The document discusses how government agencies can learn from brands to engage citizens more effectively through digital communication and social media. It highlights the need for governments to overcome their caution towards social media, adopt innovative strategies for citizen interaction, and actively participate in online communities for improved service delivery. The concept of the 'blue box' is introduced as a vision for the integration of governmental services with social platforms to foster a new era of cyber-democracy.

1. SPRING 2010 OPEN FORUM
CAN GOVERNMENT
LEARN FROM
BRANDS?
Like marketers, eGovernment agencies seek to
connect with their audiences online to serve
them better and build strong relationships.
From blogs to social networks to Twitter,
governments are testing social media channels
to encourage participation. But will tactics that
work for consumers succeed with citizens?
Copyright © 2010 All Rights Reserved. Nurun - A Quebecor Media Company

2. CAN GOVERNMENT LEARN FROM BRANDS?
Our experts weigh in:
ness intelligence – think Web analytics on steroids – to help
people who design and deliver social services on govern-
Bernard CÔTÉ ment’s behalf.
Director, Strategic
Consulting Emerging trends for G2C
Nurun Quebec City Given the current alignment of the economic (and business,
and political) context with extraordinary advances in infor-
mation technologies and digital media, forward-thinking
government agencies have the ability to map out a new
FROM ONLINE BUREAUCRACY TO CYBER-DEMOC- vision for interaction with citizens. The opportunities for in-
RACY: A NEW PARADIGM FOR GOVERNMENT novation are tremendous. Consider these:
Citizens are changing… and governments, too, are chang- • A collaboration toolbox shared by government employ-
ing the ways they operate and communicate with the gov- ees, citizens and communities, including chat, Wikis,
erned. Citizens today want services available everywhere: blogs, webcams and other social tools
at work, at play, at home; at all times: with no restrictive • Confidential online services for families and individuals,
schedules or opening hours; on all devices: work computer, protected by advanced security strategies and tools
home computer, smart phone, notebook, interactive TV. • State-of-the-art interoperability between government
Not to mention social networks, which for most of us are agencies, online partners and citizens, made possible by
the hub of our online activities. service oriented architecture and services delivered from
the cloud
The Blue Box • Services delivered in Web ecosystems with hybrid wid-
gets or mash-ups (in other words a mix of private and
So imagine a world in which citizens and governments con- governmental services) multi-channeled to computers,
nect, exchange and collaborate, just as easily as we now smart phones, interactive TVs, etc.
interact with our friends on social platforms. That world is • Rapid integration of complementary business solutions
not science fiction: we’ve actually begun to develop that and frameworks such as customer relationship manage-
vision. We call it the Blue Box, in honour of Quebec’s state ment (CRM), enterprise content management (ECM) and
colour. business process management (BPM) anchored in the
cloud
The Blue Box is a concept for the seamless integration of a • An innovative approach to governance, in particular to the
governmental ecosystem with the universal digital ecosys- resolution of issues raised by organizational transforma-
tem. It includes security, social media and elements of the tion, that takes into account the human factor, change
semantic Web (Web 3.0). The Blue Box gives users access management, communications strategy, and so on.
to a “hybrid cloud” of services provided by state agencies • The leveraging of skill sets and disciplines that are
and partners, tailored to each individual’s needs as a citi- emerging from social media, the semantic Web, cloud
zen, a voter, a member of communities or interest groups, technologies and service oriented architectures, business
and a beneficiary of government services or subsidies. intelligence, and so on.
What is innovative about the Blue Box is the way it incorpo- At Nurun our eGovernment teams are positioned at the
rates the social dimension, enabling citizens to willingly and juncture of emerging media and Web solutions; we’re work-
actively participate in a truly 21st-century version of de- ing hard to develop this ambitious vision for the future. It
mocracy. New as well is the way Web 2.0 tools are used for isn’t a distant future, either. Citizens are quickly adopting
on-the-job collaboration among government employees, Web 2.0 and 3.0 technologies in their everyday lives. We
their partners and the public. believe that they are more than ready to take the leap into
cyber-democracy.
What’s more, the Blue Box is a cutting-edge dashboard for
highly efficient reporting, and it’s a powerful tool for busi-
Copyright © 2010 All Rights Reserved. Nurun - A Quebecor Media Company

3. Citizens and activists worldwide are already discuss-
ing, debating and defining the major issues of the day on
Denis MARTEL every social platform, be it Facebook, YouTube, Twitter,
Director, Web Strategy Wikipedia, Ning… That’s why it’s essential for government
Nurun Quebec City agencies to be present on those same platforms, in order
to listen to what citizens have to say and hear their ideas.
Governments need to participate in online communities
so that they can become more responsive to the public’s
needs and ultimately leverage the collective intelligence
they gather to improve their services.
WILL TACTICS THAT WORK FOR CONSUMERS SUC-
CEED WITH CITIZENS? Gone are the days when a government agency’s interac-
tive strategy could consist of putting up a website. As they
New behaviours adopted by the online population have learn to integrate social networks and media in a multi-
turned traditional communications upside-down. Online channel digital strategy, governments are discovering more
channels, networks, intelligent devices – they’re all multi- effective ways to communicate, and better ways to build
plying at a rapid pace. One consequence of this upheaval: real relationships, in real time, with the governed.
organizations that want to reach out to us, today’s digital
nomads, need to rethink the way they communicate. As even “traditional” government communications gradu-
ally migrate to digital platforms, we foresee an interactive
That goes for governments, too. future filled with challenges and extraordinary opportuni-
ties.
Brands, by and large, have gotten the message. In an open
system no longer based on top-down advertising but on
dialogue and conversations, it’s just not possible to control
what is said about their products and services.
Even more than brands, government agencies tend to fear
that loss of control. But they need to realize that it’s already
gone!
Recently a government ministry asked us to work with
them to overhaul their “official online portal.” Our client was
astounded to discover that an entire section of Wikipedia
already presented a detailed account of the ministry’s of-
ferings and services. The revelation was a shock – but it
was also an effective and salutary wakeup call. We offered
to help the ministry regain their leadership position, by
becoming the main and most reliable source of information
pertaining to their portfolio.
Governments need to participate, too
How would we accomplish this? To start, we would take
cues from interactive communications models. After all, it’s
the government’s job to make collective resources available
to the public. That means socializing information and pro-
moting collaboration. So why not integrate these principles
into their digital communications strategy?
Copyright © 2010 All Rights Reserved. Nurun - A Quebecor Media Company

