This is a course blog for the classes on digital government and social media in the public sector" class taught by Professor Ines Mergel at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, Syracuse University. The blog posts include comments and ideas from MPA, MAIR and EMPA students studying the use of new technologies in the public sector.
Monday, May 9, 2011
electronic service bill 2011
http://www.mit.gov.in/sites/upload_files/dit/files/DraftEDSBill_11042011.pdf
Pritam singh
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
The Empire strikes back !!!
Anna has responded by saying that "My fast was not with any prejudice against any government or individual but against corruption which has burdened the common man."
As the process of drafting of the bill starts, there would be many more such accusations and counters.But we have to what comes out in shape of an Act on a matter which has been in cold storage for half a century in Indian Parliament.
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
Elections in India
Friday, April 8, 2011
Anna Hazare Wins One More Time
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
Good Debate in The Hindu
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Advantage Crowdsourcing
The concept of crowdsoucing combined will social media tools is now becoming important medium to develop new knowledge - from detection of violence patterns in elections to recent Japan earthquake Nuclear fallout detection.
I have read an interesting article on crowdsocurcing. I think this concept can be applied in many areas in effective delivery of public services.
Saturday, March 26, 2011
Is MySpace closing shop?
Can Social Media Connect People across the Globe and Reduce Enmity between Nations?
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Wiki leaks and Babel like World Events
Citizen participation
Afghan Taliban threat shuts Helmand mobile network
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-12838231
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Discourse on social media and Jasmine revolution
Anoop Kumar
Monday, March 21, 2011
A Disconnected Social Network?
Yes, there are local social media tools, such as Twitter-like Sina Microbloging, Facebook-like RenRen.com, Youtube-like Youku.com, and Wikipeida-like Baidu Baike... A consequence is that we are cut from the outside social network in this globalizatized era by building more and more social media niches. "China local network" is coming true.
Disconnection is "safe"? I don't know. But the inconvenience is real. Everyone who was back to this country from overseas is facing two options: cutting all social ties forever, or becoming a "tech-savvy" to escape. Dear class, now you know my choice.
Thursday, March 10, 2011
New Page on Wikipedia to share knowledge with new students
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
SOME THOUGHTS ON WATCHING THE MOVIE "THE SOCIAL NETWORK"
I recently watched the much talked about movie “The Social network”- a chronicle of founding of Facebook and fictionalized biopic of Mark Zuckerberg, who at the age of 19 launched Facebook from his Harvard University Dorm room in 2004. My curiosity to watch this movie had reached to a crescendo since it had won 3 much anticipated Oscar awards (though “King’s Speech’ clinched the best film award, and even director David Fincher lost the best director award to Mark Hooper of “King’s Speech”). However, one Oscar was one by Aaron Sarokin for best writing & adapted screenplay (Scriptwriter of “Charlie Wilson’s War “and NBC TV series ´The West Wing”). I read that Aaron is an alumni of our own Syracuse University and has graduated in Musical Theatre from School of Fine Arts in 1983. His brilliantly written script is based on Ben Mezrich’s fascinating non-fiction book “The Accidental Billionaires”.
Monday, March 7, 2011
A week of cyber attacks
The French Finance Ministry websites continued to be attacked since December 2010, by highly professional hackers. Although French authorities are not very sure, they suspect the information was directed towards Chinese sites.
Saturday, March 5, 2011
Internet Car
A new car has been developed that can read out emails and social media messages. want to buy? click here.
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
Don’t allow the Facebook and Twitter users to lead the society
This is surprising news for me as student of Government 2.0 that the Facebook and Twitter revolution is going to be reached to my country’s doors. Currently we are suffering from corruption in the government and useless parliament. The rate of bribery is extremely high in the Judiciary power. The people will stand up against the government, and I hope the Facebook and Twitter will also play a key role in the political and social development of Afghanistan.
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Cities of the Sky
Cities of the Sky
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Indian Annual Budget
Daniel Ellsberg, key figure in Pentagon Papers affair, to visit Newhouse School March 8
Saturday, February 26, 2011
Documentary on Egypt Revolution
Can a film or a documentary be made by using crowd-sourced video recordings and procuring them through social media? Well, a young journalist from USA seems to think so. The journalist believes that various people must have recorded footage of crowds and their activites during the 18 days revolution in Egypt’s Tahrir square and elsewhere. He has therefore asked people to provide links to all such footages on the twitter or facebook so that he can make a documentary. I read this report today. The link to it is given below.
