Message from Tom Champion (verbatim)
Jul. 10th, 2008 09:51 pm![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
redcolumbine.livejournal.com posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
davis_squareFrom the beginning, my informal communication via LiveJournal has been problematic for a variety of reasons:
* When am I speaking for myself, and when for the city?
* Am I setting myself up as some alternate channel that competes with legitimate lines of inquiry and process, such as 311? Am I just ego-tripping?
* My "tone" has been questioned on several occasions and I certainly don't want anybody to judge the city by one snarky employee -- especially since I have the responsibility to speak officially for the city as well.
* Twice in as many weeks I have, in a rush to be timely, mis-communicated on important issues, and had to apologize for it.
* My first responsibility at all times is to my friends and colleagues in city government. They're my team and I must never create even the appearance of second-guessing them -- because I'm not. It's simply inappropriate for me to pretend that I can "unofficially" take part in any online community -- even as decent and thoughtful a community as DSLJ.
This was, therefore, a mistake. The InterWebs are tricky places, and we learn as we go.
In future, I think the best way for people to communicate with City Hall is to call or email 311 -- and the best way for City Hall to communicate with DSLJ members is by official announcement only, so I will explore setting up an account for that purpose.
* When am I speaking for myself, and when for the city?
* Am I setting myself up as some alternate channel that competes with legitimate lines of inquiry and process, such as 311? Am I just ego-tripping?
* My "tone" has been questioned on several occasions and I certainly don't want anybody to judge the city by one snarky employee -- especially since I have the responsibility to speak officially for the city as well.
* Twice in as many weeks I have, in a rush to be timely, mis-communicated on important issues, and had to apologize for it.
* My first responsibility at all times is to my friends and colleagues in city government. They're my team and I must never create even the appearance of second-guessing them -- because I'm not. It's simply inappropriate for me to pretend that I can "unofficially" take part in any online community -- even as decent and thoughtful a community as DSLJ.
This was, therefore, a mistake. The InterWebs are tricky places, and we learn as we go.
In future, I think the best way for people to communicate with City Hall is to call or email 311 -- and the best way for City Hall to communicate with DSLJ members is by official announcement only, so I will explore setting up an account for that purpose.
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no subject
Date: 2008-07-11 01:12 pm (UTC)Rather than thinking "Man, that Tom, he's so unprofessional" it actually got me thinking "hey, wouldn't it be cool if the next president would blog about the things going on in the white house?"
Governments of all kinds usually feel so inaccessible and impersonal, and I think that's really a shame when these people are actually elected by us and are supposed to represent our needs.
Also, for the record, it was a LOT easier for me to get other Davis Square residents to join the community when they thought that a city official might be reading what they had to write (and responding personally! Whoa!)