Philosophically speaking, our system of government is very much designed this way.  Practically speaking however, the rapidly changing nature of technology is outpacing the public sector’s ability to keep up with newer, more efficient ways to deliver citizen services.  Mobility in government is the prominent technological trend as it represents not just another avenue of interaction, but an entire world where a large and growing portion of our society lives, works, and plays.

So, what’s a strong tech-savvy policymaker or a CIO looking to get the most out of government to do? He or she might wish to institute enterprise level management techniques.  However, given the natural inertia and stove piping of various agencies and departments, the challenge can often be overwhelming.  That is especially true for moving into our ever-mobilizing world.

Governing magazine, in conjunction with AT&T, recently conducted a survey of public sector leaders at all levels of state and local government. The Creating and Implementing a Holistic Mobile Strategy guide found that 50% of respondents don’t have an enterprise level mobility strategy, even though 58% of respondents have developed or will deploy at least one new mobile application in the next two years, most likely for a basic financial services, such as tax payments, tag fees, or driver’s license renewal.  It is indeed a mobile world, and our public sector leaders are caught between a rock and hard place, struggling between ignoring mobility and moving ahead too quickly without proper planning, resources and technical expertise.

Check out the guide for insights from AT&T technology experts, public sector leaders and Governing magazine on issues like managing the BYOD trend, mobile device security, ever-popular application development practice procedures, and case studies.

Share with me: what kinds of service do you wish were available online?  How does your local government do at bringing services to you?  What lessons can be learned from the private sector and how do our elected leaders and their appointees put best practices into place?

In my last post, “Bring Your Own Everything – Citizen Services, NFC, and Big Data,” we looked at how mobile technology is presenting new opportunities and challenges in the public sector. The overwhelming need for the functionality and capacity of smartphones by consumers and employees is re-shaping how citizens interact with government agencies and institutions.  And the reliance on these devices is growing.

Gartner estimated back in November that smart devices will account for 70 percent of total devices sold in 2012. The proliferation of these devices is powering an explosion of mobile applications for citizen services.  For example, the City of Boston practically pioneered the field with Citizens Connect, and now many states have natural resources or parks and recreation applications such as the State of Michigan’s Camping and Recreation Locator, the State of Georgia’s State Parks Guide, and San Diego County’s SDEmergency App.

Two additional technologies are emerging as enablers of public sector mobility – Video to the Field and Integrated Communications (IC). For these two, I want to make a plea on behalf of the public servant (of which, I’m a former and, undoubtedly, future member). While some trends and technological advances have come in fits and starts, never quite gathering the necessary momentum to coalesce into something useful, both of these technologies have a huge pent-up demand.

Video to the Field

Content hungry technology might be another way to classify this trend.  You’ll see a lot more bloggers and experts describe the larger phenomenon this way, but I’m going to call a spade a spade.  The technology is here; the roads have been built and are continuously upgraded; now we need the cars, or in this case, the content, to take advantage of those wide open roads.   With LTE and smart devices as the new information highway, we need the Ferrari of content:  Video.  For state and local governments, this content could be anything from training videos for field employees, like case workers, or a video that helps a park ranger identify a certain wildlife species with warnings on how to handle them in different circumstances.  It might be even as simple as video conferencing in the field or live video feed when law enforcement officers find themselves in a dangerous situation and HQ needs real-time intelligence.  Another way to think of this trend is as a continuation of pushing the business of government out to the field.  Let’s take it to the next level.

I would call out the superstar in this field, from my experience, as LIA, which stands for Liberated Intelligence & Analysis.  While their business focus is mostly on increasing the linkage between traditional sales and marketing channels in a business environment, the benefit to the public sector is obvious.  It’s never more important to control the message and outflow of information than in the public sector.  Imagine an application that runs on a mobile device that gives your field personnel all the flexibility of the agency’s message, all the forms on hand, the regulations and procedures, and even video to the field, but without the hassle of worrying about version control. Or worse yet, the fear of leaving behind outdated or inaccurate information, or having a field agent act outside the bounds of their duty.  LIA is a great example of where pushing the right content, especially video, right out to the field, can take us in the future.