Friday, February 25, 2011
Gov2.in Social Networking for Governance in India
LinkedIn ban in China lifted
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
My thoughts about the role of Social Networks
President Obama has texted me:P
Last class was about the role of Social Media with particular focus on current unrest in the Middle Eastern countries. I believe, there is no doubt that social media has had its impact on organizing and mobilizing people who opposed their governments, but there is also something that needs to be considered as contributing factor to anger of people who have been succeeded in toppling the regime in Egypt. Utilization of Technologies like Iphone, computers that are connected with the internet has reshaped the communication architecture of the contemporary world. Today, there is no place where someone can feel her/his self isolated from the rest of the world. Something which happens in one corner of the world will be straight away communicated with most of the people around the world in few seconds.
Instead of spending too much time on other original sources, I do get most of the news that I am interested on from those people who have been part of my social networks (facebook, twitter, LinkedIn and so on). Based on my area of expertise, I have strived to be connected with those people who have been experts on the subjects of my interest and concentration too.
I would like to share a personal story which I believe will last forever in my memories. It was when President Barack Obama was off to Egypt to deliver his historical speech to the Muslim World in summer 2009. Prior to that and his election as President, in 2008, I was doing my fellowship at New York State Legislature, where I got to his facebook page and was among campaigner for his election. Even though it was not part of my job nor I was officially entitled to do so, as an informed Afghan Citizen, whose country’s future is closely tighten to the policy of US administration, I found his policy and approach toward Afghanistan very promising and full of optimisms. Therefore, I was trying to talk to as money Americans as possible to share my thoughts about him and how wise his strategy was toward Afghanistan which was among major issues in his campaign. However, I got the news from his facebook web page that whoever is having cell phone will receive the key points of his speech in almost more than 12 languages, including Farsi which is one of our official languages. Nevertheless, due to my interest of learning English, I chose to receive the texts in English. I registered my cell phone number and left office earlier than usual for home. After having my late lunch with the family, I had gone on a short nap but my cell phone peeped and I straight away got up and screamed “ hu, this is President Obama”. My wife and brothers all got to me and they thought I dreamed something crazy. My older brother who is physician by profession had perceived something was going wrong with me. But I was right, the text was from his(President Obama) team and I had kept receiving texts till the end of his speech. This is something, that I was so excited to see happing for the first time in my life and I am still teased by my wife and brothers that I was expecting the text from President himself, “President Obama has texted me”. As most of the Muslim population lives in Asia, the President’s team (DOS) translated his remarks into Arabic, Farsi, Urdu and some others which I don’t recall.
However, today many of the Afghan politicians, officials and intellectuals have been active part of social networks. Social Networks for the first time were utilized during the Presidential as well as recent parliamentary election campaigns in my country. I saw bulk of comments and exchange of ideas about the policies presented by the candidates as well as criticisms were put on their web pages.
Based on the facts mentioned above about the importance of Social Networks, I believe it is very important to be part of any of them. As personally I use facebook and LinkedIn, has seen the benefits they offer. Part of my facebook, I get most of my news, information about the subjects posted by my friends as well as I am in connected with all my family members as well as relatives whom I haven’t in person in 20 years or so. Part of my professional network (LinkedIn) I in very short period of time I have been introduced and connected with some organizations and folks who I see as positional employers for my career.
Finally, I firmly believe on the importance of Social Network and it does play a critical role in bringing people together, mobilizing their expertise, knowledge and efforts.
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Anti poverty program and it's applicability to developing countries
Revolution 2.0
A prominent Google marketing executive in the region, Wael Ghonim, has drawn a lot of attention to a Facebook group he has used to organize young people in Egypt. In his interviews with several US media outlets he highlights that the revolution started on Facebook - starting in June 2010. The government itself was apparently taken by surprise. Protesters organized and coordinated their actions using the #jan25 hashtag on Twitter - keeping the online movement alive. The Egyptian government quick shut down the internet and blocked access to Twitter and Facebook.
