1. Social Networks and the
Government: Forecasts
for 2011
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2. Social Networks and the Government: Predictions for 2011 Gencat blog 1
Cristina Aced, communication I look forward to (and hope to have) a
consultant relationship which continues to become
more accessible and open. Using tools
which facilitate participation, the
government can make itself more
accessible to the general public and
become a bit more human.
In fact, providing relevant, updated
“Because of these efforts, we material which helps users search for
information about administrative
are moving towards a procedures or allows them to handle them
government that serves its over the internet makes life easier for
people. This also helps make the
citizens better, honoring the
government more human, or at least
etymological origin of the contributes to people viewing the
word administration: ad government more positively than they had
in the past. Because of these efforts, we
ministrare (in the service of)” are moving towards a government that
serves its citizens better, honoring the
etymological origin of the word
administration: ad ministrare (in the
service of).

3. Social Networks and the Government: Predictions for 2011 Gencat blog 2
Anna Cabañas, consultant We will see two contrasting kinds of
models: those that justify the existence
and use of social networks and force the
government to use them, and those that
integrate and blend these new realities
into the government’s day-today operation
to add value to services. In short, the real
“In short, the real emerging emerging needs of both internal and
external users will shape the new
needs of both internal and
approaches which the government adopts.
external users will shape the
The biggest challenge of the next decade
new approaches which the
will be to stop talking about public
government adopts.” administration 2.0. The real evolution of
government will take place in a natural,
fluid way, free from restrictions which are
tied to one model or another, where
innovation is a critical component in
effecting change and the use of technology
becomes a simple narrative in the creation
of a new public administration. This will
be the result of understanding that, first
and foremost, we need tools that can
meet our needs before we address the
needs that these new tools make possible,
since public administrations will be
motivated to follow this path to success
because of the tangible returns they see
on these investments, i.e. the value
derived from their implementation.

4. Social Networks and the Government: Predictions for 2011 Gencat blog 3
Simon Collister, social media With the current economic situation set to
consultant, specialist on continue – and in some European
public sector and NGOs countries, set to get worse – there's a real
possibility that the initial steps made to
utilise technology to make a difference to
public services and ultimately people's
lives are likely to be replaced with a
reluctance to continue innovating.
This reluctance is a result of a double
challenge to social innovators: firstly,
funding opportunities for innovative - but
“The big challenge for unproven projects – are likely to
disappear. Secondly, there is currently a
government will be to take lack of proven and scalable Web 2.0 public
things a step further and fund service projects that can be rolled out to
prove the potential of internet-enabled
the delivery of key public
public service delivery.
services using web 2.0
technology” This puts social innovators and forward-
thinking government departments and
local authorities in a double-bind. While
the desire for innovation remains alive,
the reality of the public service cuts has
potentially put an end to real
experimentation.
Crowdsourcing and wikinomics projects for
improving the perception of government
and its engagement with its citizens will
be potentially useful – and I'm certain we
will see more to come – but the big
challenge for government will be to take
things a step further and fund the delivery
of key public services using web 2.0
technology. By doing so the government
may well achieve the greater efficiencies
and collaborative public engagement that
the pilot projects of 2009 and 2010 so
tantalisingly promised.

5. Social Networks and the Government: Predictions for 2011 Gencat blog 4
Marc Cortés, internet business Governments have always turned a blind
strategist eye to reality (and continue to do so), but
it seems clear that they will need to
actively take advantage of the
development of social networks, especially
given that these media make it easier to
reach the public.
We often link social networks to
technology and forget that the most
important thing is that social networks are
“The government needs to be composed of relationships between
people. Public administrations need to
able to listen to and assess the
begin to develop at least two kinds of
opinions of the public using programs which take advantage of online
online forums.” forums:
1. They should cultivate an online
presence through which they can offer
services to the public. For example, if
more than 2 million Catalans are on
Facebook, perhaps the government should
consider that Facebook is an important
venue for offering information services to
the public; the government should listen
to what its citizens have to say.
2. The government needs to be able to
listen to and assess the opinions of the
public using online forums, and should use
these opinions as a tool to develop or
adapt the policies of each branch of the
public administration.

