The next web and its impact on government communication - what our speakers think
All-day seminar at the Council of the EU in Brussels on 16 February 2012. This seminar will tackle government communication and how it is affected by the changing digital landscape today and in the near future, using concrete examples and case studies. Hashtag is #web4gov
- Here are the Twitter handles of some of our speakers:
- We asked our speakers and moderators the following question: What is for you the most important digital evolution that will affect government communication in the next 2 years and why?Here are some of their responses:
Zvonimir Frka-Petešić, Director for the Support to EU Accession, Croatia
"I think that the public interest in the websites will give way to mobile web/phone applications. What more and more people are looking for is the ability to immediately and on the spot get a response to a specific need, rather than websites providing plethoric information, but often with a poor level of applicability in concrete situations."
Paul Papadimitriou, Digital Intelligence Analyst (@papadimitriou):
Whilst the use of social media outlets by citizens will keep growing, it's its conjunction with the wider release of government data —and how it is handled— that will be the biggest upcoming disruption in how constituents define transparency and democracy.
Jimmy Kevin Pedersen, Head of Division, Danish Ministry of Finance, Agency for Digitization
"The most important thing is that most of our self-service solutions are (by law) mandatory to use with no physical alternatives. A channel strategy that dramatically will change the way the government will deliver service in the future (3 year perspective)."
Runa Sabroe, MindLab Project Manager (@runasabroe):
"We need to go from digital access to digital self-reliance. Citizens don´t just need digital literacy, they also need to understand how to complete a given task on line. This means that usability must be understood as more than a technical solution."
Damien Van Achter, Journalist, Editorial Developer (@davanac)
"There is no information overload. Only bad filters."
Davied van Berlo, Founder of the Civil Servant 2.0 Network (@davied)
"Online platforms will facilitate more intense collaboration between government organisations and with citizens. Public value will arise from co-creation between different groups working together online, blurring the boundaries between government and society."
Dave Worsell, Director European Government Solutions, GovDelivery (@dworsell)
"The proliferation of smart mobile devices is increasing demand for real-time information in both the private and public sector. Today, citizens demand highly personalised, timely and accurate information delivered to them, whenever and wherever they are. Government needs to embrace this technology and develop systems that actively engage citizens and deliver tailored content directly to devices. Effective proactive public communication has the ability to change behaviour, improve services and significantly reduce cost."
Karolina Wozniak, Social Media Coordinator, European Parliament (@karolina_wo)
"Better sentiment tracking. We should be using more comments left by our fans and followers."


