The person in this video is Robin Gibb, the Press Secretary for the incoming US Administration. Press play and he will answer a short number of questions about President-Elect Obama's plans. These questions were posed by members of the public on the transition web site change.gov and then voted on by visitors to the site. The top questions then get answered. They call this "Open for Questions".
This is the second round of "Open for Questions". Following the first round responses were published in text on a web site. Following this second round, Mr Gibb answers them in public.
There are spin off benefits too: the range of questions asked and the spread of votes gives the administration a good handle on the concerns of the engaged public and all for free.
It's neat, easy to understand, and really quite an attractive way to manage relations with engaged stakeholders. It would be easy for a large number of organisations to do this. Local authorities could run a monthly "ask the Leader (or Cabinet)" programme. Housing Associations could enable tenants to "Ask the Board", Health Trusts, the Police, the list goes on.
It would have to be adopted for local conditions. Over 4,000,000 votes were received in this second round: the average UK local authority might generate 0. But pitched right and with some investment to make it simple to use it could be an important tool. Not the only tool, but a useful one.
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1 comments:
It's a really good idea, but while watching it I kept thinking how much better it would be if the President Elect was doing the talking. I'm all for the guy having a holiday before taking office but if he had broken off from the golf for long enough to give the answers himself it would have been much more effective.
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