Social Media and Mapping: The Future of Open Government is Online

Interactive online mapping technology and social media sites like Twitter are the future of government-citizen interaction, according to research of Australia’s Local Government by Geographic Information Systems (GIS) specialists Esri Australia.

The Gov 2.0 Benchmark Study looked at Local Government attitudes towards Gov 2.0 - the Federal Government’s push for increased openness and transparency by all levels of government through collaborative, web-based tools such as social media platforms, blogs and wikis.

The study also found 77 percent of Local Government currently use mapping technologies, with 88 percent calling for an expansion of mapping usage.

Esri Australia Managing Director Brett Bundock said the findings were a valuable insight into the future of governance, given the close connection Local Government has with their communities.

He said the results showed councils strongly supported Gov 2.0 with websites and social media among the most common tools for effective communication with ratepayers, and mobile phone applications and social media rated first and third among areas crucial for increased productivity.

“Nation-wide, councils see GIS at the forefront of government and citizen interaction, helping deliver Gov 2.0 concepts of community engagement and government accountability,” Mr Bundock said.

“They also point to the importance of GIS and social media integration as the public calls for greater access to services and resources through the internet and mobile technologies.

“It’s an acknowledgement of the effectiveness of social media platforms in allowing information-sharing between people, and how mapping technology provides the spatial context for that information.”

Study participant Wingecarribee Shire Council GIS Supervisor Michael Webb confirmed data mapping and location-based technology like GIS had enabled quicker and easier communication between Local Government and their communities.

“GIS is the vital link to all our information and will become the primary access point for the community to access and update information,” Mr Webb said.

“Location-based technologies allow information to be passed both ways with relative ease, removing a lot of time-consuming face-to-face and telephone exchanges.”

Mr Bundock cited Brisbane City Council’s FloodMap, a key information source for emergency response teams during the disastrous Brisbane floods, which was also widely accessed by the public after word spread through Facebook and Twitter, as an example of government and social media working in tandem.

“FloodMap presented information such as closed roads, high water levels and evacuation centres visually and became a critical tool for the general public to plan evacuations – this was largely due its high profile on social media sites,” Mr Bundock said.

Another Esri mapping site monitoring the floods featured images and videos collected from social media sites, giving an eye-witness view of the scale of the disaster – subsequently, similar sites covering Cyclone Yasi and the Japanese earthquakes have also appeared.

Also, in the United States, several cities have implemented the smartphone mapping application CitySourced, through which residents report civic issues such as graffiti directly to the government.

Mr Bundock said examples such as CitySourced, which uses mapping technology distributed here by Esri Australia, proved GIS was a powerful means for governments to exchange information with the public.

“With the success of these overseas projects, there is no doubt we will soon see Australian Local Councils implementing similar programs here,” Mr Bundock said.

“Clearly this exchange of information and constant dialogue will have many benefits for governments and their communities.

“Australian’s can look forward to unprecedented access to their governments as Gov 2.0 unfolds and government use of GIS and social media develops.”