government

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Deepening Engagement: How Local, Regional and National Governments Brag, Develop and Nurture Travel and Tourism
related: workshops, social web slideshare: [|government websites] (14,000+ views) ranker: [|responsible travel leaders] editing: [|Government]

We are developing recommendations for local, regional and national government websites to showcase travel and tourism. Inspire us!

Some of the best things a government can do are free! There are also tips that require a financial investment. Find what works best.

Buzzword Bingo
Accountability - Benefits - Biodiversity - Collaboration - City - Cooperation - Collaboration - Community - Conscious Travel - Continuity - Country - Dashboard - Election - Ecotourism - Empowerment - Enable - Engagement - Energy - Freemium - **Government** - Governance - Health - Hombres de Gris (Men in Gray) - Innovation - Open Government - Peace- Phase - Responsible Travel - Road Map - Social Web - Tax - Tourism - Transparency - Transportation - UN - Visitors - Virtue - Vote

Headlines
http://www.govtech.com/govgirl/GovGirl-Talking-Like-Government-in-Real-Life.html http://consultations.worldbank.org/consultation/indicators-challenge-ichallenge [|Hack the government for good not evil]

Deepening Engagement
1) Help us improve content about your city, region, country 2) Pay attention to how we wish to receive editorial suggestions 3) Add a link to this site 4) Hire us for workshops 5) Help us create videos 6) Participate in flickr groups 7) Help edit this wiki
 * How to Participate**

slideshare
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rss

 * rss url="http://api.flickr.com/services/feeds/photoset.gne?set=72157615807834865&nsid=19047782@N00&lang=en-us" link="true" number="10" date="true" || rss url="http://feeds.delicious.com/v2/rss/ronmader/government?count=15" link="true" number="10" date="true" ||

Essay
The truth is that most government portals are made for the ego of the officials. Once websites engage locals and visitors, everything changes. If the institutions develop a social web strategy -- using channels including Facebook, Flickr, Twitter, YouTube -- then the fluidity of communication vastly improves.

Consider Martin Hatchuel's proposal to transform information offices into conversation spaces. How would this be manifested?

Big Ideas
Government websites are encouraged to …

1) Create informative, content-rich websites with timely and accurate information, including direct links to local operations. 2) Participate in conversations with locals and visitors via social web and face-to-face meetings.

Tips (free)
Create an inventory of the top niche blogs, flickr groups, websites covering your target markets. Offer editorial suggestions to authors and bloggers Make it easy for locals and visitors to share feedback. Participate on other websites. Hold or participate in Photo safaris Create a Wiki

Tips ($)
Buy ads Host Web workshops and webinars Offer innovative press trips that put the spotlight on locals Sponsor videos

Suggestions
Listen - Create an inventory of who's who working in tourism and conservation Assess - What environmental policies are now in place regarding tourism? Improving Media Relations - Which guidebook authors, bloggers, and other media pros have shown an interest in learning more about ecotourism? Online - On your website, include links and background info about conscious travel, ecotourism and responsible travel.

Social Web Tips
How to engage others using the social web? Let's break this down into a few simple steps

1) Pay attention 2) Monitor 3) Reward (create incentives) 4) Evaluate (and begin a new, deeper cycle)

Twitter
[|@Opening_Gov]

Artwork / Cue Yourself
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Quotes
How about we do something more powerful, more meaningful? What if we helped cities express themselves and share their voice? My first thought was to ask the people of [|Pittsburgh] what they want to share with the world. That’s one way to think about it. My next thought was to give them the tools, show them how, and get the most authentic voice. - Chris Brogan, [|How Bloggers Can Work With Tourism Boards]

Those who refuse to participate in politics shall be governed by their inferiors. - Plato

Popular government without popular information or means of acquiring is but a prologue to farce or tragedy or perhaps both. - James Madison

Recommended Viewing
[|How the Internet will (one day) transform government] - The open-source world has learned to deal with a flood of new, oftentimes divergent, ideas using hosting services like GitHub -- so why can’t governments? In this rousing talk Clay Shirky shows how democracies can take a lesson from the Internet, to be not just transparent but also to draw on the knowledge of all their citizens.

Recommended Listening
[|Our nod to the federal election campaign and an update on Gov initiatives] - Here's the road map: we'll start by doing a reality check on the use and value of social media during the current federal election campaign; then we'll look at the Gillard administration's 'Declaration of Open Government'; and we'll end in the US with an update on Barack Obama's progress in implementing Gov 2.0.

Ireland
http://www.flickr.com/photos/planeta/3375275277/ http://www.planeta.com/planeta/09/0902irelandreport.html

Mekong
http://exploremekong.org/responsible

South Africa
flickrgroups: [|Cape Town: LIve it, love it] [|Responsible Cape Town]

Canada
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=C0DC6EBB7113F45D

Australia
[|Engage: Getting on with Government 2.0]

USA
http://www.recovery.gov https://public.resource.org/

Recommended Books
join the conversation, the long tail

Questions (Messy Draft)
What sort of assistance is provided by gov to locals, visitors and press? How well does the gov listen? What happens when the government is a bully? How well do locals and visitors rate government services? Who is the local contact in the government office who should receive announcements and news about awards for their constituents? Why do young people want to work for the government? Do you measure visitor satisfaction? Do you measure local satisfaction?

Feedback
What are the best ways for locals and visitors to provide government agencies constructive criticism?

Links
http://www.thistourismweek.co.za/newsletters/deepening-engagement-governments-and-tourism

Creative Commons
http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Intergovernmental_Organizations

elsewhere on the web
[|Declaration of Open Government] [|2009 Future Tense program on 'e-Australia'] [|2009 Future Tense story on the 'internet president'] [|2009 Future Tense interview with Dr Nicholas Gruen about Gov 2.0] [|Our list of election-related websites] [|Stephen Collin's recent blog post on social media & the election] [|Stephen Collin's blog post on Gov 2.0 culture] [|James Dellow's blog post on this programme] [|How Bloggers Can Work With Tourism Boards] http://www.fedsmith.com https://socrata.com - https://twitter.com/socrata

Embedded Tweets
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Open Data
http://www.mixandmash.org.nz - http://twitter.com/#!/mixandmashnz 2010 winner: http://www.mixandmash.org.nz/winners/suprememashup.html - http://nzwalksinfo.co.nz

Some thoughts - Martin Hatchuel

 * Government has an obligation to create the environment in which tourism can work - 'an enabling environment' - its job should not be to become the the tourism provider.
 * This leads to the obvious question - should governments run national airlines? They seem to be failing all over the world, they often need huge injections of capital, and they are large and unwieldy. And how are they contributing to responsible tourism?
 * Discuss!

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