Government of Ontario in Second Life!

Upon checking in on the Government 2.0 Best Practices Wiki I set up last week, a few things came to mind today, which I thought I’d write about. First of all, I am amazed at and very thankful for all the wonderful contributions people from all over the world have made to the wiki so far. There have been over 5000 visitors, of which over 50 have already made new entries. Let’s keep them coming!

I was particularly amazed at a recruitment initiative by the Government of Ontario (thanks to Marvin Bedward for sending the link) involving Second Life. Most government social media initiatives are relatively safe (e.g. rss feeds, blogs, etc…) so this one tented to stand out. Rather than blabbing on about it, why don’t you watch the video below:

I would love to hear more about this. Mainly, was it successful? did it meet objectives? how did the implementers go about getting official buy-in? If anybody out there knows anything, please contact me. I have also heard of a Second Life initiatve put on by Library and Archives Canada. Although unfortunately I have been unable to find anything concrete written about it. If you have any leads, by all means please let me know or better yet, post the info up on the wiki!

What do you think? Will immersive experiences/demonstrations like this dominate the recruitment landscape of the future? Is this just too much for some of you? Let me know, I’d love to hear your thoughts!

Government 2.0 Best Practices Wiki Launch

Rather than delaying it any longer, I took the last 30 minutes to finally create a quick Government 2.0 Best Practices Wiki for the social media community (working in or with the public sector) to collaboratively work on. I’m planning on filling it out over the next few days with more information, however I figured I’d save myself some work by opening the doors early and letting you start filling it in and/or fine-tuning the layout.

My overall intent here is quite simple. I want to get public servants and government consultants out of their silos and have them start working collaboratively towards a common goal: better governance through the use of social media (i.e. Government 2.0). Every workshop or conference I speak at, I am asked the same first question by most public servants: “Who else is doing this in government?”. I want this wiki to have all the answers and to continually grow as new initiatives arise.

This has been brewing in my mind for a long time now and will eventually lead to much bigger initiatives, including a truly dedicated conference/summit on the topic (ideally sponsored by government departments here in Canada). Stay tuned, planning is already in progress. 

If you need a quick Wiki 101, have a look at this Wiki definition video.

Video on Anthropology, YouTube & other Social Media

I’ve been meaning to post this up for a few months now, but somehow it got sidetracked until now. It’s a video by Mike Wesch, who is an anthropology professor at Kansas State University. I watched it for the second time today and realized that EVERYONE interested in social media, from any perspective (marketing, technology, sociology, law, etc…) should watch this.

 

Anthropology, sociology and the psychology of humans, have all been subjects that fascinated me ever since I can remember. While I may have gotten my degree in business, most of my private reading revolved around these topics. Perhaps that’s why I’m so passionate about social media and how we can use it to improve government and society. Videos like this remind me why I write this blog, why I am involved in this community, and why I love spreading this viral knowledge to others. We are in the process of re-constructing the very nature of human social interaction and community building.  This goes way beyond technology. In fact, as I often mention in my workshops, technology is simply the enabler. Anyone can use this stuff, not just the geek next door. Technology is no longer a barrier. It will be interesting to see how all of this evolves as we begin to be overwhelmed with content and the need to filter based on relevancy. Will we slowly regress back to controlled dissemination of content?