From a video capture perspective, the topic has been a discussion in the public safety community for years.  After all, the video cameras in police cars are standard operating procedure today, why not officer cam?  Again, the information super highway is ready and the cloud has made possible solutions like TASER’s police cam that allow a remote viewer to see what the officer sees.  While the stated purpose is accountability and reducing accusations of police brutality, imagine being able to live stream that feed in an emergency situation.  Imagine firefighters equipped with the same equipment in a blaze or search and rescue scenario.  Imagine tagging and cataloging that video, immediately storing it in a secure place and making it available to the justice system as evidence with a clear, digital and limited chain of custody.

Nothing is more powerful than video and indeed, video is the Ferrari of the information super highway.  That’s why traffic on YouTube tripled in 2011 and 3 hours of video is uploaded every minute to YouTube from mobile devices alone.

Integrated Communications

With the mobilizing of the workforce a continuing and prominent trend, integrated communications that is person-centric and not office-centric is critical.  Being an employee located primarily in the field means that any given day is already hectic, with very little routine, requiring you to be flexible and stoic in your professional objectives. The last thing you need is to spend hours on end fighting the clunky technology that’s supposed to make it easy to check your office voicemail from your cellphone or have your office calls automatically forwarded on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.  I’m looking forward to the day when that technological wonder is easy, flexible and self-serviceable-when the notion that you must be physically present in an office to get work done is considered passé.

Where will we focus going forward?

I wish I had the answer on this one.  I really do.  What I can tell you is that as I sit here writing this, I have an office phone, two cell phones and a Google Voice plugin client on my email to make calls.  Not only that, I have three email addresses and as many voicemail boxes somewhere in the ether.  All of this ties right back into the Bring Your Own Everything trend as it drives the proliferation of communication and leaves the individual struggling to juggle those various demands for attention.

These are my predictions, but I’m more interested in hearing from you.  What is it you need as public sector employees to do your jobs better?  How do you see technology changing the business of government?  What about paper reduction?  Do you see technology as a sunk cost or an investment for long term growth?

So now that we’re here, in the future, what can we expect in 2013 from our technology?  What technologies will have the biggest impact on the public sector? Where should we focus limited resources?  To find out, let’s start where we left off last year—with Bring Your Own Everything (BYOE).

Mobile Access to Citizen Services — Bring Your Own Everything

“Bring Your Own Everything” was originally discussed in my post last year — it was important then, and it still is.  What we’ve learned since that time is that these two movements are tied together.  Mobile access to citizen services is still the single greatest technology trend for state and local governments.

Gartner recently reported that smart device sales will top 1 billion in 2013. But what is the relationship of mobile proliferation to the “BYOD” trend?  Well, as business and government find it more economical to share the burden of mobile costs with employees, while also providing more freedom for employees to work with the technologies of their choice, smartphones become a win-win for both the business and the employee. But the devices aren’t the only important aspect – it’s what you do with them that counts. In this post I’ll discuss three mobile enablers for the public sector that are poised to shift how government interacts with its employees and its citizens.

Near Field Communications

What is Near Field Communications or NFC?It’s essentially RFID – or radio frequency identification — and it’s similar to Bluetooth.  NFC allows you to touch (or be within a few centimeters of) devices to transfer information, especially payment information.  For layman illustration purposes, think about the latest Samsung Galaxy S III and how the S Beam technology allows two people to hold their phones together and share photos, contacts, etc.  Now imagine your most common purchases taking place that easily.

The most common question will be, is that for real?  Yes, though it is new.  It’s new all over, so don’t expect it to be widely implemented anywhere tomorrow.  However, Google Wallet is already allowing consumers to store credit card information and pay using the MasterCard Pay Pass system.  The number of NFC enabled smartphones is on the rise, Further, Isis, a joint venture between the major carriers is already trialing in 2 cities.  Isis has also partnered with the major credit card companies.  This is the engine behind mobile payments and it’s been moving down the tracks for 2 years now.  We should see real headway in 2013.

Next question: If this technology is so new, won’t government agencies be hesitant to adopt it?  I’m stepping out a limb on here, a branch really, to say…NO. Government won’t wait too long. While it makes sense for government to wait until the technology has begun to be standardized before investing significantly, there are many signs that bode well for government adoption in the near term.  Several European countries are already trialing NFC technology for paying mass transportation fares.  You can pay parking meters right from your phone.

Mobile payments aren’t the only function though.  Storing and sharing almost any kind of information is possible.  I envision a world where I can share driver’s license and insurance information with police or other government agencies for services while keeping the paper social security card or bill safely stored.  See Melanie Pinola’s article over at LifeHacker for some suggestions.

