Government using YouTube

YouTube is one form of social media that is used widely used.  The United States Government has also begun to use this platform as a way of getting messages out.  For example, the White House posts Presidential weekly addresses, briefings from the administration, and also has unique content created such as "west wing week" where there is a compilation of POTUS highlights from that week.  Google, who owns YouTube has recognized that governments can utilize this platform in other areas as well.  Recently Google launched "YouTube for Government" and provides explanations of how government departments can set up their own YouTube channels.  An example of a channel such as this is the New York City Mayor's office YouTube channel.  This is one of the better organized public official YouTube channels and provides a good deal of content.

Source: YouTube for Government Instructional Page

While it is great that Google is making it easier for governments to set-up YouTube channels (to include explanation videos, examples, etc...), something I feel is missing perhaps is the social interaction aspect.  YouTube is great for pushing information out to the public, but I don't see it as the platform to interact with citizens (whether this is at the Federal, State, or Local level).  YouTube is a great tool for communication; however, it may be more similar to the television metaphor (information out).  Granted, there are discussion boards and links to other social media, but perhaps there is a more intuitive way to set-up bi-directional interaction.  All-in-all this is a great step forward on public and private cooperation in terms of using social media as a tool to engage the public.  What may be needed are different approaches for the interaction aspect of social media in order to continue to increase transparency and active participation.