Government-to-Citizen Communication Matters

I think it's only worth having a blog if you have something to say and some purpose. This blog is not about me or my life, it is about improving government's ability to communicate with the public. Do you think that's a worthwhile purpose for a blog? More importantly, do you think it stands any chance of earning an audience? I'd be interested to hear from you.

I am passionate about helping citizens and public servants through my work.

Government "by the people" requires that people, citizens, are aware of government's activities and understand government's mission and services.

Working for the government is more meaningful and more productive when the public understands the work government is doing.

In this age of 24/7 news coverage, there are hundreds of "sources," but there is only one original source for every story. To be truly informed citizens, we must be able to hear the news about our government directly from the government itself. For the government to be effective, it must be able to reach citizens not only through the news media, but also through direct channels.

I am the co-founder and CEO of a company called GovDelivery that works with over 100 government entities and helps them communicate directly with the public using personal e-mail alerts and other channels (wireless messages and RSS feeds). I am proud that government sends millions of valuable e-mails every month through our service. Each of these e-mails from one government body or another directly to a citizen is important whether it alerts the citizen to crime reports in her neighborhood, new services available from a State agency, or a national health program launched by the CDC.

This blog is a forum to discuss government communication with the public. I will share information about GovDelivery and our work in the public sector, and I will seek feedback on our work so we can improve.

I will also share what I learn from working with our public sector clients on their communication issues. I hope to pull from the many passionate public sector employees I work with every week to bring some of the most interesting ideas, challenges, and opportunities into this discussion.

My objective and the mission of this blog is to help government communicate more effectively with the public.