I got up early this morning.
After a short bike ride, for the first time I took the train to Los Angeles, cutting down on traffic and doing a last few edits to my presentation (you can’t do that in the car!).

The reputation of public transportation in LA is horrible, and I have gotten around by car for the first 5 years since I lived here. But after buying a bike last week, and with the idea that it’s a waste to go by myself in a minivan in traffic to LA, that I wanted to at least give the train a try.

In LA, together with Lisa StotelMyre we presented a 4 hour workshop on Self Service Government, Citizen Outreach & Social Media.

I’m very proud to be coming from a country with inspiring social media initiatives, and when I asked for examples of social media outreach by the Dutch government to Dutch Social Media Professionals on Facebook, I received great examples that are in the presentation. They are in Dutch unfortunately, if you’d like me to explain a few of the concepts, please reply to this thread or contact me personally.

Self Service Government: Social Media Tools & Strategy from Branding Personality

Next to that, I am very excited to speak with people today who want to implement social media in their departments. Its a tough process, as social media is all about real time data, and immediate feedback, and not all departments within LA County are ready for that. I hope they will and I hope they can make it easier for the public to interact with government institutions to get things done quick and well taken care of.

For examples of projects that governments are implementing to become self-service, check out Lisa’s Self Service Government website.

What would you like your local government to do to make it easier to interact with them and get things taken care of?