6. Social Networks and the Government: Predictions for 2011 Gencat blog 5
Roc Fages, strategy and 2011 might be the year for realism 2.0
innovation project consultant when it comes to how the government
should handle social networks. What do I
mean by realism 2.0? On the one hand,
advanced 2.0 users are more and more
choosy about how they use 2.0 tools. On
the other hand, users who don’t currently
use social networks professionally do use
them on a personal level, but are not
convinced that they are useful for relating
to businesses or public organizations.
“The government needs to
Therefore, the government needs to know
know how to carefully choose
how to carefully choose its investments in
its investments in 2.0. They 2.0. They should either develop tools for
should either develop tools for governmental workers or think more about
the general public. Personally, I think the
governmental workers or think
best investment would be on the internal
more about the general side. Even though there are over 500
million users on Facebook, given the lack
public.”
of resources which is a result of the
current financial crisis, it’s more realistic
and less risky to invest our time and effort
in going 2.0 internally before trying to
investing in this for a general public that
still sees these tools as a game.

7. Social Networks and the Government: Predictions for 2011 Gencat blog 6
Jose Antonio del Moral, Given that it’s so hard for people to
expert consultant on social participate in open government, we will
networks and author of the stop talking about it so much.
blog Redes Sociales (social
networks) Open data will be one of the government’s
biggest frustrations, since nobody (or
almost nobody) will use it. It will be
reworked to be easier to use and more
relevant to business interests: for
example, it will have more excel
worksheets and less APIs.
“Open data will be one of the Efforts will focus on active listening and
will especially strive to use social networks
government’s biggest to better understand and meet the
frustrations, since nobody (or demands of the general public.
Much effort will be expended in training
almost nobody) will use it. It
government employees, since the
will be reworked to be easier government will understand that its
to use and more relevant to workers have to get involved in social
networks to be in contact with the general
business interests.” public.
Open Administration is not a set of tools
(as we have conceptualized it so far) but
rather a set of people (government
employees) who are ready to discuss and
solve problems using social media.

8. Social Networks and the Government: Predictions for 2011 Gencat blog 7
Tona Pou, social internet I’m not too optimistic about governmental
strategist progress on social networks. It’s not that
they’re not using them more frequently,
because they are; it’s that the government
does so as propaganda. It’s quite difficult
to hold a (generalized) dialogue or
conversation between public
administrations and the general public. Of
course, the government might use social
networks to conduct surveys, solicit
opinions, and demonstrate that the
“Dialogues must first take government is open and transparent... but
the problem is that the government is
place within the government
neither open nor modern nor transparent.
itself before public
administrations can have an These conversations or dialogues must first
take place within the government itself
effective presence on social
before public administrations can have an
networks.” effective presence on social networks.
As long as technological resources,
government communications, and the legal
system continue to be the most important
players in determining what information
should be available, how it should be made
available, and how it should be regulated,
the government’s presence on social
networks will be no more than a façade.
Nevertheless, I believe that this restrictive
system will change, and that 2011 will be
the year when the first steps are taken to
provide a coherent government presence
on social networks, both internally and
externally. If I didn’t think so, I wouldn’t
argue so much at work!

9. Social Networks and the Government: Predictions for 2011 Gencat blog 8
Dolors Reig, social Several things will become more important in
psychologist, professor of terms of the form this will take and specific
social media, social networks, trends: applications specifically designed for
and educational innovation iPhones, Android phones, and Rim
(BlackBerry phones) which provide mobile
web services (and all of the new
opportunities they generate); augmented
reality; governmental presence in the new
geolocation systems which we will soon see;
or public participation in government using
social networks connected to geolocation
devices, which will allow the public to play a
greater role in questions which until now
“Public participation in were almost exclusively decided by the
government (for example, Twitter has played
government will become more an important role in questions of security
important; using social and public transportation). A prevailing
debate which will probably be resolved in
networks connected to the next few months is whether these new
geolocation devices, the kinds of online participation are equivalent
to, or less important than, other types of in-
public will be able to play a person participation. An extreme example of
greater role in questions this can be found in the USA, where people
are already considering whether the
which until now were almost
electoral process’ growing presence on
exclusively decided by the Facebook, Twitter, and even Foursquare has
led to real changes in how people vote. We
government.
will surely see a period of contradictions
when some public administrations who are
aware of the importance of social media and
a society which communicates over the
internet coexist with others who deny this
importance, probably due to a poor solution
to their stage fright: their own seriousness.
Similarly, another ongoing debate which will
probably be resolved in 2011 has to do with
whether or not archived tweets and notes
from political blogs can be considered
official press releases.

