Lauren (who I work with at GovDelivery) and I had a very productive week. One of the three presentations we prepared and gave was titled What Motivates an Online Community?

For this presentation, we developed a new formula called The Community Engagment Formula. 

The formula states: Motivation + Supports - Obstacles = Engagement

If you have any thoughts or suggestions about the formula, please leave them below as a comment.

To learn more about the formula and what motivates and online communities, watch the archive of the live stream below. Special thanks to Elliot Volkman (@TheJournalizer) who facilitated University of Reddit class.

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In today’s government, it isn’t enough to just communicate with citizens. 

Today you must listen, respond, take comments, put them to use and show that you are doing so. The Framework for Action will guide you to successfully create an action plan that results in effective, meaningful, and valuable citizen engagement.

This workshop was given at the Social Media for Government Communications Conference in Washington, DC on February 13,  2012. It was facilitated by myself, Joseph Porcelli, Director of GovDelivery Engagement Services and Lauren Modeen our Digital Strategist.

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As an engagement strategist still recovering from chronic burnout as a result of my organizing efforts for the Boston Police Department and Neighbors for Neighbors (facilitating 250+ meetings a year for many years), I avoid spending entire Saturday afternoons at civic events like the plague.

To my surprise, something extraordinary happened yesterday. I ended up staying at a civic event for 7 hours and had a productive and fun experience.

The event I'm referring to is Mayor Gray's One City Summit. The Summit, facilitated by AmericaSpeaks, explored the question “how can we become more of One City?

Here is my professional take on why this summit, unlike other civic experiences I've participated in, was so effective and why other cities should pay close attention:

1) Ground rules clearly stated:

2) A strong vision that resonated with participants presented:

One City is a place where every resident:

• Participates in a diverse, thriving economy with equality of opportunity
• Lives in a safe neighborhood free from crime
• Accesses quality public or public charter schools no matter what neighborhood he or she lives in
• Enjoys a high quality of life that includes access to quality healthcare, recreation, transportation, and retail choices in every ward of the city
• Finds affordable housing options throughout the city in ways that advance the racial and economic diversity we cherish
• Receives a solid return on investment and high-quality customer service from their government
• Lives in the most environmentally sound, sustainable city in the world
• Has a voice that counts – including a vote in Congress

3) Challenges supported by data clearly laid out:

• Unemployment: As of December 2011, Wards 2 and 3 have the lowest unemployment rates (5.0% and 2.6% respectively). Wards 7 and 8 have the highest (16.7% and 24.8% respectively). The overall unemployment in the District stands at 10.4%.
• High School Graduation Rates: For the latest data available (2009), the high school graduation rate in the District was approximately 51.6%.
• Illiteracy: Approximately 19% of District adults are functionally illiterate. 􏰀 HIV/AIDS: The District has an infection rate of 3.2% (for adults and adolescents), far higher than the
• national rate although comparable to U.S. cities of the same size.
• Disparities in Per Capita Income: DC has wide disparities of per capita income – more than $60,000 per year in Wards 2 and 3, and under $20,000 per year in Wards 7 and 8.
• Children Living in Poverty: In 2010, Wards 7 and 8 had the highest percentage (29.3% and 35.5%, respectively) of children under age five living in families at or below 200 percent of the federal poverty level; Wards 3 and 4 had the lowest percentages, at 2.1 percent and 11.9 percent respectively.
• Obesity Rates: As of 2007, Wards 2 and 3 had the lowest adult obesity rates (12.5% and 11.7% respectively) while Wards 7 and 8 had the highest (39.9% and 41.9% respectively)
• Budget Challenges: An uncertain economy and the specter of significant federal budget cuts have created a challenging and unpredictable budget climate. The District heads into FY13 facing potential budget cuts, and over the longer term, two of the biggest budget areas (Medicaid and health care) are growing far faster than the rate of inflation.

4) Pre-developed strategies presented (as opposed to asking the audience, whom may or may not be subject matter expertise, may or may not have access to supporting data nor analytical skills to make sense of it, to come up with strategies in one days time to solve pressing challenges):

1. Diversifying and Growing our Economy; 
2. Early Success: Thriving in the First Years; 
3. Educating Our Youth for the Economy of Tomorrow; and, 
4. Aligning Residents’ Job Skills with Our Growing Economy.

