC Liberal platform lowers costs on the economy, and lays a foundation for job creation with lower taxes and sound fiscal management. We know from experience that leaving more money in people’s pockets and reducing the cost of doing business actually stimulates the economy and is an incentive for job creation. In contrast, the NDP’s platform adds more than $1 billion in new taxes, including a tax aimed at our resource industries that is expected to cost our province 60,000 jobs. According to the Chamber of Commerce, the additional wage costs the NDP plan on adding to small business will result in 50,000 jobs lost. In today’s economy, we can’t afford to lose even one job. Finally, the NDP have a platform that adds billions in deficits which are taxes on the future. They are still making up their budget as they go along and that creates real uncertainty at a time when we need to build stability and confidence.

Q: Explain to me your social media strategy, long term.

A: I don’t think anyone can predict where social media will be headed in the future. If you think back five years, Facebook was brand new and very few people were using it. The Twitterverse hadn’t even been invented. People, especially younger people, are looking for ways they can access information efficiently and conveniently and stay in touch in real time. Technology is changing faster than many of our social institutions. But it is changing them. Social media, in particular, provides new opportunities for people to engage with politics and government.

As has been said: “Things will change less in the next two years than we expect, but far more in the next 10 years.” We all have to find time to learn how to use these new technologies to make our lives better.

NOTE – In the spirit of full disclosure and pluralism I have also contacted the offices of the Leaders of the NDP and Green Party to ask if Ms. Carole James and Ms. Jane Sterk would be interested in answering similar questions and/or guest post on my blog.

Public policy, budget prioritization and the money question

Raul — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 21:12:48 +0000

Nancy tweeted a Money Question this afternoon on whether we disagree with sports figures earning as much money as they do when there is so much poverty and disadvantaged people struggling to get by.

Daily Money Q to ponder: Are we OK with sports figures earning the salaries they do, while other citizens are in desperate circumstances?

It is RARE that I get asked questions that make my blood boil and that’s perhaps one of them (not because Nancy asked it – Nancy is a very dear friend of mine – it’s because I rarely think about this issue, and when I do, I always get upset).

When I teach Public Policy (both at the undergraduate and graduate level), I always have a lecture on fairness, equity and justice. These are always important topics for decision-makers in designing public policies. Why? Because, with a limited amount of resources you have to do a gazillion things. So you (as a policy maker) need to prioritize. What can I do with these resources and how can I best put them to good use to serve the public interest? What is fair and equitable and just? Is it fair that these sports figures (or politicians) are paid THAT much?

I always ask my students (and whomever listens to me, whenever I give a keynote or an invited talk) to think about issues in terms of trade-offs. If I spend X thousands of dollars on implementing Y policy, then I get Z results (in terms of people taken off the streets, or streets paved, or seats funded for post-secondary education, or litres of water treated). But since resources are scarce, I have to spend them on Y policy instead of W policy, then I am trading off something. I am giving resources to a cause and NOT to another. There’s a zero sum game, where some win, some lose.

For example, think about it this way – if instead of paying multi-million dollar salaries to sports figures (or politicians), you could spend all that money in something else.

Let me give you the figure I used as an example for Nancy (as listed below)

hummingbird604 I do have a firm opinion – it’s stupid. With 1 month Mexican soccer team’s salaries I’d pay 5 years of PhD ed for 100 pple

This time, I’ll do the exercise with the actual salaries I knew of. The office of the wife of the former President of Mexico was spending about $ 300,000 dollars per month (at the time I did this calculation – right now, said office does not exist as far as I know). What would you do with $ 300,000 dollars? Well, I can tell you one thing – given the monthly allowance that Mexican granting councils gave to PhD students at the time (I was doing my PhD then), you could fund the monthly allowance of 300 PhD students with the money this otherwise useless office used. 300. PhD-level, smart, intelligent people. Per month.

Think about it, people. What do you say is the best use of your money? Educating 300 people with PhDs or ensuring that the wife of the President has a nice office and staff for her ‘charity’ work? Whenever I reflect on it, I am always reminded of what my Dad used to tell me – “for the Romans, bread and circuses“. I have the same opinion of high salaries for sports figures.

