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20 January 2007

Government Social Software - SNS in Japan Part III: Some observations

In today's entry I would like to make some comments on the two Japanes local government SNS case studies (Yatsushiro / Nagaoka) I presented earlier.

Mr. Kobayashi, the member of Yatsushiro's IT department, has a key role for the future development and functionalities of the SNS platform. He started this local SNS completely on his own, inspired by the rise of private social networking platforms and personal interest in technology. His government membership and high level of personal involvement ensure the sustainability of “Gorotto Yatchiro”. By comparison, “Ococo Nagaoka” is managed by an actor outside of government. The NPO, although well connected, has less leverage on the level government support and involvement. Government officials reportedly evaluate success by the quantity of users which influences their willingness of support. Therefore, "Ococo Nagaoka" is in a critical state (only 600-700 users).

Many online activities (i.e. exchanges) are depending on a critical mass for others to be attractive, a criteria which has not been met in both cases (1%< of the total population) and both mostly exclude older generations. In addition, both are competing with big platforms like Mixi.

If the local SNS has more users, the load on technology and burden on involved managers will also grow. Mr. Kobayashi would not be able to monitor user behavior without further help if that happens. Although officials claim to learn something from citizens, there is nobody checking the information in the citizens' blogs.
Mr. Kobayashi is right when pointing to the importance taking a gradual approach of getting more users and introducing the platform. However, government marketing is not helping much and poorly done which reminded me of discussions with administrators who were wondering about the slow user uptake in their eGovernment projects.

Although Mr. Kobayashi added the map feature, functionality and design of existing platforms led to an early framing of his understanding of the possibilities and limits of local SNS. The lack of feedback by other people in the creation process is certainly a reason why its use in disaster or the government citizen relationship is not fully exploited. Administrative members would also be more willing to join, add content and engage with the citizen if there would be a considerable and visible amount of support by executive level administrators. Again, Mixi and Gree formed their perception of SNS so that in their words local SNS is mainly a way to interact with the public and offer it a way to interact with each other. They miss the aspect of building social capital.

Moreover, MIC should have planned a longer pilot phase since the tendency of a slow user uptake was already visible in the data for Yatsushiro. Central government is still influential in Japan so MIC could have also done more to inform and motivate the public and administrators alike.

Posted by Alexander Schellong at January 20, 2007 12:10 AM

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• Business (2)
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• Citizen Relationship Management (13)
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• Commentary (5)
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• Complexity (2)
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• Current Trends (40)
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• eGovernment (15)
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• Events/Announcements (51)
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• Innovation (12)
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• Internet (14)
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• Knowledge Sharing (16)
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• Methodology (28)
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• Networked Governance (14)
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• Networks in political science (1)
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• PNG Working Paper Series (6)
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• Powerlaws (4)
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• Reviews (2)
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• Simulations (1)
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• Small group networks (3)
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• Small Worlds (2)
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• SN in the news (56)
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• Social Capital (2)
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• Social Computing (9)
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• Social Finance (1)
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• Social Networking Platforms (8)
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• Social Psychology (2)
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• Social Software (22)
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• Societal Networks (33)
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• Technology (27)

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Posted by: david osimo at January 24, 2007 7:41 AM

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