Egm report e-Government and New Technologies: Towards Better Citizen

5.  Social media applications 

The newest e-government offerings and applications center on social media applications 

such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. Originally developed solely for individuals social 

media sites now also cater to businesses, and more recently governments as a new means of 

reaching out to customers and citizens respectively. Applications such as Twitter have played 

key roles in alerting citizens to local emergencies. The pros are that millions of citizens 

routinely visit and participate in such sites and may be more likely to do so than visit a 

government website. Such sites encourage two way interactions. Most of the social media 

sites operate mostly for free and therefore the hosting of the application is done by a third-

party. Cons include many governments are ill-equipped to handle social media sites in terms 

of content, monitoring and being able to respond quickly to postings of any kind. Social 

media sites are not always free from cyber-attacks and can always be as reliable as other 

technology platforms.  

Throughout the Meeting, the expert panelist’s presentations and discussions pointed 

toward the need for continued research and work in the area of the evolving e-government 

initiatives and now citizen engagement applications – not as a luxury but as a necessity in 

trying to earn and restore public trust in government. Overall there are six general categories 

that require further research and information sharing, they are: 

1.  Public administration capacity building and strategic planning. 

2.  Policies & procedures on social media sites usage, benchmarking, etc. 

3.  Policies and procedures for managing citizen expectations.  

4.  Best practices for citizen engagement applications. 

5.  Technology advancements reporting.  

6.  E-government and social media international law. (Digital signatures, security, 

 

authentication, identity, content, payments, privacy, terms of service, etc.)  

The expert panelists were in complete agreement that much more work is required. The 

needs of citizens pertaining to e-government and citizen engagement have been well 

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documented, however, the barriers toward innovation is entirely new and requires a new and 

expanded focus. Perhaps the most alluring of all the citizen engagement platforms resides in 

what devices the most number of citizens have and use. Following and engaging the citizen is 

the new imperative and it is more likely to be successful when it is done on a preferred device 

that a citizen carries and uses daily, thus making mobile government (m-government) the new 

frontier.  

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