Introducing Web 2.0 to Your Organization: Create Opportunities

City of Ottawa Case Study: Part 3 of 4

Introducing Web 2.0 applications for staff at the City of Ottawa required educating and building interest, experimenting and seizing opportunities as they appeared. Once enough support was established, the e-Media team was ready to look for an opportunity to present the value of web 2.0/social media to a wider audience within the organization.

The e-Media Team looked for a proof-of-concept project to showcase the value of social media in the work setting. They needed a high-profile, influential team within the city that could use social media tools and then introduce what they learned to other teams within the city.

In their research they had come across the San Francisco emergency plan site for residents (see here 72hours.org). This proved the spark for the proof of concept project , developed with the Office of Emergency Management: tooling up the Search and Rescue Team, which was about to be launched. The Search and Rescue team is to be a cross-functional team of up to 100 people from different units within the Office of Emergency Management, able to respond effectively to any search and rescue requirement within the City of Ottawa and to collaborate with outside agencies as needed.  The team needs to be knowledgeable about global best practices and be current on emergencies happening anywhere in the world. Here are some of the applications of social media for this team:

• An RSS feed will allow team members to be aware of any and all emergencies happening any where in the world  communicated not only via traditional media, but also via blogs, Twitter, You Tube, etc.
• A blog will allow the manager of the Search and Rescue team to communicate with team members and for team members to respond through comments on the blog.
• A wiki will allow team members to collaborate on projects more effectively.

The Search and Rescue manager estimates that these tools will shorten the start up phase from 9 to 3 months. Chris Wightman, manager of the e-Media team, described some other benefits he expects to see as a result of this team’s use of social media tools:

• Cost savings will accrue through a variety of means, including:  shortening the time it takes to get up and running, time saved by staff lessening the number of face-to-face meetings they will need to attend (a particularly inefficient use of time for team of people who are dispersed across the city), and greater efficiencies from being able to collaborate using web-based collaboration tools.
• All team members will be able to find information they need more easily as up to date documents and research completed by team members will no longer be lost in people’s email attachments;
• New team members will be able to integrate themselves to the culture of the team by reading through comments on the blog and other sources of online interaction. They will learn about  team members’ opinions and also get some insight into their personalities; how they think, react and their perspective on things.

The web 2.0 initiative at the City of Ottawa has gained momentum with a small team willing to experiment and to take risks, alert to opportunities as they present themselves. Along the way, however, the team has encountered and overcome roadblocks, presented in the next post: Web 2.0 Strategy: Overcoming Resistance.