How a Mayor Resists the Core of Government 2.0

Using Steve Radick’s 12 Government 2.0 archetypes, Mayor Richard Howard falls under the lowest rung: Bystander:

You have no interest in Government 2.0 or social media. You’re happy coming to work, doing your job, and going home. You value your work/life balance, and aren’t interested in anything that infringes on that. You’re not opposed to Government 2.0–you might even see the value in it at a holistic level–but you’re just not interested in getting involved.

I don’t think I’m being harsh. How can a mayor refuse to work with computers and not be a Government 2.0 bystander?

Looking at President Barack Obama’s fundraising and campaigning over the past two years that included MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and other social tools, can you imagine if email was not used? How else would the grassroots neighborhood groups have communicated? How would the press be apprised of candidate statements? By facsimile?

Crowdsourcing and public engagement aside, doesn’t an elected official need to have a basic level of computer (and internet) experience to be anything but a bystander in Government 2.0? Moreover, wouldn’t department heads and city councilors want the ability to email the chief executive at a moment’s notice–and not wait until his appointment book is free?

Howard, 56, leads Malden, a 56,000-population city (according to the 2000 Census) located 15 miles north of Boston.

Extracting from the hyperlocal news story:

“It’s sort of like the Tower of Babel,” he said of the online cacophony.

He has an e-mail account for city business, relying on office managers to print urgent messages.

While he sometimes dictates a response via e-mail, Howard prefers phone calls or face-to-face meetings.

“When people are sitting with the mayor, they know this is important,” he said. “I like group meetings, with people comparing notes, ideas across a table.”

That’s all and well but there’s a vast difference between constituent relations around a table or a telephone versus email, instant messaging, Skype conversations, and Twitter.

Maybe he’s a fan of New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine who quit email in 2007.

I’ve never met Mayor Howard–but I wonder if he identifies more with John McCain than now-President Barack Obama. After all, McCain admitted he was computer illiterate:

I don’t get it.

It works because Howard has a razor-sharp mind, according to Medford Mayor Michael McGlynn.

“Bottom line about Mayor Howard is, he’s brilliant and can retain as much in his mind as the rest of us can with a computer,” said McGlynn, a confessed e-mailer who reads Boston.com and the State House News Service online.

Bottom line, with all respect, is the mayor may be brilliant but government is changing. While mayoral resistance is understandable, he needs to try to use new media tools, not ween himself off computers. That’s a step backwards–and if Obama’s landslide victory last November means anything, it should be America is embracing change.

Where is Howard’s technological change? The article indicates he doesn’t care. And that’s a shame.

Related posts:

1. How Obama Ordering a Hamburger is a Lesson and a Warning for Every Chief Executive
2. Case Study: How 11 Mayors use Twitter
3. Stop Spinning Business and Government

Tagged as: Civic Engagement, email, Government

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