5) Technology used to complement and facilitate in-person engagement

Program format:

1. Facilitated Table Discussions. You will be seated with a group of D.C. residents to discuss plans and policies the District has developed, and to provide comments and recommendations. A trained facilitator at your table will keep the conversation moving and, importantly, make sure every voice at the table is heard. A note-taker will record the conversation on a computer.
2. Discussion Guide. This discussion guide has helpful background information on the issues that will be discussed today and lists the questions you will be asked. You will have time to read each issue section before the discussion takes place.
3. Keypad Voting. Throughout the day, you will use the keypads on your table to answer questions and vote on your preferences. You will see the results of the voting on the large screens and will know right away how everyone in the room feels about these issues.
4. Theming. Notes from your table conversations will be transmitted electronically to a team of people who will review them, pull out common themes, and summarize them. You will see this information on the large screens, and it will be used to help make final recommendations.

6) For those who could not participate in person, the summit was live-streamed and tweeted:

7) Results for each completed module were immediately published on the screens:

8) Dance party:

9) At the conclusion of the Summit, aggregated results of the findings were distributed in person and online:

See my post titled #OneCity DC Preliminary Report Summary

Outcomes:

1. Trust was created by using technology (facilitated by a neutral party with facilitation expertise) to reflect back how participant voices through real-time polling and feedback
2. 2,000 residents learned about what the city plans to do to address challenges, give their input, and weigh in on which priorities to tackle first
3. Residents, city employees, and other stakeholders are energized, excited and ready to get to work

Interesting facts I learned about DC:

• It's experiencing its first net population growth in decades
• DC grew faster than any other state last year
• Last year, for the first time in four years, the city added to its reserve fund 
• 6 of the 8 wards have seen increases in mean income
• First the first time in a longer time, no single race dominates the percentage breakdown of the DC population

The next questions I recommend be asked are:

• How and where will the conversation continue?

• What actions can residents take beyond "voicing their opinions" that is meaningful to them and have short term and long term impact?

• How will progress be measured and communicated?
• What can reasonably be accomplished by next years summit?

These 9 engagement tactics resulted in a productive and fun experience. They can be utilized offline, online, and we saw at the One City Summit, as a combination. When thinking about producing civic engagement experiences, the rule of thumb is to ask your self and your team, "what would result meaningful and valuable experience that respect the intelligence, experience, and time of the participants and that has impact on what we are trying to accomplish"?

Let's discuss:

If you were at the Summit, did you have a similar productive and fun experience - why or why not?

Are there any tactics you would add, or one you disagree with?

If you have ideas for answers on the next questions I recommend we ask, I'd love to hear them. 

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To my surprise, at the completion of the DC OneCity Summit today, we walked away with the preliminary report in our hands. 

In addition to the summary of the aggregated findings, the report including participate gender, age, race, ward, income, and length of residency. Very smart. 

As I was preparing for the summit last night, one of the quesitons I had written down was "who's voices will be heard and who voices will be left out'? Turns out, the attendance roughly mirrored that of what was found of DC's population in the 2010 census. Pretty cool.

By providing this data, and having it convened by the neutral party America Speaks, it create a foundation of trust, which as we saw in the identified challenges today, that "corruption, and perceived corruption within our city government undermines public trust," is real challenge DC government must work to resolve and overcome. 

Trust is a foundational building block of all human interaction, especially between citizen and government. More can get done when there is trust. As we saw today, with income disparettes, resulting in 24.8% unemployment in one ward, and 30% of children in another below the poverty line, much work remains to get done.

Tomorrow morning, I'll post my recap of the event. 

Now it's time to go get my dance on... It's Saturday night after all. 

OneCity, have a good one. 

One City Prelim Report FINAL

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See the full gallery on Posterous

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See the full gallery on Posterous

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A team of my awesome co-workers at GovDelivery put this sweet infographic together that demonstrates:

• Top 11 Keywords/Subjects of Government Communications
• Top 11 Government Shared Updates
• Top 11 Government Topics with Growing Public Interest
• 2011 GovDelivery Network Benchmarks

GovDelivery_2011_InfoGraphics.pdf Download this file

Any suprises?

What other data would you like to see?

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I'm a geek. Which are you?

From: MastersInIt.org

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1963

Taken at the MLK Memorial in Washington DC. This is not to be missed.

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Probably not. But just the same, this is a really interesting infographic about the positive and negative effects Google might be having on us as individuals. 

What I find most interesting is how becoming dependent on Google might displace our deep understanding of concepts. I wonder how being emotionaly connected to an experience might offset where and how we access memories. 

I'm not very familiar with the topic of memory, but I can say, I like NOT having to remember details which allows me to focus my thinking power on the bigger picture - which I often revisit in my thoughts/memory. 

How this relates to social interaction and community engagement:

So since we are not getting stupider because of Google search, I'd argue that Google tools makes it possible for community members, like me, to be more productive and able to focus on the bigger picture. Now that Google can support/hold/maintain the integrity of task completion (Google Calendar, Tasks, Docs, etc) - memory and energy can be used to get stuff done. We just need to remember to use these tools...

