Over on O’Reilly Radar, Rep. Mike Honda of California has a guest post up that asks a very important question: “How can Congress take advantage of web 2.0 technologies to transform the relationship between citizens and government? Instead of viewing the public as a customer for services, I believe that we should empower citizens to become our partners in shaping the future of our nation.”
My hats off to Rep. Honda (and his internet staff guru Rob Pierson) for taking the leap. We all know the water of social media is fine, but most Congressmen are just preening at the edge of the pool with their one-way tweets and staff-written blogs. Rep. Honda is jumping in with both feet. He writes:
Government 2.0 is an achievable goal, and together we can make it a reality. In fact, I recently began a comprehensive redesign of my website with the goal of developing new and unprecedented ways of collaborating with my constituents.
To solicit ideas for the new website, I sent my Online Communications Director to a conference to lead a website brainstorming session. That conversation resulted in several intriguing proposals, including the suggestion that I post my hearing schedule for the week so that my constituents could propose questions for me to ask of witnesses.
The success of that session, and the quality of your answers to the last question I posted here, gives just a hint of the possibilities that can result from greater partnership between elected officials and the public. While I may not be able to implement every idea that is suggested, I do plan on providing a list of the most innovative ideas to my fellow Members of Congress.
What features could I implement on my website to tap into the wisdom of the crowds?
* Propose an idea
* View submitted ideas [Kudos to Honda for allowing us in on this part of the conversation!]
* Join our conversation on twitter using the #honda2.0 tag
With your help we can empower the public to partner with Representatives in improving the policies of our nation. Let’s begin making Gov 2.0 a reality.
March 19, 2009