Underground Thoughts

–8:42am Downtown 4 train–
I have my second meeting this afternoon with a few of the NYC Council Community liaisons. We will be discussing ways the city can utilize web 2.0. Being that NYC has more digital savvy citizens than any other US city, there is so much potential for it to help lead the way in demonstrating how governmental entities can utilize social media.

I often think about how outdated and inefficient so many of our government processes and meetings are. Everything from local town hall meetings to the way our US Congress is held. It will be interesting to see how much more participation can be created if more online methods are utilized… We already see social media tools used to communicate between the government and the citizens, but the real question is when will we see the new tools of the web utilized in the government processes themselves? Like, when will city council meetings be available virtually?

–3:52pm Downtown 4 Train–
On my way to the meeting. Excited but slightly anxious. It will be interesting to see what kind of game plan we start to form.

–5:31pm Uptown 4–

Meeting went ok… Overall they are eager to implement more digital. Often the meeting was more of a push back of what won’t work than a collaboration of what could. The hard part is helping everyone see the importance of strategy. This isn’t just about a new blog or Facebook page.

I am going to find a bakery to sit at while I type out some possible next steps. I just need to make sure I don’t let my frustrations get the better of me. In reality things went really well, I simply had to high of expectations, and that’s def nothing new.