Is this an ambitious endeavor?  Yes.  Putting NFC on the list for 2013 will make it very easy for you to come back next year and razz me, but I just can’t help it—I’m excited!

Big Data

The newest buzzword in government is everywhere.  Big data. Every organization and publication is talking about it, about how big it is, and revolutionary — and data-like.  But what does it mean?  The problem is that it means a lot of things.

Big data is, first and foremost, lots of data.  When it comes to citizen data, there is driver data-licensing, vehicle registration, and associated taxes or even violations, just for example.  There’s a myriad data points about you as an individual citizen and your interaction with various government agencies for services, programs, or even violations.  The real meaning of big data though is the larger, encompassing opportunity to capture that data, turn it into intelligence, and, ultimately, use it to improve service.  See my previous post for deeper dive about what Big Data means for government.

I won’t predict the big data predicament– if you can call it that– will be solved in 2013, but rather that all roads lead there.  Mobility is the means of generating and capturing big data.  Whether it’s automated through smart devices like parking meters, meter readers, traffic sensors, or payment data through NFC or the use of mobile applications, an agency’s mobile acuity and investment will determine their ability to capture and leverage big data.

The cloud will be the primary means for storage and likely for processing power.  The network investment and security will still be necessary to bring it all together and keep that data safe.  Finally, there’s the sheer genius behind the processing power to make data into intelligence. We will see the same trajectory from big data that we saw with cloud in the last year as it becomes an integral part of the lexicon and its role is further defined.

As these mobile-tech trends help shape the public sector of the future, what advances do you see coming that I haven’t covered yet? How will mobile-tech change the way you work or interact with the government?

What I do see is the same sort of life convenience and functionality coming from an entire array of interconnected devices that tend to my needs. I see the Internet bringing everyday things to life to serve in an intelligent way.  What’s more impressive is the potential—the potential for this ease of use, intelligent interaction between man-and-machine for the power of good.  So how relevant is this trend, really?  How does it or can it make my life better? And what’s in it for government, in particular?

The future of interconnectivity

Sanjay Poonen’s Forbes article, here, does a great job highlighting the myriad ways in which little bits of data here and there can be intelligently channeled to make your coffee pot smarter, or your thermostat more responsive to your every chill and hot flash.   (His notion of the “Internet of Things” is supported by AT&T’s “Internet Everywhere” initiative as well.)

Larry Downes’ Forbes article discusses the convergence of the AT&T network into a wholly IP based network of data packets, planned for completion by 2015.   Even more telling is the Pew Internet and American Life Project that shows that 46 percent of American adults are smartphone owners.  Smartphone owners outnumber “dumb” phone owners.  Growth in smartphone ownership is rising as well, across all demographics, age groups, education levels, and geographies[i].

Does all this matter? The answer relies on the few organizations that can manage the massive amounts of data, turn them into intelligence, and push them back to people to help them make everyday decisions, make their lives easier, or support them in a microenvironment at the point of need.

What entity stands to benefit the most from all this? The government.  Seriously.  This trend, this brave new world, has its biggest implications in the realm of how citizen services are delivered and how information about the country and its people becomes intelligence.

Big data insights in federal, state, and local governments

The federal government in May released Digital Government: Building a 21^st Century Platform to Better Serve the American People.  Rattling off chapter titles makes it clear that the Feds see exactly what groups like AT&T, SAP and Pew are seeing.  The report focuses on open data as the default and making it consumable through APIs (for Web 2.0 and mobile app development), meaning that data can be mined to become intelligence.  Here are some of my key takeaways from the report:

Data as the path to operational progress

The report gives a great example on decoupling data from presentation.  The CDC example discusses how, no matter the platform, data can be updated once and pushed to their main website, mobile site and made available for private usage or various “modules.”  Not only does this serve to get the content out to folks who need it and can use it intelligently, but it also streamlines the CDCs operations, frees up resources, and allows them to focus on disease control and not IT—after all, IT isn’t in the name but Disease Control is.

Enterprise-level scaling

Enterprise level management is also the order of the day.  Disparate procurement of technology will only continue to stifle the development of big data as a way of life.  Cross-functionality, interoperability, and a prudent conservation of taxpayer dollars at the highest level make for the best investments.

