Thursday, August 13, 2009

Engaging Government Accountability, via Social Media

(Via Evernote)

Today, 02:39 PM

Jesse, WH New Media Team

Karina, Speaker Pelosi Web Admin

Jake Brewer, Sunlight Foundation Engagement Director

"Holding gov't accountable via social media"

Jesse suggests a powerful chat room/town hall strategy, is to attack the hard questions first.

Question: what is the role of gov't in moderating questions, vs role of constituents in moderating questions? What about third-party groups?

Phil mentions purpose of OFA 2.0 as being that third-party group to keep gov't accountable thru consistent engagement.

DailyKos member suggests that you must engage your community when you enter into social media platform use.

Question: from an advocacy group perspective, what are the best ways of engagement with the elected official?

Karina mentioned geotagging for member use--excellent potential to engage constituents in district.

Advocacy groups used for member to engage nontraditional groups is a possibility, according to Jake.

Scalability of info directed to members needs to be refined. Don't innundate members with massive amounts of information on multiple platforms.--comment from audience.

Answering tough questions from 'fringe' groups lend legitimacy to groups, giving authenticity to process, according to Jesse.

Karina asks what 'furthers the dialogue' between member and constituents? According to her, Speaker Pelosi follows social media data as it relates to her job.

Transparency can go too far in that strategy is revealed to opponents, according to Jesse. Transparency works when people realize that agendas are set with constituents in mind, not self-gain.

Wrapping up, gonna go listen to jazz and process session.

More later.

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

NN'09 later on today. I don't blog consistently enough to be among the elite, maybe I'll get better blogging thru osmosis? Tell you what, I'll make a deal...

Sunday, August 9, 2009

Recovering from Thursday; 33 businesses attended G-20 Trade Expo pre-event, spoke with president of VC firm, and got my veterans' I'd card. Blog more soon, ok?