Now, feel free to let your thoughts pour here

President Obama’s inauguration liveblog

Raul — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 18:06:10 +0000

I’ll have to admit that, while I am very happy that President Barack Obama has been sworn in today as the 44th President of the United States of America, I wasn’t checking the Inauguration myself. I woke up way too late. But I’ve been checking the Twitter feed and live streams. And The National post’s liveblog.

I know that today, my American friends living in Canada and many of my non-American friends will be talking all day long about this momentous and really exciting occasion, particularly on Twitter. This is, indeed, part of the making of history. And something that I noticed is that The National Post is live-blogging using Cover-It-Live and doing a mashup of Twitter commentary. Three friends of mine whom I met through Twitter are in Washington DC for the inauguration (Nadia Nascimento and Anthony Nicalo who hosted an inaugural reception and Tom Williams, who apparently also talked to The National Post).

It’s fascinating that mainstream media and new media are so intimately intertwined in the coverage of the Obama inauguration. Finally, it seems that there is no more divide. Just as Obama offered words that speak to bridging differences (of religious creed, sexual orientation, and race), co-existing together harmoniously and collaborating, I seriously hope that today marks a new day not only for America but for the world, a day where the source from where the news came from (be it mainstream media and new media) is no longer relevant.

Gregor Robertson is the new Mayor-elect of Vancouver

Raul — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 17:52:34 +0000

Well, he did it. Not only did he become Vancouver’s next mayor, he did so with a Vision majority in City Council. That fact sure speaks volumes to the need for change within the Vancouver area. There were, of course, civic elections all over Metro Vancouver, but the focus was inevitably on Vancouver proper.

I wrote a post a few weeks back on homelessness public policy to which the lack of responses completely frustrated me, because I don’t think a lot of people understood that one key issue to address the homelessness challenge (a key element on which Gregor based a substantial portion of his platform) is establishing strong relationships (and by strong I mean, where there is flow of funds!) with the provincial and federal governments.

Unless Gregor is able to create a consolidated, all-encompassing, across-all-levels-of-government kind of public policy for the homeless, we are about to stay exactly where we are.

On the good news front, I am glad that people did take to heart the challenge of becoming engaged in their own, local-level, municipal politics (something I was worried about a few months back). Participation in this civic election was unparalleled and that pleases me.

EDIT – Thanks to Tod Maffin for spotting a mistake on my post – it’s fixed

The American Presidential election 2008 – A historic day, November 4, 2008

Raul — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 07:01:03 +0000

Today (November 4th, 2008) will go down in world history as a historic, hyper-relevant day. Admittedly, it is a day that holds a LOT of weight in the lives of Canadians. Regardless of whether you’re American or Canadian, I do hope that you’ll be voting or have voted in the upcoming elections (American President Nov 4th and Vancouver municipal election Nov 15th).

I am now comfortable with the fact that many, many Canadians (not dual citizens, but Canadian-only) will be paying attention to the US presidential election. Frankly, so will I. But right after it’s over, I plan to refocus (and draw attention) to our municipal elections.

Would I like Obama to win? For sure I would. That would be an Earth-shattering accomplishment, and one that I think will bring lots of positive changes to the US and the world.

Beyond national frontiers with Twitter

Raul — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 18:15:17 +0000

Credit: JMilles

Yes I know I tweet. A lot. With over 9,000 tweets since April 2008, I have no clue how I have managed to actually maintain my followers. You are too kind! At any rate, while I was in Mexico I started thinking about following some people there but then I unfollowed them as I figured that I wouldn’t be staying for long and thus it was kind of pointless.

Through my tweeting, I’ve discovered that I now have followers not only from Canada, but also from the US, United Kingdom, Mexico, and that’s kind of neat to me. Because I sincerely think that Twitter should trascend domestic frontiers.

I know that I shouldn’t care about my stats but since I was asked to provide some metrics of traffic, I did a quick Alexa search and found out that about 30% of my traffic comes from the US. Nice! To be quite frank, I didn’t even think anybody read my blog in the US (seeing as the vast majority of my writing is fairly hyper-local, e.g. Vancouver). But I’m glad people do, and I’m glad I am able to provide some content that can have wider appeal.

Credit: justj000lie

On a semi-related tangent, I also have to say that I’m glad that Elizabeth May (leader of the Green Party and candidate to Prime Minister of Canada) is interacting with her followers on Twitter (@elizabethmay). I was very impressed with the way she conducted herself during the debates, and I have several very close friends of mine who are friends with her (or at least know her very well).