This is equally, if not more so, true at the state level.  Fractured procurement policy and management techniques for not just IT proper but all services, especially those managed, requires governor and cabinet level oversight.  Many problems occur at the state level particularly due to competing constitutionally of elected officials on par with the Governor of each state and a fractured approach to distributing policies to elected or appointed agency heads.

Local voices unite!

At the local level, especially in small to mid-sized city/county governments, the approach is unified, if existent.  Vision and oversight are essential here.  With federal and state policies in place that make sense, locals will be better able to take advantage of those policies to do things like make a database of public information, develop an API or even just create a strategic framework for how to use citizen data for a holistic approach to government to citizen interaction–as long as they have someone to take an active role in representing the value of a coordinated implementation strategy.

For a great perspective on enterprise level management and general reforms, read Smart Government: Bureaucracy with a Business Brain by the Commission for a New Georgia and see how the mindset was applied in areas across government.

It’s all about the customer

All of this makes way for a customer-centric approach, which is the backbone of this brave new world of big data.  Just like precision retail, the entire open data endeavor, improved management and the general collection of data, is to serve citizens; otherwise, what is the point?  Enterprise level customer service has never been a focus of government at any level.  That’s not to say that public servants aren’t dedicated, civic-minded or altruistic, but rather that there is no embedded cultural proclivity towards customer service at the highest level because policymakers and cabinet officials come and go with every election.  Managing challenges and keeping the ship afloat is standard operating procedure; big data enables innovation and the ability to focus on people like never before.

What innovations do you see arising from government with the growth of big data? What implications do you see in advancements like big data and the Internet of Things for your government and community?

In many industries, M2M is historically known as “telemetry” or industrial automation. You may be familiar with such M2M applications as OnStar, or the team up between Ford and AT&T to connect the new Ford Focus Electric.  More and more, M2M technologies give otherwise inanimate objects a voice to provide information back to their owners and the software necessary to turn information into intelligence.

M2M Is Shaping Government 2.0

As governments, especially local communities, seek to modernize, streamline, cut costs, and move into the 21^st century, M2M is an important investment in Government 2.0. Reading the meter requires just the click of a button.

Every day we see more and more parking meters going digital and accepting credit cards.  But what if those meters could talk back to headquarters, informing you that a meter has expired, and the car is still parked in the space? Agencies could efficiently and effectively route parking enforcement throughout the city and reduce the resource-intensive patrol.  With the right investment in resources, a municipality could conceivably eliminate parking enforcement all together.

The City of Atlanta has struggled with its parking enforcement for years, trying to find the right balance between the expenditures necessary to provide parking and code enforcement, and the income generated to the city in doing so.  While the policy is a matter of governance and politics for the city, M2M applications for parking meters offer an effective strategy.

Implement longer enforceable hours?  Click of the mouse.  Value pricing and congestion pricing fluctuations?  Click of the mouse.  Automatic notification of expired meters?  Data analytics for parking trends across neighborhoods, times of the day or surrounding big events?  The intelligence to make those kinds of decision is possible with the technological advantage of an M2M solution.

Atlanta opted to select source it’s parking enforcement in 2009, reducing the overhead and taking advantage of private expertise in an area outside the city’s core competency.  But it hasn’t been without bumps.  Could technology available and more coming every day help solve the parking challenges and maintain ownership of the process?

Griffin Gets Smart Grid

Let’s look at an example where M2M has been instrumental in jumping head first into Government 2.0. The City of Griffin, GA, a metro neighbor of Atlanta, recently implemented a smart grid solution to better monitor power usage, remotely connect and disconnect service, as well as give residents better control over how much electricity they use.  The city’s electric department serves 16,000 residential, commercial and industrial customers, but vies for budget dollars as any other government department.

For Griffin, a city that started out as a mill town, reinventing itself and rethinking how things are done is nothing new. Thanks to the background of its electric director, Bill Bosch, the town decided to pursue a smart grid system.   Determining and measure value from automatic meter readers can be tricky. Griffin examined several systems with different applications and ultimately determined that a smart meter solution requiring no communications infrastructure was the way to go.

Griffin put the citizens in the driver’s seat for managing power consumption and made data capture and intelligence a scientific process.  The smart grid solution lets customers better understand and manage their power usage.  It simultaneously lets electric department remotely read, connect and disconnect service.  All in all, the city is able to provide better customer service with less maintenance and potential cost savings.

