Government Blogging and Citizen Influence

"Government Blogging" by Shel Israel on red couch.

"The simple answer is to be closer with their constituents.

In government, it may be starting from the top down, but it is starting. I think it will be most valuable, when the middle of government services& mdash;people like Nadia—start to blog, but some like Miliband are demonstrating that a blog is like an old fashioned town meeting, where impassioned community members get to stand up and speak and be heard in front of the elected officials who are entrusted to serve them.

Finally, there is another reason why government will be joining the conversation. Citizen groups are blogging and in some cases starting to gain the same influence as local lobbying groups."

Shel's last point is a good one. We've been working with an engineering/architectural firm that provides services to governments on a local/state/federal level as well an on an international one. The firm is seeing more and more citizen groups blogging. What's intersting is that the firm has traditionally ignored citizen groups. However, the firm now gets it that these groups have real influence and need to be part of the process for winning and sustaining contracts.