Ascentum » elected officials

Inspiration and Iron Fists

Joseph Peters — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 15:58:43 +0000

Rob Mariani and I represented Ascentum at the Strategy Institute’s inaugural Innovations in Public Consultation and Engagement Conference in Toronto this week. It was an interesting event for a couple of reasons. One reason was the “new” diversity of interest, but the other was an inspirational address that caught me by surprise. First, we only knew a handful of participants at the conference. It was nice to meet and see so many different people interested in public participation. From Hydro One, to ViaRail to cities across Canada, public participation is what they are doing or at least is a giant blip on their radar. Times are a changing. There was even a small group who travelled from Singapore – and that is a state that has traditionally held more weight in an iron first than open ears. But let me get to the inspiration. I have heard my fair share of speeches from the stump. I also have a healthy dose of pessimism to go along with my well-worn BS filter (BS = bold but shameful). Naheed Nenshi, the Mayor of Calgary, is the real deal. In a country that aches for political inspiration, the Mayor could be the most promising resource out of Alberta that could be tapped and barreled for use across the country. Why? He gets it. He speaks with candid eloquence. He admits mistakes. He wants to do better. He doesn’t stand for the broken “old ways” of government. He truly believes in the role/value of the citizen in democracy – not just on Election Day, but in the four years between them. He has 52,000 twitter followers. He’s bottom line genuine. I am not 100% sure where Naheed Nenshi sits on the political spectrum. Let’s pretend that it doesn’t really matter. There are a couple of parties looking for leadership – the Tories could even draft him. The fact that he was elected in Calgary might signal that the country may be ready to consider a leader from outside of a Christian faith. What’s important is that in a national role he has the ability to shake up a sleepy system not just with rhetoric or ideology but with a mantra of continuous improvement and value for investment. His vision seems to be grounded in a belief that citizens matter and need a voice, beyond that of an elected representative. Citizen’s need to have their own voice. Let’s hope that the Mayor continues to exercise his own. -Joseph Peters-

Twitter, Dialogue and #elxn41

Ellis Westwood — Fri, 13 May 2011 19:11:51 +0000

Here at Ascentum, we’re really interested in how people are using social media to connect, get involved, and engage in dialogue on issues that matter to them.

That’s why I volunteered to be part of a small team led by digital guru Mark Blevis (@MarkBlevis) that looked at how people were using Twitter on the night of Canada’s 2011 federal election.

In space provided by The Canadian Press (thanks @CdnPress_Ott!) we spent a fun evening together following the posts, unfolding events and the stream on Twitter related to the election.

We used a Canadian social media monitoring tool called Sysomos to find and follow the traffic. Using a powerful and customized search, we were able to pinpoint and track posts that mentioned any one of over 100 keywords or criteria. For a detailed analysis of results, I’d recommend visiting Mark’s ongoing research at http://www.markblevis.com.

Lots of traffic, but less dialogue

That night, I was excited to see the high level of interest, buzz and traffic about the election on Twitter. At the end of the night, we measured a total of 90,150 election tweets, from 45,075 users. There was a community of Twitter users across Canada, and beyond, sharing the same real-time experience of democracy in action. There was genuine engagement in the process.

What I didn’t see as much of, however, was real dialogue. By dialogue, I don’t just mean people talking to each other. As practitioners have observed, dialogue is to “honestly expressing perspectives, clarifying viewpoints, and developing solutions. The goal of dialogue is to deepen understanding and judgment, and to think about ways to make a difference on an issue.”

Understandably, on election night, people were more focused on news and results than policy issues. However, even during the campaign, though, the twitter traffic on #elxn41 seemed to be more partisan than “transpartisan” – people looking beyond party politics to engage in dialogue on bigger issues of public concern.

It will definitely be interesting to see how the Twitter community continues to evolve in the future and whether members can shift the interaction to facilitate more dialogic exchange.

Mark, Stephanie and Nygel: same place next time?

- Ellis Westwood -

What Public Officials Want To Know About New Technology

Ascentum Staff — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 16:16:41 +0000

One of Ascentum’s good friends, Brad Rourke, wrote a great piece today on what public officials want to know about new technology.

You can read Brad here.