With the right intelligence, the City of Griffin has been able to effectively deliver value to citizens, bring to bear the right resources with SmartSynch and AT&T.  What more can you ask from your community?

 How is your community approaching the future of Government 2.0?  Are technological approaches a consideration as programs are evaluated and services examined?  What does Government 2.0 mean to you in your city or county?

1.  Strategize

What do you want to talk about?  Maybe you’re a state natural resources agency and you want to drive tourism to state parks and historic sites, promote state farmers markets and get feedback on how to improve your processes like hunting and fishing license procedures.  Maybe you want to garner attention for a native endangered species or even reduce enforcement violations like poaching or littering.  Social media is a great avenue to get the message out.

2. Join

It sounds simple, I know, but you have to join some of your preferred social networks to understand what they’re all about.  Whether it’s GovLoop, LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Path or even Google+, each network has its own etiquette and mannerisms.  Learning starts at the beginning so pick one.  Twitter is for short bursts, Facebook allows for videos, pictures and long messages.  Pinterest is for pictures.  LinkedIn hosts great forums and is full of professionals looking to network.  Google+ well…bless their heart, they try.

3. Listen before you Speak

Listening is just as important as broadcasting.  Understanding what people are saying about you today is going to allow you to better know your audience, what they want and how they perceive you.

4. Speak, Carefully

In part 1, we discussed the challenge of distinguishing between personal, professional and official use of social media.  In any case, you want to be factual, honest and transparent.  Citizens expect the best from their governments, even if they anticipate the worst at times.  On the other hand, it’s important to be timely, relevant and frequent.

5. Connect with the Audience

In The Tao of Twitter, Mark Schaefer (@markwschaefer) offers advice for businesses engaging on Twitter but it applies to the public sector and other networks just as well. Make targeted connections; post meaningful content; provide authentic helpfulness.  What does that mean for government exactly?

Target the audience for your services.  If you’re the DNR I mentioned before, look for folks talking about you or hunting and fishing or outdoor groups and follow them, friend them or join their discussion groups.

Meaningful content means that while I may care about updates to the hunting and fishing regulations (and I do!), I probably don’t care that you installed new carpet in the southeast regional office.

Authentic helpfulness in government is self-explanatory.  Everything you do is to serve the greater good; social media is another outlet to do that.  It is important to understand that as much as you broadcast what’s important to you, people will reach out with what’s important to them.  Your social media presence is another avenue for citizens to reach government for a solution.

6. Use the Tools at your Disposal

As your presence grows, these tools will help you make the most of your time.

Services like bit.ly will shorten your links which is great for keeping it short and sweet on sites like Twitter.

Hootsuite and Tweetdeck aggregate your social media presence into one dashboard, allowing you push out your info quickly and get a holistic view of your presence.  Even Microsoft Outlook allows you integrate your networks.

One of the newer tools, Klout, measures your social media influence across your networks allowing you to see your reach and measure your influence on key topics.

7. Measuring Success

Despite the assertion that it is difficult to measure social media influence, there are still plenty of ways to determine if you’re being effective.  Key metrics like connections, followers or friends (depending on your network of choice) will determine your direct reach.  Is it growing or shrinking?

Page views, likes, retweets or pins all help extend your network beyond your direct sphere.  Comments—those are the big ones.  As we discussed in Part 1, feedback is important but bracing for criticism and negativity is necessary.  Social media isn’t social unless it’s a two way conversation, even an unpleasant one.  Take the criticism in stride but have a policy for dealing with, addressing and correcting any problems.

Oscar Wilde said, “there is only one thing in the world that is worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.”  Now is the time join the conversation and shape the debate.  It wasn’t long ago that the Internet itself demanded a presence from the public sector.  Social media now demands that presence be more human.

According to Pew, 2/3 of online adults use social media and according to ComScore more than half of social media users access their network on a daily basis.  What’s even more intriguing is that the number accessing social media from a mobile device grew by 37% to over 72 million and 70% of that population posted to their network from their mobile device.

What does all that mean?  For the public sector, ever striving to provide better access to citizen services and wisely invest taxpayer dollars, social media and mobility is where the people live.  Social media is where the next DMV field office or park ranger station needs to go and there is no overhead required.

Tell me what you think.  Where are you in your social media strategy? Do you have best practices to share with fellow public officials?  How is social media being perceived in your agency?

