Utah Senate a pioneer in use of social media

Part 2 in our series about how the Utah Senate is effectively using social media to increase transparency and provide for a more participatory democracy.

In addition to the amazing initiatives by the Utah legislature discussed yesterday, the Senate has an entire web page dedicated to web 2.0 technology entitled “Your Government 2.0 Lab.”  Citizens can connect on  Facebook or Linked In, and even keep constant tabs on Twitter.

Some of their government 2.0 initiatives to increase transparency, proliferate information, and promote citizen engagement include:

• The Senate Site (.com): the award-winning blog site we’ve been having fun with since 2005.

• Senate Radio: our podcast.

• SenateMobile: important updates from the senate – sent as text messages to your cell phone.

• The Senate Channel: great collection of short videos on YouTube.

• SenateCam: a user-controlled web cam usually stationed in the president’s office.

• SenateTube: live-streaming video for press conferences and special events.

• Twitter Site: tweets from the senate.

• Facebook: Laura is building it at this very moment. Email her with suggestions.

• Legislative Town Meeting: experiment using web 2.0 technology during a 2007 site visit.

• Senate Floor Debate : historic archive (audio and now video) of discussion on the senate floor.

• Committee Meeting Podcast: you can visit any committe’s info page to subscribe to the RSS feed.

In their own words:

The Utah State Senate is committed to making government work the way it was envisioned: a stable republic maintained by an informed, engaged citizenry. Web 2.0 offers a few new tools that might help. We’ll see.

Got ideas? We’d love to hear them. If you are on LinkedIn, consider joining Government 2.0, a network of citizens and professionals exploring the use of New Media tools in government communication.

Utah Senate a leader in transparency, government 2.0, and social media

The Utah Senate is using technology to make their inner-workings transparent and open to all.   The Utah Senate now has written, audio, and video blogs by Senators, links to past senate floor debates, and the ability to sign up for text message updates on your cell phone.  They also launched Senate Tube, which provides streaming video in real time of action on the Senate floor.   There is even a camera in the Senate President’s office, continuously rolling and streaming the video online for all to see and hear.

This is a great first step by State legislatures in engaging their constituents and providing a more transparent process.

What other political bodies are using social media to improve transparency and engage their citizens?