Don't worry about the government

Some civil servants are just like my loved ones
They work so hard and they try to be strong*

The IBM Center for the Business of Government has a report on public sector blogging (with a heavy US focus). The "meat" (or for vegetarians, the "tofu") is in pages 10-40 (the rest being a summary of user-generated media in general and blogging in particular).

Here are 10 Tips for Blogging by Public Sector Executives from the report:
Tip 1: Define yourself and your purpose.
Tip 2: Do it yourself!
Tip 3: Make a time commitment.
Tip 4: Be regular.
Tip 5: Be generous.
Tip 6: Have a “hard hide.”
Tip 7: Spell-check.
Tip 8: Don’t give too much information.
Tip 9: Consider multimedia.
Tip 10: Be a student of blogging.

I like most of the tips - but I like the last one best. The author exhorts would-be political bloggers to read the blogs of others rather than just focus on what they want to say. I'd like to see the next report by IBM on social media & government push this point a bit further. What is the future of interactive government? And by this I mean more than on-line form completion (not that there's anything wrong with that).

Thanks: Nerida Hart, Jon Erickson & *David Byrne.