The Role of Social Media in Engaging Citizens in Urban Development and Growth

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The Role of Social Media in
Engaging Citizens in Urban
Development and Growth
Gohar Feroz Khan, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Korea University of Technology & Education
(KoreaTech)
Consultant to UN-APCICT on Social Media
Research: Center for Social Media Technologies
I blog here
Twitter: @gfkhan
Presented at the 3rd WeGO General Assembly, Workshop Session 3, "Partnering for Smart and Sharing
Cities“ 3-6, November 2014, Chengdu, China.

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Table of Contents
 Introduction to UN-APCICT
 Social Media for engaging citizens
 What is social media?
 What is social media-based urban engagement?
 How do cities/governments use social media?
 Social media for development: UN-APCICT module
 Dimensions of Urban Engagement
 Case 1: Sharing cities (how to share? UN-APCICT guidelines)
 Case 2: Participatory cities
 Case 3: Collaborative cities (crowd sourcing and co-creation)
 Case 4: Open cities
 Concluding Remarks

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A Hub for ICT Capacity
Development

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AAPPCCIICCTT MMiissssiioonn
Use of ICT for socio-economic
Use of ICT for socio-economic
development
development
Build ICT human // iinnssttiittuuttiioonnaall
ccaappaacciittyy ooff EESSCCAAPP mmeemmbbeerr
Training Advisory
Services
SSttaatteess
Research &
Knowledge-
Sharing

5. 5
AAccaaddeemmyy ooff IICCTT EEsssseennttiiaallss ffoorr
GGoovveerrnnmmeenntt LLeeaaddeerrss
Developing government official aanndd ppoolliiccyymmaakkeerr
ccaappaacciittyy ttoo lleevveerraaggee IICCTT ffoorr ssoocciioo--eeccoonnoommiicc
ddeevveellooppmmeenntt

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AAccaaddeemmyy MMoodduulleess
M1- The Linkage between ICT Applications and Meaningful Development
M2- ICT for Development Policy, Process and Governance
M3- e-Government Applications
M4- ICT Trends for Government Leaders
M5- Internet Governance
M6- Network and Information Security and Privacy
M7- ICT Project Management in Theory and Practice
M8- Options for Funding ICT for Development
M9 - ICT for Disaster Risk Management
M10 – ICT, Climate Change and Green Growth
M11 – Social Media for Development
Additional Publications: Handbook on Instructional Design; M&E Toolkit

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Localization aanndd CCuussttoommiizzaattiioonn
 Modules available in print and online (14 languages):
English, Armenian, Russian, Indonesia, Vietnamese
Myanmar, Turkmen, Azeri, Pashto (Afghanistan), Tajik
Khmer (Cambodia), Spanish, Mongolian, Chinese
 Collection of local case studies and customization

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Kazakhstan Mongolia
Kyrgyzstan
Uzbekistan
Tajikistan
Turkmenistan
Afghanistan
Pakistan
India
Bhutan
Bangladesh
Myanmar Laos
Rolled-out (29 countries)
In pipeline (6 countries)
Vietnam
Cambodia
Philippines
Indonesia
Sri Lanka
Maldives
Samoa
Kiribati
Tuvalu
Tonga
Cook
Islands
AAccaaddeemmyy iinn AAssiiaa aanndd tthhee PPaacciiffiicc
Timor-Leste
Solomon
Islands
Palau
Niue
Micronesia
Nauru
Armenia
Azerbaijan
Nepal
(as of Oct. 2014)
China

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Academy Module 11:
Social Media for Development
Module Objectives
 Introduce the concept of social media and
various applications in a developmental
context;
 Raise awareness among policymakers and
government officials about the application of
social media for socio-economic development;
 Provide an understanding of the implications for
national policy and programme formulation
emerging from the role of social media in
promoting development; and
 Produce a capacity development resource that
can help bridge the knowledge gap on the
effective use of social media in development
initiatives.
Link: http://www.unapcict.org/academy/academy/academy-modules/english-version

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Technical Guidelines on Social
Media
Objectives
 Understand and configure popular
social media tools (Twitter,
Facebook, YouTube, Blogs) to share
government information,
 Understand and configure
collaborative social media tools (e.g.,
wikis) to establish mass
collaboration, and
 Understand and configure analytical
tools to monitor and measure social
media activities.
Link: http://www.unapcict.org/ecohub/getting-started-with-social-media-tools-in-government

