09-26-2012 Council Agenda - Laserfiche WebLink

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• Social networks such as Facebook and MySpace work well as a gathering place for people interested in the city, and for building affinity for the city. Social networks can serve as a place to post information and pictures of the community celebration, a project that succeeded because of volunteer efforts, or even of various city staff performing interesting aspects of their jobs. These spaces also could be used to gather input and ideas from residents on projects, services and ordinances. • Video sites such as YouTube and iReport allow users to post, rate and comment on videos. Posting video can be a way to provide a comprehensive picture of a city event such as awards and even be a virtual way to show residents the range of work done by city staff. (Videos shouldn't be posted of any individual without that person's knowledge and consent.) • Photo sharing sites such as Fiickr and TwitPic allow users to post, rate and comment on photos can help create a comprehensive picture of a city event such as awards and even be a virtual way to show residents the range of work done by city staff. (Photos shouldn't be posted of any individual without that person's knowledge and consent.) • Wikis, such as Wikipedia, can be used to develop information on a range of topics such as about the city's founding residents, historic sites and so on. Wikis are encyclopedia -like applications in which entries are created and edited by multiple people. Should the city take a centralized or decentralized approach to social media? A city should consider whether it wants an official social media presence and, if so, in what social media venues. The city should think about when and how it wants to use social media, whether to have an official city voice, and whether to use a centralized or decentralized approach. The manner in which social media fits with other official forms of communication also should be considered. It may be the case that having multiple city social media users — or a decentralized approach — mnakes sense for a city because it allows subject matter experts to talk about issues related to their areas of expertise. For example, the city clerk might blog about changes to polling sites and announce openings for various committees and commissions, while the police officer talks about the city's K -9 officer. Microblogs might be used by public works staff to alert residents to snow parking emergencies, while parks and recreation staff announce enrollment openings for new programs. A consolidated — or centralized — approach assigns social media responsibititles to one or two people. Depending upon the city, this approach could create a significant workload for those individuals, who may not have the time to support such a task. On the other hand, a centralized approach probably would provide the city with a more controlled, consistent and uniformed social media presence. Are postings to social media government data and /or subject to records retention? A city must determine whether the information communicated is about official or unofficial city business before determining whether it is subject to the Minnesota Government Data Practices Act. Page 4 of 12 60