City of Ottawa 3-1-1 #fail ?

You may have noticed that there is a question mark at the end of my blog post title. That’s because I didn’t want to make it sound like a statement, in case I’m missing something. Here’s what I experienced today and would love some of your feedback on:

I was driving north on Bank street this morning here in Ottawa and hit a massive patch of black ice right before a busy intersection. My ABS kicked in right away and I went into survival “summer tire” skidding mode for a few long seconds. Luckily my brakes were new and I had already started braking well before I hit the black ice in order to slow down for the upcoming intersection. My car came to diagonal stop right on the white line. The car behind me managed to almost do a 360, but somehow recovered and veered into the right turning lane as if that’s what the driver was trying to do all along. I looked in my rearview mirror and noticed a pile of cars approaching about 150 feet away.

Segmenting Audiences for Social Media Engagement

To maximize an organization’s effectiveness in terms of marketing goal attainment, an overall audience (or “market” in the private sector) should always be segmented into groups of clients with common attributes (segments)  and then prioritized accordingly (target audience). Unfortunately, for most government organizations, a comprehensive market segmentation study is rarely a top priority. As a result, many public sector marketing initiatives are not optimized for maximum impact.

Doing things differently in government

Two weeks ago I managed to seriously fracture my humerus bone. I had to have surgery to put a titanium plate with 8 screws into my arm so that the bone could heal properly over the course of the next 6 months. While the benefit of having surgery after a fracture is not having to wear a cast, the discomfort and limited mobility is quite similar. After 4 days at the hospital I thought I was ready to go back to my regular routine (those that know me also know that inactivity is not exactly my friend).