10. Social Networks and the Government: Predictions for 2011 Gencat blog 9
Genís Roca, specialist in The public’s ability to organize, create
online business strategy structures, and share opinions online has
caught public administrations off guard.
This has happened at a dizzying speed, not
being online has come to mean risking
being out of the loop in the conversations
on the net, seeing your identity usurped in
these new online forums, and especially
seeming unmodern. Something had to be
done quickly, and the result of this was
that every department and every ministry
did what it wanted and what it could, thus
“2011 will be the year of
giving rise to a wide but uncontrolled
control. All kinds of governmental presence on social networks.
procedures for social networks
2011 will be the year of control. All kinds
will be defined and
of procedures for social networks will be
standardized.” defined and standardized: who can open a
government website and how; what goals
it should have; what statistics must be
kept; the content and who is allowed to
provide this; what protocols will be used
for crisis control; and a long list of
oversight policies. Control will also imply
closing sites which were opened with
limited guidelines, standardizing oversight
procedures, and systematically applying
routines and protocols. Nevertheless, we
will continue to make progress. And in my
opinion, it’s progress in the right
direction.

11. Social Networks and the Government: Predictions for 2011 Gencat blog 10
María Salido, design and Times are tough, we have to do more with
development of projects on less and at the same time transform
networks, knowledge, and government’s role in a society which has
technology changed substantially with the invention of
the social structures we have today. Social
networks, the internet, and new
technologies will be an ally, helping
organizations to dedicate less time and
fewer resources to low-value processes so
they can take advantage of new surplus
time to innovate, generate value, and
create new production tools and
“Social networks will be an relationships which further enrich their
ally, helping organizations to environments (in the broadest sense of the
dedicate less time and word enrich).
resources to low-value
Therefore, these tools will have a double
processes so they can take
impact on public structures: they will
advantage of new surplus time
increase efficiency. Thanks to an
to innovate, generate value,
and create new production optimized use of knowledge, and they will
tools and relationships which act as a catalyst for change and a new role
further enrich their for government. This new government will
environments.” be able to take advantage of expert
knowledge from beyond its borders; design
new forms, formats, and purposes in its
relationships with the users of its services;
give support and credit to platforms the
public itself organizes to solve common
problems; launch projects for the public
good which coordinate all kinds of agents;
and become a hub of knowledge and
organization of all of the energy that we
need to manage the growing complexity of
our society and to provide it with tools to
improve and adapt to new contexts.

12. Social Networks and the Government: Predictions for 2011 Gencat blog 11
Isabel Troytiño, consultor and As their name suggests, public
coordinator of lab contents for administrations must provide a service to
innovative social networks society. Governmental activities are
developed via methods to survey and study
society which are often indirect. Using
web-based tools, governments can gain
access to the public, soliciting information
in a simpler way and storing this
information more easily than in the pre-
“Facebook and other social internet era. However, Facebook and
media are simply ephemeral other social media are simply ephemeral
repositories of information; the
repositories of information; government can only take advantage of
the government can only take their content by means of professionals
who can filter this information,
advantage of their contents by
professionals who know how to manage it
means of professionals who and create something new, such as official
can filter this information, announcements, subsidies, governmental
promotional materials, community
professionals who know how projects, or making the most of physical
to manage and use it.” and human resources. Firstly, the
government needs to ask itself what it
wants to do on these (virtual) social
networks. Next, it needs to decide if it
wants to use generalized, pre-existing
social media or virtual social networks
with specific goals, while taking the risk
that the public may decide to play a larger
role in the creation of these services with
the government. This is the most difficult
step, and it needs to be considered most
carefully. If the government is not willing
to take these risks, in 2011 it will use
social media because they are fashionable
and will spend money on promoting its
new 2.0 initiatives; this, however, has
little do with the (long-term) processes of
public participation and change.
Innovation leads to new ways of using the
technological tools we have today.

13. Social Networks and the Government: Predictions for 2011 Gencat blog 12
Marc Vidal, expert in internet This is already taking place, but next year,
socioeconomics the political prosumer (a citizen who
interacts with the government) will stop
seeing public sites as simple settings
where to get concrete information and will
inevitably begin to demand spaces which
allow participation. The public
administration’s challenge here is not
“The public administration’s simply to have a website up and running
but to open debates which generate
challenge with the internet is
interest and have to do with what the
not simply to have a website public is really interested in and really
needs.
up and running but to open
debates which generate The internet is a space for collaboration,
interest.” community, and constant change. Vertical
structures will have to rework their
internal processes and forms of
communication. While the general public
communicates in a fluid space where
flexibility reigns, governmental institutions
transfer their bureaucratic organizational
model to the internet, making it
impossible for the two communities to
meet.
I suppose that next year and in the next
few years, adaptability will be a key factor
for all public agents. Two-way
communication and transparency will be
the first step towards this new stage. This
step only can (and indeed, must) be
implemented via official websites, the
creation of mobile applications which
provide access to relevant 2.0 data
streams, and a strategy which stimulates
and monitors all of the forums for
discourse generated by the government
itself.