Unless government organizations understand that what really sets social media apart is the word “social” rather than “media”, and that they are people tool and not corporate tool, most attempts at developing effective strategies will be futile.
Andrea Di Maio, This Is Why Governments Struggle with the Use of Social Media.
But clearly today’s information technology has the effect of disintermediating. It breaks down hierarchies. It breaks down monopolies. That’s got to be good for the individual, and it must be bad for dictatorships.
In our last interview, [Former US Senator Evan] Bayh complained of the poor opinion the public had of him and his [Senate] colleagues. “They look at us like we’re worse than used-car salesmen.” Yes. They do. And this is why.
Ezra Klein of the Washington Post, from his post The sad, hypocritical retirement of Evan Bayh.
For every buck we spend we borrow forty cents and if that isn’t stupid. You’ve got a country that is stupid. A government that is stupid.
-Former US Senator Alan Simpson, co-chair of the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, on our government.
TechCrunch had a great interview yesterday about the new office for Gavin Newsom, the new Lieutenant Governor of California.
Newsom announced that he will forgo an office in San Francisco and will workout of an office/coworking space for entrepreneurs called the Founders Den. Why?
To bring innovation back to our state government. Founders Den provides the kind of collaborative and creative atmosphere to foster new ideas not only for emerging new businesses, but government as well.
Take a look at the interview, where Lt. Governor Newsom compares government (specifically California’s current cash strapped situation) to that of a startup and the need for entrepreneurial energy in government.
From the London Review of Books:
Taking the lower figure, that means that New York Times, if it stopped printing a physical edition of the paper, could afford to give every subscriber a free Kindle. Not the bog-standard Kindle, but the one with free global data access. And not just one Kindle, but four Kindles. And not just once, but every year. And that’s using the low estimate for the costs of printing.
The University of Georgia student newspaper, the Red and Black, wrote up the UGAKey.com acquisition. I really appreciated this from Koofers:
“UGAKey.com is one of the most widely used sites in this category, particularly for the course registration process,” Hatfield said. “It is a popular tool with solid data.”
I am incredibly sad to hear any public servant speak these words, much less a member of the House of Commons.
Google has a great Google Doodle (see it here) for today, the 50th anniversary of John F. Kennedy’s inauguration as the 35th President of the United States. PCMag has some background, but the Doodle specifically honors Kennedy’s inaugural address. It includes many of the words of Kennedy’s iconic address (read the text of his address here).
See the Doodle here.
You can also see the earliest known draft of the address at the JFK Library website (along with his secretary’s files of dictation and other notes).
Hiding behind your Twitter avatar and telling the world how terrible everything is is pretty easy. It’s even funny sometimes. Putting yourself on the line and making something original is really hard work. Which one do you want to be. Which one deserves our respect and attention?
-37 Signals blog, Signal vs. Noise, on critiquing others’ work when you don’t know the contexts (yeah, I didn’t want to print the title).
