Local Government and Social Media – Use me. Please.

by hanspetermeyer

There is a movement inside government at all levels in Canada to become more transparent – and cost-effective. It's called GOV2.0, and developments are very uneven. In spite of the unevenness, however, the implications are
generally positive for community sustainability.

A lot of people, especially of my generation and older, are suspicious of things like Twitter and Facebook. If you are reading this you are, nevertheless, using one of the various social media tools. Either you're reading it via a "traditional" social medium – the printed page – or you're reading it via one of the "new" social media: one of several blogs, circulated via email, Facebook, or Twitter (or perhaps tagged on bookmarking sites like Delicious). Or you may be holding an in-office "small press" version (ie. photocopy).

There is nothing special about this column; it's just an example of how one writer reaches an audience via a continuum of media, all of which are "social" - that is, shared by people. We are, at least as far back as the days of cave paintings and drums, a "sharing" species. What has changed is our ability to do more than consume. We are now sharing and shaping the stories and information flows – and the actions that emerge.

What does this have to do with land use and community sustainability, local government and NGOs? A lot.

Working Hard in the Hell's Kitchen of Sustainability

For a number of reasons both local governments and local NGOs get no respect. Ironically so, because they represent our most direct contact with agencies of change, regulation, and action. Local government has been called "the hell's kitchen of sustainability" exactly because it is the agency closest to on-the-ground community land use decisions. Our local NGOs are in a similar kitchen as the deliverers of a range of social and environmental services that local government is not well-equiped to deal with. But for these two channels of action to be most effective, they need to be well-connected to the passions and energies of us as citizens of our community, our place.

In some jurisdictions – the cities of Victoria, Kelowna, Guelph, and Edmonton are some examples – elected officials and staff are actively opening up channels of communications with citizens. The topics being covered are varied, as are the means used (online radio, video, blogs, Twitter, etc). They include explaining street closures, tax increases, providing transit updates, and street snow removal scheduling. In some cases the online presence doesn't make two-way communications easy – but it's always easier than writing a letter to City Hall. People see the posts, and they comment on them.

"To be an effective CEO you've got to be the Chief Listening Officer" (from this morning's Twitter feed). Consistently, corporate "best practices" have to do with willingness to listen to what people are saying and responding quickly before problems escalate. This gives those "listening" an opportunity to build relationships to make exciting things happen – drawing on the energies and resources in the community at large, not just those of civic staff and officials. Another of this morning's posts talks about how social media is helping a municipality deal with its debt. As a taxpayer, very cool news.

PnPP – A (neglected) History of Building Community

Local NGOs are, despite their sometimes testy relations, local governments' greatest resources. With their street cred and volunteer base, who better to manage or oversee projects related to affordable housing, stream stewardship, land trusts, community foundations, social services? We hear a lot about PPP (Public Private Partnerships), and very little about PnPP (Public non-Profit Partnerships). Most of our communities were built on PnPP, which were typically informal arrangements. That's why today they're under the radar and largely under-valued.

Local governments and local NGOs face chronic underfunding (and downloading from senior levels of government) and few have good communications channels. These are among the reasons that both are sometimes publicly perceived as being removed from the democratic process ("you can't fight City Hall" or "it's all an old boys' club" syndrome).

Even good local NGOs doing excellent work have the appearance of being outside an accountability structure. Which is why they are sometimes dismissed as "special interest groups." A big loss – for all of us.

Yes, the local land trust is a "special interest group." But their special interest – identifying and holding land in trust for non-market uses, ie. sensitive habitat, water quality, etc – has huge positive benefits for all who live in a region. Similarly the local family services organizations' special interests – a focus on the well-being of vulnerable families – benefits the community at large. Without a way to interact with these organizations, however, I don't know their story, I can't voice my appreciations or grievances. Importantly for them, they can't tap into my knowledge or passion on a particular issue.

The social media opportunity for both local government and local NGOs? Creating a social media presence may help you be more effective and efficient in what you want to achieve – without burning out volunteers and/or staff. It may help you positively engage your constituents, members, voting citizens. It may give you the support you need to do critical – and amazing – things.

2-way Tools

They're just tools – with a difference, because they work two-ways. The conversation that can ensue when organizations commit to using social media creates the opportunity for positive change to happen, quickly. The evidence is everywhere today. Literally. Rescue efforts in Haiti are moving more quickly via citizen-directed social media information than via official aid and government channels. Some municipalities are finding Twitter a faster emergency response channel than 911.