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What is social media?
 Any online tools that enables us to:
 Participate, collaborate, create, or share content in a many-to-
many context can be called social media.
 Examples:
 Collaborative projects (e.g., Wikipedia and wikispaces),
 Blogs (e.g., WordPress) and microblogs (e.g., Twitter),
 Content communities (e.g., YouTube),
 Social networking sites (e.g., Facebook),
 Virtual game worlds (e.g., World of Warcraft),
 Virtual social worlds (e.g., Second Life), etc.

12. Is a urban/city culture of transparency, openness,
sharing, and collaboration facilitated [or fostered] by
social media.
12
Social Media-Based Urban
Engagement?
Is a urban/city culture of transparency, openness,
sharing, and collaboration facilitated [or fostered] by
social media.
City= institutions + citizens
City= institutions + citizens

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Urban Engagement?
In other words, without a culture of transparency,
openness, sharing, and collaboration in place…..
In other words, without a culture of transparency,
openness, sharing, and collaboration in place…..
Social media-based
Social media-based
urban
urban
engagement is
engagement is
fruitless
fruitless
And your efforts may not move beyond hopeless tweets and likes

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Urban Engagement
Citizens
Institutions
Yin and Yang Philosophy

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A Quick Survey
How does your city use social media?

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Key Findings
 Current Social Media Use
TTeecchhnnoolologgyy o opptitmimisismm
PPoosststs, ,L Likikeess, ,T Twweeeetsts, ,& & S Shhaarreess
Mass collaborations, citizen sourcing,
co-creation, etc.
Mass collaborations, citizen sourcing,
co-creation, etc.
SSoocciaial lt rtraannssaacctitoionn

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The Reality/Potential
PPoosststs, ,L Likikeess, ,T Twweeeetsts, ,& & S Shhaarreess
Mass collaborations, citizen sourcing,
co-creation, etc.
Mass collaborations, citizen sourcing,
co-creation, etc.
SSoocciaial lt rtraannssaacctitoionn
CCuultluturraal lf ofoccuuss

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Urban Engagement Through Social
Media
Assumption: Social media engaged city (citizens and
institutions) will lead to some type of urban development.

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Dimensions of Engagement

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What to Share?
Sharing—refers to the use of social media channels (such as, Twitter, Facebook,
wikis, YouTube, and blogs) to disseminate and share useful information (news,
alerts, and updates) to public in variety of formats including, text, video, audio, and
graphics.

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Ways to Share?
 Through
 An official Twitter account
 An official Facebook Fan page
 An official YouTube Channel
 An official Blog
Link: http://www.unapcict.org/ecohub/getting-started-with-social-media-tools-in-government

22. Municipal governments use Facebook fan pages to provide residents with information
about government services and projects, local events, rules and regulations, and other
relevant topics.
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Sharing Example 1
Municipal governments use Facebook fan pages to provide residents with information
about government services and projects, local events, rules and regulations, and other
relevant topics.

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Participatory cities
Participation—refers to providing opportunities to citizens to participate in service
delivery, reporting, and policy and decision making through social media channels.

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Example 1: I paid a bribe

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Example 2: Reporting

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Collaborative cities
Mass Collaboration—refers to working together in a many-to-many context
to achieve certain shared goals carried through social media channels.

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Crowd Sourcing (citizens-2-
cities)
 Adopt a Fire hydrant (city of Boston)
 Where ordinary people take responsibility for digging out a fire hydrant after
it snows.

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Co-creation (citizens-2-citizens)

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Open Cities
Openness—refers to free unrestricted access to government structured data
and information opened through social media and Web 2.0 channels.

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Open Data Example

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Final Note…remember that…
 It is more than just “likes” and “tweets”
 It is a culture
 Once social media presence is established:
 Sustain it
 Monitor it (e.g., social analytics)
 Be responsive
 Built trust
 Otherwise, your city will lose face

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Final Note…remember
 Plan a head
 Establish a sound social media strategy and
policy.
 Assign dedicated resources
 Time, technical, financial, and human resources
 Social media does not replace traditional
means of communication, but complements.

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