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Closing Case SOCIAL NETWORKING INITIATIVES BY THE NEW ZEALAND GOVERNMENT

For such a small country, the New Zealand government is very active in implementing new technologies. As of 2008, it has created a number of e-government social networking initiatives.

Cross-Government Initiatives

A number of Web 2.0 initiatives have been implemented to help various government agencies and their employees to work together:

· Shared Workspaces. A suite of online tools that supports information sharing and interagency collaboration, enabling specialist groups and networks to share expertise, experience, and good practices. Over 250 shared workspaces are used in 50 agencies by over 5,000 employees. The major tools are blogs and wikis.

· E-Initiatives Wiki. An online library of IT projects across government that allows those working on similar projects to share information and experience.

· TiWiki. The Ministry of Education’s collaborative Web site for people from various agencies in the tertiary education sector.

· Principals Electronic Network. An interactive online community of school principals and school 250251leaders, established as a space for reflection and discussion and to facilitate learning from colleagues’ knowledge and expertise.

· Best Practices Forum. A blog that seeks to provide leadership around best practices in significant work programs, including online authentication, strategy and policy, and Web standards.

· Research e-Labs. A blog that explores Web trends, open source software, and technology in government. It aims to publish practical technical research and case studies and generate conversations on related topics.

· Sustainable living forums. A forum provided by government for people to discuss sustainable living and eco-building experiences.

Public Engagement

Most of the government’s social networking initiatives have been developed by agencies for the purpose of engaging with the public. The following are key examples:

· Police Act Wiki. An initiative by the New Zealand Police to encourage public contributions to inform the drafting of the new Policing Act. The wiki was one of a number of initiatives undertaken by the New Zealand Police to enable people to participate in the project. The experiment resulted in thousands of visits and a huge number of ideas and suggestions from the public during a brief time. All were posted publicly online, and this material was provided to the special committee considering submission on the bill.

· National Library of New Zealand. The National Library has created a number of initiatives. Create Readers is a blog about youth literature and literacy that is run by school services staff around the country. On the Library TechNZ blog, Web development staff share their thoughts about work progress on the National Library’s technology. The 2007 New Zealand Poet Laureate has a blog where she shares her own poetry news and events. In addition, portions of the National Library’s image collection are posted on Flickr with the aim of helping people discover new material.

· Web Standards wiki. A collaborative space in which to share knowledge and make suggestions on the New Zealand Government Web Standards. These standards exist to ensure that government Web sites are accessible regardless of a user’s computer literacy level, Web browser, mobile device, or connection speed.

· Participation Project wiki. A vehicle for collaborative policy making developed by the State Services Commission. This wiki attracted comments from more than 1,200 people over eight days during the process of developing the Guide to Online Participation—far more input than had ever been received from a conventional public forum.

· NZAID Field blog. A forum for staff of New Zealand’s international aid and development agency to write about their experiences as they travel on New Zealand–funded projects and to discuss issues relevant to development work.

· Ministry for Culture and Heritage. The Ministry for Culture and Heritage offers Lively, a blog for “everyone involved in New Zealand’s cultural sector,” with topics such as identity, social media, and cultural research. New Zealand History Online discussion forums offer community forums on specific topics. Selected images of New Zealand from Te Ara, the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, are posted on Flickr, where users can comment and post their own photos.

· Ministry for the Environment. The Ministry for the Environment offers a discussion forum where visitors can post comments on topics related to energy, water, rubbish, and reducing adverse impacts on the environment. It also offers a Web site for people to show (and share with others) their films about what sustainability means to them. The films are posted on the Ministry for the Environment’s YouTube page. The Sustainability Challenge group in Facebook encourages people to post ideas about steps that can be taken to reduce adverse impacts on the environment.

· Ministry of Youth Development. The Ministry’s ID360 short-film competition provides an opportunity for young people to tell their stories through films about what identity and diversity means to them. The films are posted on YouTube with links from the Ministry’s Web site, and the public are invited to vote and comment on them. The Ministry also offers an online forum and blog for young people to discuss various topics and ideas about community participation.

· Families Commission. The Families Commission set up “The Couch” to hear the views of New Zealanders on issues relating to families. It is part of a wider community engagement program in which the commission seeks feedback from families, as well as community groups and organizations, through forums and meetings. The responses from polls and questionnaires help in advocacy work to improve services and support for families, and improve advice on proposed government policies

· ePetitions. A Wellington City Council initiative to allow anyone to make suggestions relevant to Council business via the Internet and for others to endorse them. Petitioners can provide links to background information to support their cases.

· Audio Visual wiki. An Archives of New Zealand initiative to enable the public to view films online, add information about the content or context of the films, and discuss them with other users.