There are several reasons this is the case; fear, agency roles, the (perceived) lack of ROI, legal, technological—the list goes on.  Why is the policy regarding social media, or lack thereof, so much more pervasive in the public sector than in the private sector?  After all, it’s got public in the name!  There’s so much at stake in the public sector, one public misstep lands you in the paper.  The general rule is also that social networking is inherently goofing off.  And yet, so many agencies are beginning to see the value in social media, or social government, even if they are having a hard time putting a finger on exactly what that is.

There are two key aspects to understanding and developing social government—a policy to govern and protect the agency and its employees and a strategy to get involved.  Let’s start with the former.

8 Elements of a Social Media Policy

Jan Hrdinova, Natalie Helbig and Catherine Peters at the Center for Technology in Government at SUNY, Albany wrote Designing Social Policy for Government: Eight Essential Elements.  I’ve borrowed their elements to bring you a holistic view of designing your policy but want to include some practical food for thought as you explore your own strategies and policies.  You can find a link to their full work on the Brookings Institution’s website here.

1. Employee Access

Two approaches: control the employees allowed to access social media or control the social media sites available.  Goals for your social media usage, covered in part 2, will be important to determining the strategy here.

2. Account Management

Set a policy for how accounts are created, maintained and removed.  Whether you delineate or set broad suggestions will largely be determined by your capacity to oversee the holistic social media presence of your entire government institution or if it’s pushed down to the agency or even program level.  The biggest pitfall here is creating an account that is allowed to go dormant, especially if one of your goals is to be responsive to citizens.

3. Acceptable Use

Just like the policy of using any “corporate” resources for personal usage, you probably have some policies in place for telephone and internet usage.  Hrdinova, Helbig and Peters found that this is a question that agencies still struggle with as the line blurs between personal, professional and official usage.  This is more impactful for government than even business as Open Records and Sunshine laws come into play.  The truth of the matter is you always represent more than just yourself with your words and actions.  You carry your family name, you’re associated with your friends and you often bear the seal of your employer.  Represent all of them with dignity and integrity

4. Employee Conduct

Chances are very good that your agency already has a code of conduct policy.  However, it’s important to understand and think about the etiquette, unofficial as it may be, that surrounds different social media sites—chief among them being thou shalt not spam.  Government holds the public trust and it’s a delicate thing, ruining it with one errant tweet or post can have significant effects.

5. Content

Content goes hand in hand with acceptable use and access.  What are you going to talk about?  What is off limits?  Who determines that?  Of course, much of this depends on where you’re living in social media.  You must always be prepared to engage in dialogue but the nature of that dialogue may differ greatly between Facebook and Twitter vs. forums like GovLoop or LinkedIn groups.

6. Security

Security with social media is the same security challenge that agencies face every day. Users are advised to maintain complex passwords and robust antivirus software and NEVER reveal confidential information.

7. Legal Issues

Records management and retention policies are important here as agencies often struggle to comply with relevant Open Records laws.  Disclaimers are often used when employees are representing themselves professionally but not on behalf of their institution.  The authors present several potential disclaimer areas including; external links, endorsements, copyright, privacy, public records and others.

8. Citizen Conduct

The most challenging aspect of social media policy is—feedback.  Two way communication is the most important factor of a successful social media endeavor.  Are you going to engage? If so, how are you going to engage?    Most sites allow you to disable comments or moderate them.  It is important to note there is a distinction between offensive or unacceptable behavior and criticism.  If you can’t handle the criticism or have no mechanism for dealing with it, your social media venture may be over before it began.  A sense of humor helps here.

Want more information or need inspiration?  Visit SocialMediaGovernance.com’s repository of policies for government and non-profits, here.  Use social media to build social media with GovLoop’s discussion groups, here. Reach out to colleagues in neighboring cities or states, look for best practices.

Now that you have a grasp on the policy implications for social media, look for my next post to 7 tips to strategize and engage in your social media adventure.

I’d love to hear your biggest impediment to implementing social media.  What is it about social media that has attracted you in the first place?  In which sites do you most want to participate?  What aspect of policy implementation is most important to you and your leadership?

The same is slowly becoming true in social media.  It seems counterproductive or irrational, but people, as individuals, are becoming more legitimate by their presence on the internet.

