It’s fast, it’s viral, it can spark civic engagement. Out of the 75 largest cities in the United States, 87 percent use Twitter and Facebook to engage with their citizens. Put social media to use in your department or city.

• Break down the barriers between city hall and city dwellers
• Give constituents the information they want
• Create dynamic channels for open discussion

Learn how other cities use social media and then institute a social media policy of your own!

Hold a Twitter "Townhall”

The city of Palo Alto used Twitter to host Q&A sessions featuring Mayor Yiaway Yeh and City Manager James Keenewith.

Hangout on Google+

President Obama answered questions in a Google+ Hangout immediately after his 2012 State of the Union address to get feedback from citizens on his agenda.

Use Facebook to Solicit Constituent Input

Mayor Emanuel of Chicago hosted the first #AskChicago Facebook Town Hall, making him the first in-office mayor of a major city to hold a live online forum in which questions and concerns were submitted and voted on by the public.

Conduct a Contest on Pinterest

Maryland governor Martin O’Malley used Pinterest to connect with Maryland entrepreneurs by inviting constituents to submit 10 images to pitch their idea for a business. Existing small businesses were also eligible to compete.

Live Stream City Meetings

Chicago City Council meetings have been streamed over the Internet since 2007. Ustream, one of the most popular streaming providers, is already used by several cities including Panama City Beach, Fla., Hoboken, N.J., and Portland, Ore. to broadcast and archive meetings.

Institute Social Media Policy

Philadelphia's Mayor, Michael Nutter, signed an executive order to establish an internal social media framework that places Philly ahead of others in making citizen engagement a priority.

Citizen feedback is important for creating sustainable, representative solutions. Providing feedback, however, often requires citizens to attend in-person meetings.

Leverage technology to lower barriers for constituent in your department or city.

• Ensure more representative feedback
• Get more diverse opinions
• Develop well-rounded solutions

CREATE A WIKI FOR INPUT ON POLICIES

New York’s Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications used a wiki to collaborate with the public on its policy for open data tech standards and guidelines.

USE TEXTIZEN FOR A FEEDBACK CAMPAIGN

The city of Philadelphia is using Textizen to gather citizen feedback. City planners generated questions and posted them on posters in public spaces; the Textizen platform allows the officials to collect responses submitted via text message.

USE MAP TOOLS FOR ZONING FEEDBACK

New York’s Department of Technology used Shareabouts, a simple mapping tool for gathering input online, to aggregate suggestions for locations of bike share stations. Utilizing this open source tool, constituent recommendations can be collected and referenced during decision making to come to a decision in a more democratic way.

Hack events are competitions or gatherings where governments, allied organizations, technologists come together to hack away at, or help resolve, a civic issue. These events have become popular ways for cities to connect with passionate innovators to pump fresh ideas into government.

Host a hack event to find creative solutions for your department's or city's challenges.

• Identify new technologies to improve government
• Create collaborative solutions to challenging civic issues
• Build strong relationships with the technology community

CIVIC APP HACKATHON

Hackathons are events that bring people together across all disciplines, to develop solutions to civic challenges. Hacks can range from policy hacks to those that focus on developing technical apps. Get started planning your hackathon with our tips on how to host a hackathon, or learn from previously held events in Joplin, Tampa, Austin.

POLICY HACK

When drafting policy or creating standards for recently passed legislation, host an event where community members and government officials can come together to draft policy. New York City hosted the NYC Open Data Policy Hack Day to get feedback when creating technical standards for its open data law.

Governments collect data on taxes, health services, education, and much more. Opening this data to public use by publishing it online in a standardized format brings benefits to public servants and constituents alike.

• Less time and fewer resources spent handling requests for information on an individual basis.
• Improved government transparency and increased public trust; a survey by the open data company Socrata found that 56% of citizens report that they would trust their government more if they put the majority of government data online.
• Opportunities for civic hackers, journalists, non-profits, and businesses to use the data to build websites and applications for public use. These application help government services run more effectively and often result in public savings. Examples include: The Landlord Watchlist(New York), SweepAround.us(Chicago), and Neighborland(National).

Liberate Department Data

To open data, take these four basic steps:

1. Select the data you want to release
2. Apply an open license
3. Making the data available
4. Publicize it

To take these four steps, check out the Open Knowledge Foundation's comprehensive guide to the process. It’s in plain English so that anyone (techie or not) can understand. Click here!

Create an Open Data Portal

If you’re the head of a department, or can get your department leader onboard, make an open data portal for your department (or, even better, your city!). An open data portal brings all the datasets for a department (or city) together in one centralized place that is accessible to all. This makes it easy for constituents, developers, and other departments to search for the information they need. Data portals are already in use across the United States by 34 states and 15 cities from large (New York: nycopendata.socrata.com) to small (Arvada, Colo.: arvada.org/opendata).

When you’re ready to create your open data portal, follow our six tips for creating an open data portal.

Open government policies lay the framework for building a culture of innovation and openness from the ground up.

Start drafting an open government policy for your city today.

• Catalyze civic innovation and increase transparency with open data policies
• Save money on licensing and redistribution costs with open source procurement policies
• Ensure the ability of systems to consistently and effectively work together with open standards policies
• Build trust with your constituents

Policy Templates

Use these templates and guides to get started drafting open policies for your city. The open government directive is a good place to begin. If you’re city is looking to be more ambitious, Open Impact has provided editable, working documents for an open government resolution and bill. We are excited to collaborate with governments and the public on these model pieces of legislation, so feel free to give feedback.

• Open Government Directive
• Open Government Resolution Template
• Open Government Bill Template

Open government policies include:

• Open Data and Open Standards Language

The open data policy requires departments to publish their data in machine-readable formats and make it available to the public-at-large through a single web portal. It also requires the city to develop open data technical standards, a compliance plan detailing qualifying data, and a timeline to make the data publicly available. This policy also outlines open standards regulations for data.

• Public Records Act

The Public Records Act requires city agencies to publish their records publicly online through a single web portal maintained by the city.

• Open Source Procurement Policy

The open source procurement policy requires agencies to consider open source software when acquiring software. It also requires them to catalogue and share software source code that facilitates the code’s reuse and meets set definitions.

City governments spend billions of dollars each year procuring products and services but systems for attracting vendors and accepting proposals can be confusing, cumbersome, and slow. This can deter new vendors and companies from competing for government business, which causes the city and its citizens to lose out.

Take these six steps to leverage technology to make your procurement process more accessible, transparent, and streamlined.

• Ensure those with the best-fit solutions vie for a city's business
• Increase the number of new vendors finding and submitting proposals
• Make it easier to review and select final vendors

The Mayor’s Office of New Urban Mechanics — initially conceived in Boston and now being replicated in cities across the country — is an organizational model that helps cities innovate by aggregating risk, building partnerships, and encouraging experimentation in government. Projects have ranged from crowdsourcing development of sensor-driven apps to government-to-government resource sharing. This process for civic innovation is one that can adapted by any city. By creating an Office of New Urban Mechanics in your city you can institutionalize a commitment to innovation. Learn more about starting an office of New Urban Mechanics program in your city.