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Examples of the use of Web 2.0 Technologies in Government
Updated 5 October 2008
Mashups
• CLEARMAP - Chicago Police Crime Reporting
Chief Geek comment: A fascinating site from CPD with a lot of detail, the ability to search by beat, ward, around an address or near a school, and even a link to the local Alderman's website.
• Crime Reports dot Com
Chief Geek comment: Not a government site, but a compendium of crime data from a number of law enforcement agencies, e.g. Montgomery County, Maryland.
• Chicago - Everyblock
Chief Geek comment: an idex to a large amount of Chicago data, block-by-block
• My Neighborhood Map - real-time Display of 911 Data on a Map (Seattle)
Chief Geek comment: Technically not a mashup, but an application. The real-time 911 data comes from a Fire Department Computer-Aided Dispatch feed which is shown under the map.
• An index to some mashups using government data
Chief Geek comment: Federal contracts by state, tax contributions to the Iraq war and more. None of these, as far as I can tell, are "official" in the sense that they are created or sponsored by a government, but they illustrate the power of mashups.
Blogs
• Elected Official Blogs:
~ Tim Burgess City View, Seattle City Council
~ Walter Neary, Neary-Sighted, Lakewood, Washington, City Council
Chief Geek comment: Writing is hard - writing a regular column or blog and keeping the news fresh is hard. Undoubtedly there are other elected officials who regularly blog, but these two are examples of officials who clearly are committed to communicating with constituents through blogging.
• Mecklenburg County Blog
Chief Geek comment: A once-every-ten-days posting blog with a few comments on some of the entries
• Los Angeles Police Department Blog
Chief Geek comment: A highly moderated blog. You'll notice most of the entries have zero or just a few commments. Also the website URL is distinct from the City of Los Angeles website
• Portland Water Bureau
Chief Geek comment: An attempt to use a semi-interactive blog by a government agency on a government website, including video and audio clips. Again, very few comments.
• Library of Congress
Chief Geek comment: Matt Raymond's entry of 24 April 2008, first anniversary of this blog, gives some insight into the challenges faces by many bloggers
• Index to Federal Government Blogs
Chief Geek comment: Quite a variety here.
• Index to Government Blogs
Chief Geek comment: This list collected by the federal government. It appears most (if not all) of the elected official blogs are on campaign or personal websites, not government sites.
• Technorati
Chief Geek comment: This is the premier list of blogs and information about blogs. Very tellingly, there is no category of "government blogs", although the "politics" category is well populated.
• Police Blogs (General)
Chief Geek comment: a number of "official" police blogs exist, such as Tulsa Okla. and Brookline Mass, but the only one I've found with any significant posted comments is LAPD (above).
Surveys of Constituent Opinions
• Chief Geek Comment: I'm still looking for statistically valid surveys using the web.
Wiki's
• Chief Geek Comment: I don't have any publicly available government uses of Wiki's. Several governments are using Wiki's internally such as Randleigh Farms (City of Raleigh, NC) which won a PTI 2008 Solutions Award and Montgomery County, MD, using a wiki for internal project management. If you are aware of publicly usable government wiki's, let me know.
Live Discussions with Elected Officials
• Ask the Mayor on the Seattle Channel
Chief Geek Comment: A live cable television program broadcast at 7PM on the second Wednesday of each month, with telephone call-in questions and taped "person on the street" questions. Archives available.
• Montgomery County, Maryland, Live Discussion with County Executive Ike Leggett
Chief Geek Comment: Text transcripts of previous virtual meetings are on the site. I'm not able to determine if this is audio-only or video as well
Podcasts
• The Seattle Channel podcasts and audiocasts - you can even find this City government TV station's ArtZone podcasts on Apple's Itunes.
Chief Geek Comment: The video podcasts are great, especially those related to the Arts in Seattle. If you've ever wanted to download audio of an exciting City Council meeting, here is the place to do it.
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