The Thicket at State Legislatures

There is a List for That Tweet

by Meagan Dorsch

This month, Twitter unveiled a new feature called Lists. It's a way for you to organize your followers or the people you are following on Twitter. 

The National Conference of State Legislatures tweets daily under NCSLCOMM (this site is operated out of our communications division, hence the COMM) and we have decided to put this new list feature to good use.

On our Twitter page, we have made our "lists" available to our followers. You can now find state legislators, legislative staff, caucuses and NCSL staff on Twitter. We would be remiss if we did not thank NCSL policy staff and the Legislative Information and Communications Staff Section (LINCS) at NCSL for helping us compile these Twitter addresses.

We know that we were not able to capture every state legislator or caucus that is active on Twitter, so this is where your help comes in. Please send us a direct message on Twitter (or reply to this blog) and let us know where to find your lawmaker or staffer.

We hope you enjoy and use our "lists" and we look forward to adding more names in the coming weeks.

Follow NCSL on Twitter and Facebook and Ning!

Town Hall Meetings: Building Trust Online

by Pam Greenberg

Participants in a series of online town hall meetings with members of Congress reported significantly improved trust, agreement, and satisfaction with government.  These online meetings, according to a new report by the Congressional Management Foundation (CMF)  and a team of academic partners, also found that Internet town hall meetings improved constituents’ approval ratings of members of Congress and increased their probability of voting for the member.   

CMF conducted most of the online town hall meetings with small groups of 15-25 constituents, but one with a group of nearly 200 constituents.  The sessions involved a moderator and a Member of Congress who spoke to constituents via Internet audio.  The constituents posed written questions in real time during the meetings. 

The sessions, conducted with a diverse group of citizens, resulted in hundreds of online questions contributing to high quality discussions about immigration and detainee policy issues. The sessions were extremely popular with constituents—96 percent said they would like to be included in similar events in the future. 

State lawmakers in Washington have held many online town hall meetings in recent years, and legislators in California and Virginia have also held internet or web dialogues with citizens. For another take, see "What's Going on with Town Hall Meetings?"

Photo credit: Eliot Kamenitz, The Times-Picayune archive in nola.com

New Surveys Provide Snapshot of Legislators' Use of Social Media

by Pam Greenberg

Tracking the number of legislators using social media tools seems a daunting task.  NCSL's chart lists legislative caucuses and agencies using these sites, and Karl Kurtz has previously blogged about legislators who tweet.  Several recent surveys, however, are providing a bit more data about the popularity of these sites among lawmakers. 

More than half of Illinois Senators and close to half of House members are using the social media site Facebook, according to a recent detailed survey by Chicago public relations firm Kathy Schaeffer & Associates, Inc.  The detailed results show a smaller number using Twitter, YouTube, or LinkedIn, the business-oriented social networking site.

A survey earlier in 2009, by the Illinois Technology Partnership (ITP), asked Illinois legislators if they used any social networking sites.  About 20 percent responded, and of those, about 30 percent indicated they frequently use these sites, and about nineteen percent said they use them occasionally. Twenty-five percent indicated they did not use social media, but were interested to learn more, but another 25 percent said social networking does not interest them.

Making Data (and Words) Fun

by Gene Rose

Policymakers deal with data on a daily basis. Every now and then, someone applies some creativity to that data and produces a fun and engaging product. A good example of this is a site called Congress Speaks.

A design firm named Periscopic got access to all the words spoken by members of 110th Congress (2007-2008).  Through a clever use of animation, design and interactive features, the company created a thoroughly captivating site that can be used for simple enjoyment or political analysis.

Thanks to the site, I know that former NCSL President Jim Costa, who represents California's 20th Congressional district, spoke 23,141 words on the floor of the U.S. House. Former Florida House Speaker Tom Feeney, who now represents Florida's 24th Congressional district, spoke 11,710 words.

Imagine the match-ups you can create: Barack Obama vs. Hillary Clinton; John McCain vs. Ronald Paul; Rahm Emanuel vs. Nancy Pelosi; and the state of California vs. the state of New York.

The site gives you not only the word count, but also displays the ranking on where each individual (or state) ranks comparatively. The detail box that pops up also provides information on voting records, including how many times they voted "yes" or "no" and how often they voted with their own party.

My favorite part is the tag cloud, which gives a visual representation on what words the Congressman (or state) used the most. For Rep. Costa, "California" and "Fresno" were the two most used words in his remarks, while also frequently mentioning crime, community and energy. For Rep. Feeney, the top two were "space" and "NASA," along with research, science and world. Their word choices reflects the districts they represent and the concerns of their constituents.

The site is a good lesson for legislatures, legislators and public information officers who are seeking ways to engage their citizens. By taking some fairly simple data, Periscopic has given the public an engaging tool to gain some insight to members of Congress.

Take a spin on the site. Let us know your favorite matchups and what you like about the site. And see if you can discover who spoke the most words.

Experiments in Social Media

by Gene Rose

Last week, three of NCSL's staff sections met in Austin, Texas, for their annual professional development seminars. State legislative staff representing public information, leadership and information technology sectors met to discuss key issues and trends in their chosen fields.

For the public information officers, much of the conference--including a one-day boot camp--focused on social media outreach. While recognizing there is significant resistance to 140-character conversations in the state legislative realm, there was even a greater sense that this new method of communication is being embraced by a significant number of legislators, staff and constituents. And, most agreed, those that don't recognize it as a critical communications tool are choosing to ignore an important audience.

NCSL staff decided to experiment on site to see what kind of response we would get by using social media to communicate with attendees and those who could not be in Austin to join us.