From a government perspective, criticism is popping up that social media is fueling the protesters - ignoring that the technology itself can't spark a revolution. Instead, public managers need to be aware of what their citizens are talking about, where hot conversation topics are bubbling up, and how to make citizens feel that government is listening to their citizens' needs.
What these so-called "social media revolution" also show is, that people don't need a broadband connection to connect to each other - instead, cellphones are widely available, independent of income or education. What's common to most of the governments that were overthrown or are under attack is that their citizens are disappointed or don't feel that their government hears their wishes and complaints.
Also check out the Wallstreet Journal video discussion with Clay Shirky.
Monday, February 21, 2011
Saturday, February 19, 2011
ROLE OF SOCIAL MEDIA IN ARAB UPRISINGs
Can Social Media be used for Genuine Public Opinion like elections?
Friday, February 18, 2011
ALONE TOGETHER: WHY WE EXPECT MORE FROM TECHNOLOGY AND LESS FROM EACH OTHER ?
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Facebook freedom fighter
Monday, February 14, 2011
Salaam Wael Ghonim !!!
Ghonim was arrested , kept in blind folded isolation and tortured probably for 12 days by Mubarak government while he was at the scene of demonstrations in central Cairo .I salute him for his words which he spoke just after the release “Please don’t turn me into a hero. I’m not a hero. The heroes are the ones who were out on the street.” This captures the ground reality and why Ghonim deserves our salutes.
Friday, February 11, 2011
Thursday, February 10, 2011
Re-connecting Abducted Kids with Their Families: The New Function of Social Media in China
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
NY times praises Gujarat Chief Minister
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/09/business/global/09modi.html?pagewanted=1&utm_medium=twitter&_r=2&partner=rss&emc=rss&utm_source=cnen
Government 2.0: News about UP Chief Minister
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
Monday, February 7, 2011
The last IP address allotted
http://www.oyetimes.com/lifestyle/129-technology/9276-the-internet-is-full-no-more-ip-addresses
Sunday, February 6, 2011
Are we overhyping social media as a tool of movements for democracy?
The media observers are carried away by the capability and outreach of social media to track events and cover diverse locations, perspectives and demographics in real time. However, some experts have a very different take on this. Experts Marko Papic and Sean Noonan observe-“A revolution is far more than what we see and hear on the Internet — it requires organization, funding and mass appeal. Social media no doubt offer advantages in disseminating messages quickly and broadly, but they also are vulnerable to government counter-protest tactics. And while the effectiveness of the tool depends on the quality of a movement’s leadership, a dependence on social media can actually prevent good leadership from developing.”(Social Media as a Tool for Protest, Marko Papic and Sean Noonan , Startfor Global Intelligence, Feb 3,2011)
They maintain that key for any protest movement is to inspire and motivate individuals to go from the comfort of their homes to the chaos of the streets and face off against the government. Social media allow organizers to involve like-minded people in a movement at a very low cost, but they do not necessarily make these people move. Instead of attending meetings, workshops and rallies, un-committed individuals can join a Facebook group or follow a Twitter feed at home, which gives them some measure of anonymity (though authorities can easily track IP addresses) but does not necessarily motivate them to physically hit the streets and provide fuel for a revolution. At the end of the day, for a social media-driven protest movement to be successful, it has to translate social media membership into genuine and effective street action. Evgeny Morozov, in his recently published book “The Net delusion” makes a very intersting remark-“ Supporting a cause on Facebook and Twitter is an activity that requires something quite different from what political action demands- the willingness to risk one’s stability and comfort, not to mention the possibility of physical confrontation with the forcces of repression”. Before getting carried away by such hype, it is time to take a pause and ponder- is it realistic to imagine revolutions by downloads?
Can Social Media Connect Our Soldiers' Families?
