I’d love to put together a workshop on this topic. But, for now, I’ll start with a blog post.

In my work with E-Democracy.Org, we always worked hard to include elected officials as participants in our Local Issues Forums. Sometimes, elected officials were the first in their community to sign up for a new forum and could be listed among the most active and enthusiastic members of that forum. However, it isn’t always easy to sell participation in an online forum, to elected officials that are already very busy, deluged with electronic communications, and cynical about online forums.

When I have the opportunity to speak with elected officials about the pro’s and con’s of involvement in an local blog or online forum, here are a few of my key points:

What They Should Understand

  1. Online forums are seldom representative of the community. Understanding this should not reduce the value of the forum to an elected official, however it should help them keep their participation in the forum in some kind of context.
  2. Online forums cannot, and will not any time soon, replace face to face contact with constituents or community meetings. They should think about their online participation in forums as an extension and enhancement of their existing participation in community events and meetings.

Why They Should Participate

  1. Online forums are great “early warning” detectors for hot/current issues that might not already be on their radar screens.
  2. Visibility in online forums sends a powerful message to local constituents and activists about their accessibility and interest in constituent opinions.
  3. Keep track of what people are saying about them and their colleagues. Its not always fun to read, but its helpful to know what is being said on the “street.”

Tips For Participation

  1. Use online forums to spread the word about important community meetings and public hearings.
  2. Don’t feel the need to read everything in the forum. Its acceptable and sometimes necessary to scan subject lines and only read the topics of particular interest to you. Even if you only read a small minority of the posts, scanning subject lines will still give you a sense of what is being discussed across the entire forum.
  3. Don’t engage in tit for tat arguments. Lots of elected officials are afraid that they will get bogged down in one-on-one arguments in online forums. Its quite possible to be active in the forum, yet stay above this kind of exchange (although is some cases, it can be difficult).
  4. Occasional “informational” posts to the forum, demonstrate that the elected official is paying attention to the forum and connected with constituents.
  5. When a “hot” topic breaks out, elected officials can use an online forum to direct constituents to good sources of information or informed government officials willing to answer questions or accept citizen input.

This is really just a rough draft. I welcome input or comments. If you’d like to see an extended version of this blog post (which I hope to write soon), please contact me at: tim@politalk.org