First, using a $100 video camera, we conducted more than 20 video interviews with faculty and attendees on site and posted them on our NCSL Facebook page. We heard  from some legislative staff who could not attend the meeting, wishing they could be there to share in the learning opportunities that the attendees highlighted. And the speakers really appreciated being interviewed, with many of them choosing to take the videos and post them on their own websites or Facebook pages.

Second, we announced that attendees and faculty use Twitter during the meeting. We set up a special hashtag (a set of characters that allows anyone online to follow what is being written about during the meeting) and encouraged its use. The #ncsl20 hashtag generated dozens of comments, including from people that could not attend the meeting.

All of this was done with minimal investment and a relatively low amount of staff time. The payoff--increased interest in the meeting and creating greater interaction between attendees, faculty and non-attendees--seems to have been well worth the effort.

We believe our experiments were successful and welcome suggestions to engage NCSL audiences--both on and off site--at future meetings. Share your thoughts in the comments link below.

The Buzz: From the Statehouse Press Corps

 By Michelle Blackston

(This is the first in a series of interviews with statehouse reporters and editors)

By all accounts, the news media is experiencing a dramatic upheaval. And statehouses have not been spared. According to a recent article in the American Journalism Review there are only 355 full-time newspaper reporters at the nation's state capitols, a 32 percent drop from six years ago.

I recently attended the national Capitolbeat conference for statehouse reporters. Since many of them are seeing first hand their state bureaus diminishing in size and capacity, I wanted to find out about the changing nature of their jobs and the coverage of statehouses across the country. As more on-line news organizations including bloggers are covering state legislatures, I wanted to know how social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter are affecting news coverage.   

In this edition of the The Buzz, I chat with the Political Editor of the Dallas Morning News Ryan Rusak to learn more about the coverage from Austin. Click here to listen now!

Virtual Doodling at Legislative Summit

by Pam Greenberg

Each year at NCSL’s Legislative Summit, the various staff sections and committees independently select  the topics that will be covered in the sessions they sponsor. Lately, it seems the technology-related sessions run in three’s. One year there were three sessions about e-mail and public records. This year it’s social media. Technology, of course, intersects with many different subject areas—criminal justice, health  care, education—just to name a few. But technology now is also part of every session: our audience members  have laptops, Blackberries, and smart devices.  They are emailing, blogging and Facebooking and Twittering…during the sessions.

As someone who was brought up to listen politely and never interrupt, I’ve always been slightly uncomfortable when audience members talk during someone’s presentation, when someone gets up and walks out in the middle, or when a cell phone rings (and I’ve been guilty of each of these!). So I found danah boyd’s latest blog entry about how she uses various digital devices at conferences particularly interesting to read during the Legislative Summit.

danah boyd, a researcher at Microsoft Research New England  and a Fellow at the Harvard Berkman Center for Internet and Society, is one of the most interesting people writing about social networks.  She is outspoken and can be controversial, but if you are interested in social networking, read her dissertation, Taken Out of Context: American Teen Sociality in Networked Publics, some of her papers, and her notes from talks she’s given, like this one about the "The Not-So-Hidden Politics of Class Online."

And as you attend Legislative Summit sessions, whether in person, via Twitter or by listening to audio and video recordings back home, go ahead and check your Blackberry…or maybe just doodle.

The World is Listening

by Meagan Dorsch

"Tiananmen + Twitter = Tehran."

This was a comment a blogger made about the weekend elections in Iran and picked up by the Christian Science Monitor in a recent article. 

The media has been apparently cautioned about covering protests against Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's declared victory and possible election fraud. Many reporters, citizen journalists and Iranians immediately turned to blogs and Twitter to spread information about events on the ground. 

Apparently, the Iranian government tried to shut down access to the internet and the Twitter site. Twitter also postponed scheduled maintenance on its site (which would have taken Twitter off-line) to keep the service available during the political events in Iran.

Still today on Twitter, the top two items people are following are #IranElection and Tehran. The world is still listening.

Lesson for States? Feds Ask Public to Come Inside and Look Around

by Gene Rose

Have you ever criticized the efficiency of the federal government? And have you sometimes felt you couldn't do anything about it? Well, now's the chance to put your money where your mouth is. You have until Thursday to take part in a national brainstorming session.

The New York Times' Katharine Q. Seelye provides a great synopsis of the Obama administration's efforts to open up government databases and how the public can weigh in on making the federal bureaucracy more efficient.

State legislative leaders may find this a model to engage citizens in the budget dialogue, especially during the extraordinary budget times we live in now. As we all know, it's easier to complain than it is to actually get involved. But, if government never asks, then it's hard to criticize the complainers.

If your state is taking an active approach to engaging citizens and making your agencies more transparent, let us know by leaving a comment below.

Legislative Websites Branching Out

by Pam Greenberg

The New York Senate earlier this month launched a new website with the goals of transparency, openness and participation. It includes a blog, YouTube videos, news feeds, and links (with a popup disclaimer) to Facebook and Twitter for the Senate and for individual senators.  The site is a leap forward for New York state government online information services and compares favorably with innovations in legislative websites around the country. 

One of the more interesting features of the site is its Legislation Markup section, which allows the public to comment on selected bills under consideration.  This feature is similar to the Nevada Legislature's Online Opinion Poll, which allows citizens to submit comments about, vote for or against all bills being considered, and view others' comments anonymously.

Another initiative of the New York Senate Site is the use of crowdsourcing tools:

Crowdsourcing tools leverage the "wisdom of crowds." By creating a forum where large numbers of people can submit ideas and vote on them, a crowdsourcing application can gather new ideas from beyond the walls of the Capitol to make the Senate a more effective lawmaking body. Crowdsourcing will be used by the Senate's Policy group to tap into the public to generate ideas and feedback on certain legislation. By doing so, the Senate will encourage citizen participation in the legislative process.  The Senate's first crowdsourcing topic is about property taxes.