I read this new report from IBM Center for the Business of Government with the wrong expectations, so naturally I was disappointed. In government here refers mostly to elected officials in the USA. After all, the decision to blog is a no-brainer for politicians: people demand this and politicians oblige. (As ever, authenticity and transparency of their blogs is another matter.)
What I'd hoped for was information about blogging in the public sector, because this is a far more contentious area where people could do with a bit of guidance.
The report lists politicians and public officials who blog, as of April 2007. Check the numbers:
Members of Congress (17)
Congressional committees and caucuses (3)
Governors/lieutenant governors (5)
State legislators (57)
Mayors (19)
City managers (11)
Police and fire chiefs (10)
College and university presidents (8)The author, David C. Wyld, is Director of the Strategic e-Commerce/e-Government Initiative at Southeastern Louisiana University. As far as I can discover, he doesn't blog. You can write to him directly for a list of more than 100 additional blogs [...] written by local representatives, either by city/county council members or school/other board members.
If that's the sum total of blogs by elected and appointed [tag]public sector[/tag] officials in the U.S., we won't quibble with Professor Wyld's conclusion:
Still, as a whole, blogging is in its infancy in taking hold amongst public officials across the American landscape.
Jason Ryan had a similar response to mine. Perhaps it's a Kiwi thing.
Leave a comment: