Municipalist

Twittering Congress and L.A. Fire Department

FCW.com here on Twittering members of Congress. FCW links to a piece at PC World.com on how the Los Angeles Fire Department uses Twitter. It is intriguing stuff. Lots of links to read more. Municipalist linked to coverage of these developments in November 2007.

L.A. Fire Department blog loves Web 2.0

The Los Angeles Fire Department blog has to be the best of its type anywhere. Full of newsy, L.A.-related items throughout the day, as well as plenty of safety and health information.

These people enthusiastically embrace Internet technology, such as Twitter and Blog Talk Radio. Example: Want to receive breaking LAFD news via email or cell phone? Governing Magazine has a good profile here.

San Jose earthquake rocks mayor's house. Mayor does not bother to blog about it. Film at 11.

Rumbling through Northern California Tuesday was the strongest earthquake to hit Northern California since the quake of 1989, which killed 62 people. It turns out that the home of San Jose's mayor was close to the Tuesday quake's epicenter, according to news reports. The complicated technical term for this is a blog opportunity.

Blog opportunity -- A conflux of personal experience with broader news or issue implications. This mayor needs a quick lesson in this. Go to the mayor's site, and there is no blog. Actually, there is no reference whatever to the earthquake. This in the city which calls itself "Capital of Silicon Valley."

(Thankfully, no deaths were reported this time, just a lot of jolted nerves, apparently. But Tuesday's quake has produced 30 aftershockss.)

For inspiration, perhaps the mayor could check out the blog of the San Jose Fire Department. Full of photos, the blog covers a variety of important issues from fire season safety to the dangers of fireworks. One problem: It has not been updated since July 26.

That's a big problem. But again, as with the city's mayor, a stunning blog opportunity has landed in your lap:

By sheer coincidence, the San Jose Fire Department is launching a long-planned series of earthquake drills today to prepare for when the big one hits.

"Basically we practice, 'how do you run a city if the system collapses,' " said Battalion Chief Kevin Conant.

His station, the downtown Station One on Market Street, will be one of many sites today through Friday that will practice the city's official earthquake response plan.

So SJFD already has its own fire department blog, it is readying earthquake drills, and then a real earthquake hits. Blog about it!

Municipalist admits this may be the journalist in him. Or blogger. Nevertheless, these are great opportunities for public officials/employees to explore compelling news and situations from a front row seat. When mainstream media does it, too often it is one step removed. Mayors and fire fighters are not journalists. They don't think this way. Cities the size of San Jose have public information and media relations pros whose job it is to leap when such obvious and important storytelling opportunities present themselves. Admittedly, it may be that earthquakes, seen as shocking events to the rest of us, are but facts of life in California. Either way: Mayor, get your own blog. We want to read it. Your constituents would too. The San Jose Mercury News was basically a leader in the first generation of online newspapers. The city it covers is way behind.

Cutting through the smoke: Why no blogs among San Diego government agencies?

As Municipalist hunts away for examples of decent government-based blogs focusing on the Southern California wildfires, he realizes this: It is a Web 1.0 world out there still for most of these sites. Good local government blogs and sites that push engagement and interactivity are rare. Many of these sites work hard to provide plenty of information. But they are clunky, poorly designed, and too often they ignore including basic tools to encourage participation and information sharing from users. One example is the San Diego County Emergency Homepage, where a decent effort has been made to update citizens on evacuations, etc., but the whole thing seems stuck in some late '90s context. Meaning: Lots of stuff to click to and read. Stacks of PDF files and Word (!) documents that can be printed out.

But are there any places where readers themselves can contribute and share information, or have discussions, or have their questions answered by experts? Nope.

A section called "Breaking News Briefs" is slightly like a blog, but posts are not detailed enough. And no comments. And no way to search, say, for info on my town or neighborhood or address. Google Maps are made use of, and that is a great idea. But the best sites across the Web of today are figuring out how to tap into the knowledge of users. The efforts of many countless municipal, state, and federal employees in Southern California have been heroic, no doubt. But this site fails to get the job done.

Similarly, the site of San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders is packed with plenty of PDF files to download. Get a blog, Jerry. It's a great way to build a dialogue with your city.

Municipalist is confident that good government blogs are out there focusing on the fire. The hunt continues.

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Nov. 2, 2007 UPDATE: The blog at New Communications Review reports that social networking sites were all over the California wildfires:

The Los Angeles Fire Department posted frequent updates and information like tips for donating to the fire victims on Twitter. More than 800 photos of the wildfires are available to view on Flickr.com, and San Diego’s TV station News 8 replaced its original site with a rolling news blog linking to YouTube videos of its key reports and Google Maps