What does this mean for politics, you ask?  There is very little excuse not to participate in the political process when social media has so significantly lowered the bar for entry.  This is true for both the average citizen and the politician.  So, what do you do?

1) Sign up!  Take a swim in the shallow end of the pool.

• Joining doesn’t necessarily mean the loss of privacy.
• The commitment is minimal; you can quit at any time and come or go as you please.

2) Join the conversation, talk about what interests and seek out like-minded individuals.

• Share things that interest you like your views on issues on important points about/from candidates.
• Always remember that social media is a personal form of broadcasting, of publishing, not your diary.

On the other hand, politicians have recently become some of the most prolific social media users around —now that they understand the bookface  and the twitters.   However, they suffer a different problem, entirely—speaking too much and saying too little:

1) Be real.

• Getting the digital handshake and ‘don’t forget to vote’ line is like calling customer service and being sold to.
• Mix business and personal.  Political operatives are rolling their eyes right now, but people elect the person not the just the idea—that’s why so many folks consider themselves moderates.

2) Talk to people, not at them.

• You’re not broadcasting; you’re talking to one person, a lot of times.  However, you are publishing, don’t pull an Anthony Weiner.
• People will talk back, be prepared to engage them. Even if it is the constituent services department or the PR team, people expect you to communicate in two directions.

The possibilities are endless in social media.  As a constituent, your voice carries significantly farther in social media.  You not only impact the decision making process of your elected officials, you have the opportunity to change the dialogue or frame the debate for fellow constituents.  There is no reason to be a disinterested citizen in this society. It’s not all good, I know, but it doesn’t have to be every legislator or every issue—pick your favorites, speed date.  Want help getting started?  Check out tweetcongress.org to find your tweeting elected official.

So how about you?  What messages do you think we can learn from politicians about social media?  How can politicians use social media more effectively?  Remember to keep your comments non-political and then go for it.  We want to hear from you about this important topic.

Did you know that San Diego County is larger than Delaware and Rhode Island?  Did you know that it has a larger population than 20 states, with the City of San Diego standing at 1,387,000 people?  San Diego County is one of the few areas of the United States that consists of ocean, snow and desert in one political subdivision.   It’s safe to say that San Diego County has a unique perspective on how to serve a large number of people in an urban setting and, simultaneously, contend with the toughest challenges that the rural chaparral back country has to offer. As a county, they represent the same difficulties faced by entire states around the country.

Many states, especially larger states and southern states face similar challenges.  Many states feature concentrated populations separated by vast rural regions and difficult terrain challenges. The challenge is keeping mobile workers connected, keeping productivity up, staying flexible and meeting the needs of citizens.  They have to stay connected, keep office systems authenticated and keep the necessary flow of information in and out at maximum capacity.  In business it means a loss of dollars.  In government it could mean a loss of life.

A simple, yet transformative addition of a mobility VPN solution has allowed San Diego County employees to stay connected and authenticated to security enhanced systems while moving in and out of difficult terrain and working in rural areas.  They’re not spending hours reconnecting to back office systems or getting frustrated with password and keys.  They’re no longer losing work in progress.  They stay secure with encrypted data transmission and authentication.  It’s all handled intelligently through a simple piece of software right on the device.

San Diego’s success bodes well for other states, counties and cities interested in teleworking solutions or to better support a mobilized workforce, support sustainable practices, reduce costs or just overcome the challenge of terrain and reception.  A simple always on mobility VPN connection even bodes well for moral and customer service as employees spend their doing the job they’re for and not fighting their own systems or becoming frustrated by wasted efforts.

eRepublic, the notable publishers of Governing and Government Technology magazines recently did a study on San Diego’s success, found here.  As notable early adopters of technology facing many of the challenges that entire states contend with, I thought it prudent to share San Diego’s success with not only the write up but also a video detailing their solution to keep field workers connected and productivity up.

What do you think?  Is San Diego County representative of the challenges faced by other parts of the country?  Is their approach something that other agencies are considering or have you seen it in action?  What other successes bode well for yours and my tax dollars?

This brave new world has also changed the mindset and understanding of how the average citizen expects to engage and interact with their government and receive services as well. They want it anytime, anywhere. What does that mean for state and local government in 2012?  There are 4 key trends in the world of mobility that will propel state and local government forward, trends that will support providing those services as well as create new challenges, nevertheless, they are coming.

