“We do agree agencies aren’t doing the best job of engaging on these networks yet,” wrote Dash in an e-mail to techPresident in response to some questions about lessons learned from the Expert Labs experience. “One key finding we’ve focused on in our final reports is that the division between communications/outreach arms of agencies, which typically manage social networking accounts, and the policy making groups within agencies, which actually impact the decisions being made, is a pretty significant barrier to public participation.”
via Expert Labs: Putting The ‘Public’ Into Public Policy Wasn’t Easy | TechPresident.
My name is Lindsey Edwards and I am a student in EDM 310 at the University of South Alabama. I really enjoyed this post and the question that you have raised about this situation. I referred to the original article in order to obtain more information about the subject and to fully understand the details. I can see why there have been some difficulties and the program has had little success over the last few years. The questions being asked and to whom they are being asked has not been as much of a focus throughout the project. They really need to work together as a whole agency to produce these questions that truly represent what is being done and what the public would be interested in discussing. They also need to be better about seeking out those in the public who are willing to give knowledgeable and well thought out opinions on the various subjects. There are plenty of people who have researched and would love to help engage in discussions with these agencies. The agencies as well as the public need to be more intentional about engaging through social media. Thanks again for your great post. I will be summarizing this post as well as the other post I commented on in my class blog tonight.
Link to my blog: http://edwardslindseyedm310.blogspot.com/