Props to David Crowley for sharing this on Google+.

Research and Design by: Online Colleges Site

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I just met Marc and Tara, the E-Tour team from Leave No Trace, LNT.org who shared a framework for thinking about how our actions impact each other and the environment. 

Streaming by Ustream

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One ingredient that is missing the actionable call to action. This farm stand at the Dupont Circle Farmers Market has done the best job I've seen person. They have the typical sign but added a large QR code people can scan on the spot.

Next question: Why Like? I'll come back to this latter.

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Situation: Most people are NOT social butterflies and don't like, and even hate, networking. 

Resolution: Engineer conversations by wearing your interests, passions, values, and skills.

I've got a thing for nametags. Back in 2007, I wore one every day, all day long, everywhere I went, as a part of my Nametag Project.

Today my friend Doug tweeted me a link to a video called Nametag Etiquette on bnet.com. In this video, Syndi Seid, the Etiquette Coach makes some suggestions about making a nametag legible. 

In the video she also instructs her viewers to create name tags in spoken order: "first name, last night, and affilation" she says, adding "it is not necessary to provide any further information."  

I strongly disagree.

A plain nametag is like a tie - most of them are alike. If it just your name name and company, whoppe-do. Instead, you should make your nametag work for you, like Scott Ginsberg who wears one everyday and also wears a huge nametag at conferences, attracting quite a bit of attention as you can see in this video: 

My friend Robbie Samuels, makes nametags work for him by using not one, but three. Robbie uses one for his name and affliation, one that says "I'm looking for" and the third stating: "I'm good at." Imagine all the conversations his three nametags would spark. Sometime Robbie even writes his twitter handle on affiliation on his arms.

Vermont Public Radio covered an experiment I did at a high school in Vermont. Here, I asked students to write their first name and in lieu their last name, a word that described what they felt the world needs most - mine for example was: Joseph Love. Next they were tasked with reintroducing themselves to their peers and explaining their of new last name. The students reported that they learned more about each other in the 30 minutes we spent together than they had up to that point all year. 

Here are my three tips on how to make a nametag work for you:

1. Use three nametags or write on your arms like Robbie
2. Replace your last name on your nametag with a value, interest, or skill
3. Wear a giant nametag like Scott

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Place is space before awareness and intention. 
Bring awareness to space, add intention, and you have place. 

Bring others to place and you have community.

Meridian Park Drum Circle, Washington DC, 9.11.2011

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These strategies are:

2007-2008: I was able to double the number of new groups the unit started each year, increased annual event fundraising from a $5000 to $30,000, and grew event participation from ten thousand to over fifty thousand people. In the pilot neighborhood where I developed what became known as the Coalition Organizing Model, the result was a 16% decrease in Part-1 crime over 12 months.

This role was my first foray into a position that allowed me to combine my passion for community organizing, empowering the community, and facilitating government-to-citizen collaboration through social platforms.

Summer 2007: I pitched an idea to the Superintendent of the Bureau of Field Services at Boston Police: Nametag Day at Fenway Park. We handed out 10,000 nametags at Fenway Park during a Red Sox game with the help of 150 volunteers. By December of 2007, nearly 20,000 people had joined me in wearing nametags, and we received press coverage from The Boston Globe, National and Boston CBS and FOX Affiliates, NECN, The Hallmark Channel,The Miami Herald, and Vermont Public Radio.

Be the Change Inc./ServiceNation, Cambridge, MA. August 2008 to March 2009. Director of Online Operations and Partnerships 

August 2008: Emily Cherniak, Alan Khazie's Chief of Staff, whom I had meet the year prior called and said, "Joseph, we need your help now. McCain and Obama will be at our Summit in New York City in three weeks and our online presence is in shambles. Can you help us?" I quickly triaged their needs and focused my efforts on working with their vendor to complete their website before the summit.

After establishing and maintaining their online presence, I was asked to go to New York for the summit to oversee their online operations. During the summit, I managed all content-capture, publishing, blogger relations, and live-streaming of the event on their website. When I returned home from New York, they officially hired me as their Director of Online Operations & Partnerships.

Over the next six months of the campaign, I directed and managed the development of ServiceNation.org through two more development iterations, including preparation for a massive surge in site traffic due to a possible Presidential “Call to Service”. I helped coordinate online service pledges between the White House, Facebook, and the Corporation for National and Community Service and coalition partners for Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. I also directed online operations for our seven official Presidential Inaugural events including a live broadcast with MTV at the Youth Ball.

January 2009: Following the Presidential Inauguration and the passage of the Edward M. Kennedy Service Act of 2009, the needs of the organization changed and my position was dissolved. I took this opportunity to reinvest in Neighbors for Neighbors.