1. Consumerization of IT or “BYOD”

The BYOD or “Bring Your Own Device” phenomenon  is picking up steam in state and local governments. It is proving to be an effective cost containment measure that also shifts the burden of device management away from the administration and onto the end user.  There is also a great pressure from both above and below on the IT support and provisioning parties. Policymakers are becoming more tech savvy, incorporating mobile devices into the legislative session. Employees, becoming more and more comfortable with their Operating System of choice can take advantage of the advanced functionality for the benefit of the public sector. Whether or not the IT agency is ready or willing, if they don’t find a way to support these devices legitimately, they will find many uncontrolled and vulnerable endpoints accessing their systems.

No doubt there are significant challenges associated with the BYOD movement. Agencies are contending with accessibility issues and integration as well as mobile device and data security. Every endpoint is a potential vulnerability, which will drive the #2 trend in government and mobility.

2. Mobile Security

Protecting data is key. Mobile devices are outside the traditional realm of the protected technology model and it’s necessary to rethink the take on mobile security. Mobile remote access services, or MRAS, can give end users in the field, the case worker on site or trooper on the highway a secure connection back into the system. MDM, mobile device management, can secure those proliferating endpoints in a number of ways. With remote lock and wipe, storage partitioning, remote policy setting or application lockdown, agencies have an array of controls available to effectively manage the onslaught of BYOD. Whatever the route of mobile security, it will be a key trend for truly enabling field workers and getting the most out of their efforts as well as getting folks off Capitol Hill.

3. Government Makes House Calls

The final extension of this mobility movement within the business processes of state and local government is two fold. The swell of the BYOD movement as well as the need to supplement that movement with mobile security is all underpinned by the increased ability to perform, meet expectations. I called this section Government Makes House Calls because it’s not a focus around a particular piece of technology. Rather, it’s the movement towards mobility as a whole that will manifest itself through various technological components and reimagine the cell phone and tablet device as instruments of mass production, like Batman’s utility belt. It’s a top down movement, as evidenced by Indiana’s trial of iPads in the legislature, seen here.

In 2012 we’ll see agencies go paperless (or paper reduced) by equipping personnel with mobile applications to complete customized forms and files directly from the mobile device. That information will be sent directly to back office systems. The incorporation of 4G HSPA+ and LTE technology can make those tasks as fast as or faster than a traditional internet connection. Geotagging photos, equipping vehicles with asset tracking devices, allowing workers to clock in and out remotely and arming those workers with secure access to the work they need from anywhere means an office without walls. It also means that government makes house calls, whether that’s checking on elderly citizens or children, wildlife biologists tagging species movement or agents inspecting gas pumps, the tools are there and you will see states get creative in their adoption.

4. Mobile Access to Citizen Services

App it up! The feds are already doing it. Seriously, can you believe it?  Individual agencies of the Federal Government have over 80 apps available (find them all here). Now that doesn’t make them all useful, some are (Spanish translator or helpful guides to Smithsonian exhibits) and some aren’t (MEanderthal, really?).  Even if the execution leaves something to be desired, the goal is noble.

This continuing trend of self service in government is going to be key going forward. Mobilizing citizen services is the next evolutionary leap from the brick-and-mortar mentality to the self-service online option. The drive to cut costs and more efficiently leverage resources had the hoped-for but unplanned side effect of increasing responsiveness of citizen services as well as creating a better perception of customer service. Imagine what having access to those same services from a mobile optimized website or a direct application on smart phones could do.

What makes this trend so compelling for state and local government, even more so than federal, is the old adage that the government closest to the people, governs best. When it comes to truly providing day-to-day service that burden, the strain on resources, personnel and execution, all falls back to the states and the locals.

In the end, that’s what it’s all about—providing better services to citizens. Driving to cut costs and improve the delivery of citizen services simultaneously is a tough proposition at best. BYOD and mobile security are means to an end. They don’t mean a lot without that significant end—better  service. That’s where these next technological trends directly impact. The kinds of technology that reduce overall operating expenses, streamline operations, and make employees more productive, all for the sake of the citizen, that’s where state and local government are headed. It’s impossible to say for certain what the future holds but when this baby reaches 88 miles per hour, you’re going to see some serious stuff.

So what do you think? How do you see mobility helping state and local governments better serve constituents?  Do you have any examples of something working particularly well? We’d love to hear from you with your comments.