WRITTEN ON January 30th, 2007 BY William Heath AND STORED IN Uncategorized
If, as Gordon Brown says, government now has to take Web 2.0 and the bloggers seriously,it’s high time officials got in there and sorted out a Whitehall blogging policy. After all, even the famously uptight IBM managed to sort out a blogging policy in 10 days. How hard can it be for our relaxed, self-confident public servants?
The trouble is, there isnt much of a community of bloggers. The only external one I can find is the exellent Owen Barder. If that’s an example of the talent available in the senior civil service, we need a lot more SCS bloggers. But maybe he’s one of very few senior officials who understands the contempory internet? If so, his future must be bright under Gordon Brown.
Could we, as a subset of the government IT profession, start a self-selecting “GIs” club for people who “Get It”? And perhaps we need, for clarity, to offer some sort of DGI campaign medals for those who lived through the information age, perhaps responsible for IT budgets worth £millions, but “Didn’t Get It”.
Wibbi Whitehall adopts a Sun-lke or IBM-like blogging policy, which encourages people to express themselves, explore new media and engage without criticising government policy or bringingtheir employer into disrepute.
4 Responses to “GIs, DGIs, and civil service blogging policy”
Yes, speaking as a civil servant considering starting her own blog it wbb to have some clarity about what is and is not acceptable. I can’t help thinking that more civil service blogs would increase public understanding of what the public sector does – but at the moment I think it’s legitimate to be worried about what the consequences for my job security would be! So I’m watching the reaction to Owen’s blog closely….
I think it’s definitely a good idea to discuss with a manager first. WHy not show them teh iBM blogging policy? What would be risky for an individual is just to go ahead without any top-level cover.
The worst case would be for Whitehall to require bloggers to submit anything they propose to post to the press office first. That would completely torpedo any hopes of government being blog-aware in the way Gordon Brown calls for.
I think the best you can say of my blog – with apologies to Samuel Johnson – is that it “is like a dog’s walking on his hind legs. It is not done well; but you are surprised to find it done at all”.
And maybe that policy ought also to support the lone blogging of our brave Secretary of State for the Environment (see http://www.davidmiliband.defra.gov.uk )