In Australia about 10% of households don’t have a landline phone any more. In some other countries the figure is higher – and it is growing as people abandon the ‘fixed to one location’ phone for personal mobile phones. When calling a government agency – even a ‘free call’ line – there’s often additional charges for mobile phones,…
When websites first starting to become popular it became common for Marketing and Communications teams in organisations to receive requests from various areas saying “we need a website”. Now that social media is firmly embedded in Australia, I’m seeing and hearing about the same type of requests – particularly for Facebook. So, drawn from a…
With some of the concerns and processes I’ve witnessed in government it would be easy to draw the conclusion that hundreds or even thousands of public servants are using social media daily in ways that damage the reputations of their departments and the government. Fortunately, a couple of articles I saw yesterday have given me…
Below is a copy of a comment I have posted to the ABC The Drum in response to an Alan Kohler article, Big media inquiry, little industry change. I thought I’d repeat it here as it covers some of the changing landscape that government communicators are facing. I recommend reading Kohler’s article (or at least…
Tenille Bentley, founder of Socialite Media is now presenting on trends in engagement by people. She says that the amount spent by state government on online engagement vastly under-rates the proportion of people’s media time spent online (around 41%). Tenille is illustrating the falling reach of newspapers and as their circulations decline, how their ad rates…
A favored term amongst political operatives and advisors is ‘oxygen,, the share of the public discussion a politician, government or issue manages to obtain. Sometimes the goal is to have the largest possible share, starving other commentators and viewpoints. Other times the goal is to to minimise the share of oxygen a viewpoint or issue…
I attended the Australian Science Communicator’s new media forum last night, participating on the panel as a Gov 2.0 Advocate, along with a distinguished group of science communicators and academics. One view expressed on the panel was that while scientists should communicate basic science to the public, the uninformed masses should not be involved in…
Guest post by Steve Davies Yesterday I spend a little time getting involved in the ACT Government Twitter Cabinet. The focus was on Canberra beyond 2013. Lots of ideas and views exchanged. Through sheer serendipity one of my views on life struck a note with our Chief Minister, Katy Gallagher. So the next Twitter Cabinet…
This has been an insightful week for organisations using, or considering using, social media with three successive events demonstrating how far power has shifted to the public and illustrating how Australians companies are struggling to engage effectively online. First up was Qantas with its poorly timed “Qantas luxury” promotion. Qantas launched the Twitter competition by…
Over the last year I’ve observed a couple of good and bad trends in governments around Australia. The first – the good trend – is towards the recognition that social media is a valid and significant channel for government communication and engagement. This has led to the creation of a new type of role, the…
This archive mirrors the original eGov AU blog — Craig’s professional commentary on AI, digital government and technology in public life, running since 2006.
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