April 2009 to May 2010; Neighbors For Neighbors 2.0 

Given the success of the Neighbors for Neighbors network in Jamaica Plain, I decided to take a risk and simultaneously build online social-networks and teams for every neighborhood in the City of Boston to empower a wider audience of neighbors and attempt to secure funding.

Gina Bianchinni, the CEO of the Ning.com (the social networking platform that powers NFN) whom I had come to know, spoke about NFN at the Personal Democracy Forum in 2009. One of the audience members, Laurel Ruma from O’Reilly Media emailed me and encouraged me to present for the upcoming Gov 2.0 Expo.

September 2009: At the O’Reilly Media Gov. 2.0 Expo I demonstrated how Neighbors for Neighbors served as a powerful example of Gov 2.0 in action, how it expedites government and citizen communication and collaboration to solve problems. At the expo I networked and brainstormed with a great group of fellow innovators including Steve Reseller from GovLoop.com with whom I’ve continued to collaborate.
 

Related Videos:

• My Presentation
• Government as a partner Panel Discussion

September 2009; Velocity Saloon: When Gina Bianchinni was unable to attend CEO's for Cities Velocity Saloon(Grand Rapids, MI), I was asked to attend on her behalf. The goal of this event was to help Envision the “Good Life” in American Cities. This experience was invaluable to me. As the event unfolded, I got the distinct impression thatjust as thoughtful design and architecture are critical for cities to thrive, so is online social infrastructure and the ability to communicate and collaborate with one’s local government.

October 2009; City of Boston and Neighbors for Neighbors Announces Official Partnership: On October 24, 2009, Mayor Thomas Menino, Boston Police Commissioner Edward Davis and I announced the Official Partnership between Neighbors for Neighbors and the City of Boston.

Related Video: Live Stream Archive of Announcement

December 2009; Blue Print For Service: Steven Rivelis, President of Campaign Consultations and former colleague from my work with Be The Change/ServiceNation, asked me to serve as Expert Facilitator for the Cities of ServiceBlue Print for Change Service Citizen Engagement workshops.  In this role I helped attendees to think out-of-the-box to empower citizens to create solutions.

May 2010; Ford Hall Forum: I was asked to help put together and present a panel titled “The Emerging ‘Fifth Estate’: Can the likes of Twitter, YouTube, and other social networks help solve real government problems?” at the Ford Hall Forum, the longest running public lecture series in our nation’s history.

Related Video: Archive of the Forum

Through my work on Neighbors for Neighbors, I established enough of a reputation as an innovator in government-to-citizen engagement that the Department of Homeland Security learned of my efforts.

May 2010 to January 2011; U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Washington, DC. Community Engagement Strategist, Contractor.

Reporting to the White House Liaison and the Assistant Commissioner of Public Affairs of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Iserved as the department’s first Community Engagement Strategist. My role was to manage DHS’s first social network Our Border, and support the integration of social media into U.S. Customs and Border Protection public engagement programs, pilots, and campaigns.

February 2011 to Present; GovDelivery/GovLoop, Washington DC, Director of Professional Services.

Upon recognizing overlapping professional passions, synergies, and the demand for government digital communication services, Scott Burns, CEO of GovDelivery, Steve Ressler, Founder of GovLoop.com, and myself, Joseph Porcelli, decided to formalize our relationship. In February, 2011, I joined the GovLoop and GovDelivery team as Director of Professional Services.

Today, my team supports government organizations that want to incorporate multi-channel communication and engagement strategies deeper into the organization’s mission in order to expand program awareness, accelerate adoption of online services, support citizen engagement, improve citizen services, reduce service delivery costs, and complement and support existing staffing.

What motivates me in this role is that I have an opportunity to help model how 21st century government engages its citizens, and transform how government develops outreach programs, campaigns, policies and operations per the White House Executive Orders Open Government Initiative and Streamlining Service Delivery and Improving Customer Service.

In summary: 

What excites and sustains me is the new spirit of transparency, participation, collaboration, and customers mandated by recent directives. This spirit, fueled by the needs, desires, and ambitions of fellow government and citizen innovators increases efficiency, effectiveness, trust, and empowers citizens - our nations greatest resource - to help themselves and each other.

My career has been propelled by the collective actions I’ve taken beyond the defined responsibilities of my professional roles and has been invigorated by social entrepreneurial initiatives I’ve founded and led. The wonderful network of “Power Neighbors” with whom I’ve enrolled have made critical introductions and amplified the reach of my story by publishing and inviting me to share what I’ve learned and accomplished with their broad audiences.

I envision spending the next ten years of my life continuing to develop integrated online and offline social platform-powered models that transform how government and citizens engage and evolve together to solve problems and fulfill opportunities.

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