Friday, February 4, 2011
"I learned it by watching you, Zuck"
Northeast India rocked by Earthquake and USGS response
Colorful India
http://adayinlife.timesofindia.com/:
also join the fun and "contest" at
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Lets-celebrate-a-day-in-the-life-of-India/articleshow/7415498.cms
Enjoy
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
Delhi Police uses facebook to connect to citizens reg. traffic information
DEMAND FOR TRANSPARRENCY AND SOCIAL MEDIA IN INDIA
G2 to 2G
http://newsonair.com/full_news.asp?top1=top1
This has come about after a long process. The effort also used the Right to Information Act, to retrieve detailed documents from the telecom dept. I think, this would be the biggest success story of RTI in India.
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
Gov 2,0-a silent revolution in the making
Monday, January 31, 2011
"The Tweets must flow"
While blocked in Egypt, twitter posted its opinion or position in regard with freedom of expression and its own policy of restriction on use of twitter on its blog. As the title “The Tweets must flow” implies, they are saying the freedom of expression should be protected and at the same time it should carry responsibilities and limits.
Social Media banned in Egypt
http://mashable.com/2011/01/26/facebook-blocked-in-egypt/
Sunday, January 30, 2011
Fine Line between Government Ambassador and Lobbyist
Sharp's role raises an interesting question: Is Adam Sharp a lobbyist for Twitter given the frequency of his meeting with Congressmen? Should he be treated as an asset to democracy or as a private interest?
In the United States, the Internal Revenue Service makes a distinction between lobbying and advocacy, defining lobbying as "asking policymakers to take a specific position on a specific piece of legislation". Given this definition, Sharp is not 'lobbying' the Congressmen, but his work sets an interesting precedent. If the Twitter employee mentions net neutrality in the meeting, would he be lobbying? At what point should that employee be required to register as a lobbyist?
Twitter has helped further democracy and improve efficiencies for many Congressmen with the help of Sharp. But does Twitter now have an unfair advantage and disproportionate access to Congressmen? Will they in the future?
Friday, January 28, 2011
Republic Day Celebrations
http://newsonair.com/RD-CELEBRATIONS-photo.asp
Enjoy
My blog
I invite you to visit my blog at http://spritams.blogspot.com/
and share your views.
Thanks.
Pritam Singh
Ines A. Mergel has won the 2010 Best PA Times Article
USGS asks citizen scientists "What's happening?"
USGS's social media strategy includes the use of Twitter, YouTube, RSS feeds and blogs, podcasts, photosharing on Flickr and Facebook accounts.
One account among the long list of social media accounts is especially remarkable: The USGSted account - Twitter Earthquake Detector (TED) - asks so-called "citizen scientists" what is happening in their geographic location. USGS automatically searches tweets for hashtags such as #earthquake and compiles the tweets on a Google Map mashup - geotagging tweets to understand where in the world citizens feel the earth shaking. The large number of tweets then makes it worthwhile to pay attention to specific geographic locations around the world where earthquake activities might happen. One example is the recent earthquake in Pakistan.
At USGS, the tweets are obviously not used as a scientific method - and will certainly never replace science. Instead, they are used as a way to collect citizen feedback, sentiments or indicators of potential damages. Going forward, the tool might have the potential to help emergency responders to find affected citizens, as a method to create social awareness among neighborhood networks, to understand how resilient citizens are or even as a tool for neighborhood responsiveness.
The USGSted account was recently selected as Twitter's only government showcase (URL was removed from Twitter's homepage this week, will update as soon as it is back online).
Additional press coverage:
Government Computer News: Earthquakes are something to tweet about
Business Insider: Twitter-based Earthquake Detection System in Development
Christian Science Monitor: Earthquake alerts: shake, rattle, and Twitter
Thursday, January 27, 2011
Revolution 2.0 Live! The First Real Twitter Revolation is happening!
Social Networking, a Powerful Device
Why I took Gov 2.0 course
Baltimore Social Media
This process is a progressive first step by a local government to make government more interactive and data more accessible. It was also cost effective. However, the city is still struggling with identifying which information is appropriate to release and which information must remain secure—a tension that will undoubtedly continue. Agencies may also struggle to provide accurate information within the 30-day mandate.
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Sharing Social Media Responsibility in Government Organizations
This model of rotating social media responsibility creates three major advantages:
1. Access to diverse content from across the organization
2. Helps avoid newspaper-like social media posts that are drafted only by the public relations department
3. Social media posts become less routine and burdensome