Like: Züri 2.0

Social media has arrived in public administration. At the beginning of 2011, the canton of Zurich launched a one-year e-government pilot phase: the canton on Facebook (http://www.facebook. com/KantonZuerich) and Twitter (@kantonzuerich). The canton hopes to gain better access to the population through these two presences - at a level where citizens already actively exchange information. In this way, they want to reach us citizens quickly and easily, since many of us can no longer imagine life without social networks and visit them several times a day. I'm certainly not the only one. Facebook and Twitter have made it easier to publicize events. Media conferences are live online. Media releases are posted online. Votes are announced and explained, and the associated documents can also be found online. Government council resolutions are announced so that people can stumble across them even if they would otherwise hardly be interested. Inquiries or suggestions can be made more easily. But the most exciting idea in this project is that social media tools can be used in more complex situations, such as crises or emergencies, where speed and timeliness can be used as a strength. It is important that the canton has a well thought out strategy in this case.

Zurich wants to present itself as a canton that is open to the future, modern and attractive for tourism and business. For this reason - and also for the multicultural population - there is a choice between the languages German, English and French. This pilot phase is intended to find out whether the networks are being used and whether it is worthwhile to continue working at these levels or even to expand them.

Well, just the fact that such a pilot was launched is commendable. How could you make the site even more webbable? By giving the two accounts a face. Like they do in New York, for example. You see, The Big Apple has its own social media manager, a pretty twenty-seven-year-old named @Rachel- Sterne. She's appointed by the mayor with the goal of making government more user-friendly, i.e., improving communication between the administration and the public. Miss Sterne works closely with the different areas of the administration and, in her own words, wants to make the greatest city in the world the most innovative city online, through mobile technologies that improve the quality of services and help citizens.

Therefore, dear Zurichers, follow, tweet and post with us so that we can seize this opportunity! Because what is true for NYC is also true for us. And I don't mean that ironically at all. Online democratization as support for offline democracy.