4. FORUM HIGHLIGHTS
Here are some major points that emerged from our discussion of eGovernment and digital
democracy
1 - From vox populi to social media 3 – Governments approach social media
with caution
- Empowered by social media, the people have taken
over the Web. The world has found its voice in the online - Governments show caution in their approach to social
social ecosystem inhabited by Facebook, YouTube, Twit- media; many are still taking the measure of the phenom-
ter, Wikipedia and the rest. Today 3 out of 5 Canadians enon. Certain obvious risks – such as the diluting effect
have at least one social media profile page; among of open discussions on official information, the debates
young adults the number is even higher. that degenerate into name-calling, the spread of outright
disinformation—all of these give administrations pause.
- Collective intelligence opens the way for constructive
debate and for the sharing of reliable information, all of - Still, there are many opportunities for government to do
which benefit the wider community. Given the uncon- social media the right way. By starting conversations with
trolled and uncontrollable nature of digital communica- their constituents, for example (look what that did for
tions, they are bound to generate a certain amount of Obama!). “Social” government fosters transparency, the
noise and disinformation. Nonetheless, the success swift spread of information, the rise of true cyber-democ-
of Wikipedia indicates that we can have confidence in racy. Some administrations are even providing govern-
collective wisdom. In any case, citizens did not wait for ment services sourced from the cloud –GoogleApps, for
permission before debating public issues on social plat- instance.
forms – whether government likes it or not.
- Citizens’ concerns about the security and privacy of their
- When it comes to privacy and security issues, many re- personal information cannot be overlooked. But eGov-
main wary of government’s ability to ensure the safety of ernment strategies must evolve and take advantage of
personal information. Security is a hotly debated topic, the interconnections between digital services and digital
as evidenced by numerous posts to the Open Forum. communication via social networks.
2 – Governments are not merchants
- What governments and businesses have in common is
this: both must learn to deal with the uncensored ex-
changes that take place on the social Web; both need to
live with the fact that people will talk about them, share
experiences (good and bad), offer tips and workarounds
for problems. Online populations use their “own turf” –
social media – to express themselves freely and collec-
tively, with comparable results for governments and for
brands.
- Brands were the first to recognize the impact of social
media, which is normal, perhaps, given the competitive
nature of business. Governments, on the other hand, did
not react with the same sense of urgency, at least not
in the years from 2005 to 2008. But in 2010 the time for
testing the waters is over. Today people regularly use
social platforms to express concerns and opinions on the
community and economic issues that directly involve the
government.
Copyright © 2010 All Rights Reserved. Nurun - A Quebecor Media Company

5. EXPERTS POINT OF VIEW
What if government socialized with citizens?
The question puts into perspective the revolution taking place in the way public administrations com-
municate with the people. At times, in the course of exercising certain civic rights and obligations,
government and constituents must communicate in an “official” manner. But more often, civil servants
and the people they serve engage in human communications: in other words, an exchange of informa-
tion, explanations or advice.
Social media offer government many opportunities to get Right now there is no coherence among social media; each
closer to constituents. Government needs to grasp those entity strives to increase traffic to its site in order to survive
opportunities and leverage social media platforms in their and make a profit. A truly digital government must adopt a
communications and service strategies. Businesses and holistic approach that seamlessly integrates both services
governments alike should be present and active in the and communications – a model that Nurun has conceptual-
social arena, because we the people expect them to take ized with the Blue Box.
part. And as for the free-flowing give-and-take that prevails
in social media – well, everyone will just have to get used The evaluation phase, we repeat, is over. Now is the time
to it. for administrations to step up, take action and make Gov-
ernment 2.0 a reality for all citizens
It would be unwise for government to neglect social media.
Social channels have become a new form of collective
might, an amplifier that allows the voice of the people to
be heard in the periods between elections. These new
platforms have ushered in a new age of cyber-democracy
– some might call them the iPad of digital democracy!
Still, certain fundamental questions remain to be an-
swered. For example: among the main social networks,
which one(s) would be suited to:
• Launching a debate, sharing opinions, learning what the
community thinks?
• Ensuring that the collective knowledge of citizens and
administrations is preserved and disseminated to the
community (citizens and businesses alike)?
• Learning about government-related events?
• Providing secure online services supported by both
official and community-based FAQs?
Copyright © 2010 All Rights Reserved. Nurun - A Quebecor Media Company