Politics 2.0 – Data and research methods (and Twitter)

Raul — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 14:00:47 +0000

I briefly saw a little segment by Susan Ormiston on The National (the night news) where she explained what has been going on Twitter. She has teamed up with Dr. Greg Elmer from the Infoscape Research Lab at Ryerson University. I hadn’t heard about them (although I kind of think that Dr. Elmer was here for Cossette Convergence/VIDFEST — but then again remember that I am not really a tech/new media/social media researcher (like danah boyd or Frank Stutzman). So I should be cut some slack

However, as a researcher and a scholar, I kinda like to know the research methods when I examine a project. Given that I do social media as a hobby, but still look at it from the research perspective, I was kind of taken aback when Susan was explaining that Twitter was “sort of a micro-blogging platform” ( I know I’m being nitpicky, heh ).

They (and by they I am meaning Greg and his team) implemented a tracking mashup “OrmistonOnline” and its corresponding website where they were tracking the Canadian politicians debate that happened tonight (with Stephen Harper, Stephane Dion, Jack Layton, Elizabeth May, Gilles Duceppe – I hope I didn’t miss any candidate!).

I saw part of the debate, and I was kind of taken aback that at some points, the leaders weren’t really very polite to each other, interrupting each other. But I digress. My point of this brief post was that I’d be interested in seeing a global mashup (e.g. not only tracking with the hashtags #ormistononline but tracking for all and each one of the candidates).

I also saw some really neat graphs on television, and I’d be interested in knowing the methodology behind them. I must say that I like the approach of surveying new media on the part of mainstream media. As I have said before, bloggers and journalists both have a role.

And *geek alert* Greg Elmer’s website is powered by WordPress.

The importance of voting in American, Canadian and Vancouver elections

Raul — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 17:30:16 +0000

One of the areas where my mother does research is in electoral studies (however, she studies elections in Mexico more than anything, although lately she’s been interested in Canadian elections). She was mentioning how important it was to galvanize people and make them want to go and vote.

It’s true that many, many people refuse to vote because they don’t think that their vote is going to count. I was reading some statistics on how many people have voted in recent Canadian elections and I recall a figure hovering around 64% or so (of the whole electorate).

The most recent election for President was the most contested in Mexican history and I can assure you that one of the reasons for that was precisely that a lot of the people who many people thought wouldn’t vote did indeed cast a ballot.

Even though I’m not American, I’m pretty darn sure I have American readers (and of course, Canadian) so I’d strongly encourage you to register to vote. Hat tips to Steve Jagger who tweeted this video (source: YouTube) where lots of US movie stars encourage viewers to vote.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-UaRXvRwhOk&hl=en&fs=1]

Politics 2.0? Are Canadian politicians using Web 2.0 the right way?

Raul — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 16:10:57 +0000

While I know that there is already buzz around the town on the use of Twitter (seen a couple of posts by Buzz Bishop and Kate Trgovac, as well as one on The Tyee’s The Hook, led by Monte Paulsen), Facebook and other Web 2.0 applications by Canadian politicians (like Elizabeth May, Stephane Dion and Stephen Harper), I am a bit surprised that almost nobody has (at least from what I’ve been reading on the sphere) touched on the very basic element of Web 2.0 – interactivity and bi-directionality.

Even if I don’t follow everyone who follows me on Twitter, I ALWAYS interact with the people who follow me. I have just briefly seen the Twitter account of Elizabeth May and she is not following anyone and has not interacted with anyone. The opposite attitude was that of the Twitter account of Barack Obama who basically followed everyone who was following, and then some more.

I don’t know Liz May, but some of my very closest friends do, and if any of those would like to relay this message to her and to the rest of the politicos in Canada, please feel free to do so – TALK TO YOUR FOLLOWERS. Yeah, you could argue with me that Obama never did talk to anyone on Twitter, but the point I’m trying to make is that Twitter should not be treated *just* as a news broadcast. If those of us who evangelize about all things Web 2.0 are really interested in harnessing social media for change, we need to explain to the “newbies” that the crux of social media is the bidirectional, interactive conversation that occurs within the realm of blogs, Twitter, vlogs, Facebook, etc.

And yeah, boo for fake Twitter accounts for political figures!