There is a body of social media best practices emerging. It's mostly about being patient, courteous, generous, setting clear expectations – and trusting folks to respond in kind. The evidence to date indicates that most of us do respond in kind. At a time when we face significant challenges in our local organizations – governmental and NGO – we do well to engage the growing number of us who are going online. We are a significant, if latent, force for creating better communities and neighbourhoods. Use us. Please.

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Editorial Notes: Stimulating and Extending the Conversation about Land Use and Sustainability

Welcome to the November postings of the CIT Information Resource!

When we launched the CITinfoResource blog a year ago our intention was, as Tim Pringle said at the time, to "stimulate and support the conversation about use and conservation of land amongst various land use practitioners in BC communities." How do we do this?

• By highlighting specific projects and events that we're involved in;
• By having CIT and Real Estate Foundation staff talk about the conversations they're involved in;
• By engaging you as "land use practitioners" – the professionals and lay-people who are actively shaping land use practices across BC's non-metropolitican communities.

We're always interested in what you think. Please leave comments or email us!

In this posting of CITinfoResource we start with Foundation Executive Director Karin Kirkpatrick's notes on a variety of topics, including her observations from a recent trip to China. Our CIT project overview gives a sample of what Prince George is doing to address a range of issues, from downtown revitalization to climate change, with the help of SmartGrowth BC and the Real Estate Institute of BC. This month our "cover" image is taken from the Smart Growth on the Ground process generated by these partners.

Our engagement of land use practitioners tends to focus on two areas: coverage of land use related events and conferences, and guest columns and interviews.

BC communities are blessed with a wealth of talent and imagination when it comes to looking at how we use and conserve our land-based resources. Our guest columnists reflect a little of this wealth. In this posting, Janine de la Salle and Mark Holland address a recurring topic at CITinfoResource: food and land, and ways in which our urban centres, metropolitan as well as rurally-located, can play an active role in supporting sustainable agricultural practices.

The richness of talent amongst BC's land use practitioners is also reflected in the quality of conferences and events focused on land and sustainability. Interviews with participants and organizers is one way CITinfoResource extends the value of these events. During the past year, we have covered Reversing the Tide (Prince George, October 2008), moving to the Northern Housing Conference (Smithers, January 2009), the BC Land Summit (Whistler, May 2009), and most recently, Resilient Cities (Vancouver, October 2009). We've interviewed participants about their impressions of these events, how they "come to ground" in BC communities, and the medium-to-long-term legacy of these gatherings. Wherever possible, we follow the conversation over several postings of CITinfoResouce. For example, we've featured several interviews about the BC Land Summit in our June and September postings. In this posting, we continue that coverage as we talk with Judith Walker, planner with the Village of Cumberland.

Our conversations around Resilient Cities began in September when we interviewed Gene Miller, the visionary behind the Gaining Ground series of summits. Now we interview some of those who attended and who will make it real in our communities. We start with Michelle Rule, a City Councillor in Kelowna, move to Tim Pringle of the Real Estate Foundation, and finish with Jack Minard of the Comox Valley Land Trust. Upcoming issues will feature more conversations from a similarly broad spectrum of perspectives on land use.

As a closing column, I write about some of the challenges I see in trying to bring home the kinds of inspiring, sometimes sobering ideas and approaches to community sustainability that Resilient Cities presented so effectively.

Please share these resources

We are hearing from you that the CITinfoResource posts are helpful to your work. Thanks for that. One of the hallmarks of the Real Estate Foundation's 22+ years is collaboration and sharing of resources. We actively encourage the reproduction of CIT Information Resource articles and materials for non-profit educational purposes. In return, we ask that you please notify the Foundation and the author of all reproductions, including in-house uses.

You may also want to follow us on Facebook or on Twitter. (As an aside, the value of using Twitter to provide real-time coverage of a conference was evident for anyone following the Resilient Cities conference. A sample of this is viewable at the Gaining Ground blog here. Just another way that we're using social media to extend the reach and impact of a downtown conference to outside communities and individuals unable to attend.)

ps...
Please note that on occasion we'll post outside of our usual 6x a year schedule. For example, audio posts of our #GGRC09 interviews were posted in previous weeks. In future you'll start to see video posts appearing as well. Tell us what you think of these ways of stimulating and extending the conversation about land use and sustainability in BC!

©Real Estate Foundation of BC / 2009. We strongly encourage the reproduction of articles on this website for non-profit educational purposes. Please notify the Foundation and the author of all reproductions, including in-house uses