Government

Yesterday the Prime Minister’s office posted a video of a conversation between Mark Zuckerberg and the David Cameron, the new U.K. prime minister, discussing a new initiative to engage citizens for ideas on reducing the country’s deficit. While it’s interesting to see the country engage its citizens I can only imagine the types of comments that will show up on the page. Despite the challenges, I wouldn’t be surprised to see a custom application that lets people vote or submit ideas in a more formal manner.
Read more

More people are not only using Facebook but becoming actively involved reading, engaging, and voicing opinions over user policy changes daily. The level of participation has exponentially grown and often Facebook has taken into account the thoughts of its users, like a true democracy, and adjusted settings as necessary.
Read more

Traffic in New York or LA might be pretty bad during rush hour, but it’s nothing compared to the congested streets of New Delhi. To get citizens involved in assessing the increasingly problematic streets – which often feature bicycles squeezing in between cars and pedestrians zig-zagging in between three-wheelers and over-stuffed buses – the Delhi Traffic Police has created a fan page on Facebook. It might sound far-fetched, but it appears as though citizens are actually using the page to communicate their grievances, suggestions, and engage in a two-way conversation with the people responsible for shortening their daily commutes.
Read more