I find it hard to hack through the different assumed roles of government—service deliverer to some, content manager, producer-come-editor to others. You can add to that the role of real-time communicator.
Love it or loath it, citizen engagement is now an endemic part of everyone’s function in government, and the speed at which citizens are communicating is increasing.
Social media has been a game changer in that respect. As events unfolding in the Middle East and Africa quite poignantly reveal: failing to adapt to changes in citizen behaviour or addressing a disengaged population on their terms is not an option in a digital age.
Egypt’s revolution—or Revolution 2.0 as some have called it—and the revolt in Tunisia show that governments that maintain the status quo, shut down dissent and turn a blind eye to citizens’ demands, are on borrowed time.
Part of the widening gulf between the old and the new ways of engaging is a failure to transition from analogue to digital—literally and metaphorically.
Love it or loath it, citizen engagement is now an endemic part of everyone’s function in government, and the speed at which citizens are communicating is increasing.
Social media has been a game changer in that respect. As events unfolding in the Middle East and Africa quite poignantly reveal: failing to adapt to changes in citizen behaviour or addressing a disengaged population on their terms is not an option in a digital age.
Egypt’s revolution—or Revolution 2.0 as some have called it—and the revolt in Tunisia show that governments that maintain the status quo, shut down dissent and turn a blind eye to citizens’ demands, are on borrowed time.
Part of the widening gulf between the old and the new ways of engaging is a failure to transition from analogue to digital—literally and metaphorically.
Some governments are hopelessly locked in an analogue world: they don’t see that communication has evolved. At the same time, through social media, disgruntled voters and dissident groups are moving to one another like balls of mercury.
Zachary Tumin, Special Advisor to the Director, Science, Technology and Public Policy Program at the Harvard Kennedy School spoke to me about this transition: “Some of the essential elements of the vision we see around the world are, of course, increased transparency, real-time engagement by government and citizens: via text, mobile and the Web—it’s a bi-directional conversation rather than a ‘talk-at-you’ engagement.”
That seachange that has taken place in the last decade, but particularly in the last four or five years through social media and new Web 2.0 tools. And the pace of change in the Middle East is dramatic.
The Dubai School of Government’s recent Arab Social Media Report in its inaugural edition found that the number of Facebook users in the region almost doubled in 2010, from 11.9 million to 21.3 million.
The report analysed data on Facebook users in all 22 Arab countries, in addition to Iran and Israel.
Usurped governments not only have been blind-sided by a vocal citizenry, talking faster online than propagation can keep up, but the notion that the citizen-to-government ‘dialogue’ is now happening in real-time.
Tumin says that governments understand that citizens are now active participants or ‘producers’.
“Open data has allowed us to find the answer to complicated problems faster and we see the trend towards treating citizens not as objects but co-producers in a system of solutions,” he says.
Of the governments that continue to ignore this reality: “They’re going to lose eventually,” he says, “because government leaders who connect and mobilise their citizens through Web 2.0 tools can do so quicker, faster and cheaper than people who don’t.”
Zachary Tumin, Special Advisor to the Director, Science, Technology and Public Policy Program at the Harvard Kennedy School spoke to me about this transition: “Some of the essential elements of the vision we see around the world are, of course, increased transparency, real-time engagement by government and citizens: via text, mobile and the Web—it’s a bi-directional conversation rather than a ‘talk-at-you’ engagement.”
That seachange that has taken place in the last decade, but particularly in the last four or five years through social media and new Web 2.0 tools. And the pace of change in the Middle East is dramatic.
The Dubai School of Government’s recent Arab Social Media Report in its inaugural edition found that the number of Facebook users in the region almost doubled in 2010, from 11.9 million to 21.3 million.
The report analysed data on Facebook users in all 22 Arab countries, in addition to Iran and Israel.
Usurped governments not only have been blind-sided by a vocal citizenry, talking faster online than propagation can keep up, but the notion that the citizen-to-government ‘dialogue’ is now happening in real-time.
Tumin says that governments understand that citizens are now active participants or ‘producers’.
“Open data has allowed us to find the answer to complicated problems faster and we see the trend towards treating citizens not as objects but co-producers in a system of solutions,” he says.
Of the governments that continue to ignore this reality: “They’re going to lose eventually,” he says, “because government leaders who connect and mobilise their citizens through Web 2.0 tools can do so quicker, faster and cheaper than people who don’t.”
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