[The following is the event notice from Third Tuesday Ottawa]

Third Tuesday is back with another blockbuster speaker: President of the Treasury Board, Tony Clement on Tuesday, February 7^th at the National Arts Centre.

Tony Clement is well-known as a politician who maintains an active Twitter presence, sharing what is on his mind and what he’s doing, and engaging in conversations with Canadians.

Tony Clement is also the President of the Treasury Board of Canada. That puts him in charge of Canada’s public service and makes him responsible for setting the standards and rules by which social media is being introduced into the Government of Canada.

As a Minister, Clement has pushed forward with initiatives to enable Canada’s public servants to use social media in the workplace and a broader initiative to introduce open government principles to the Government of Canada.

In just the past three months, Mr. Clement

• unveiled the Guideline for External Use of Web 2.0, the reference document that will be used by Canadian Public Servants in determining whether and how they should use social media in the workplace.
• announced that completed access to information requests now will be posted online.
• announced the addition of 4,000 data sets to the Open Data Portal.
• initiated a public consultation on Open Government. (The consultation closed in mid-January and the Treasury Board site promises that a final report on the findings will be posted in March 2012.)
• participated in a Twitter Chat on Open Government to give people a chance to raise issues, ask questions and engage with him online.

That’s a lot of action in a short period of time. But, what’s happening now? How are the Web 2.0 Guidelines being applied by Canadian public servants? What did Canadians tell the Minister during the consultation? What’s on the agenda for 2012?

Third Tuesday participants will get a chance in February to ask these questions and talk directly to the Minister when he appears as our featured guest.

If you’re interested in open government and the use of social media by government, this session will be of real interest to you. I’m looking forward to a great evening of discussion with a man who has matched his actions to his convictions. I hope to see you there.

Thank you to our sponsors

Third Tuesday is a community-oriented, volunteer-driven event. And we wouldn’t be able to bring great speakers to Third Tuesdays across the country without the support of some like-minded sponsors. We’ve been lucky to have some great companies step up over the past several years to help us make Third Tuesday happen. Big thanks are due to CNW Group, Rogers Communications, Canadian Internet Registration Authority, Radian6 and Cision Canada for making the 2011/12 Third Tuesday season possible.

Student Admission

We want students to be able to participate. So, if you’re a student, simply present your valid student ID at the registration desk and we’ll refund your admission fee. Courtesy of Thornley Fallis.

As per my previous post, on January 27th, my son Peyton and I will be participating in the Ottawa Senators Foundation first ever Energizer Night Skate along the Rideau Canal as part of the NHL All-Star Weekend. Thousands of skaters wearing Energizer LED Headlights will light up the Canal as they skate 5km from Somerset Street to Bank Street and back.

All funds raised from this event will assist the Senators Foundation (the sole benefactor) with their plans to construct outdoor, NHL sized ice rinks in priority neighbourhoods throughout eastern Ontario and western Quebec.

So far, thanks to the generous contributions of friends, family and colleagues, Peyton has raised $505 and is listed as the second highest fundraiser on the Energizer Night Skate website. Having raised roughly half of that amount ($275), I am accepting defeat and throwing support behind my 3 year old. I encourage you to do the same.  You can donate to the Sens Foundation through Peyton here:  http://energizernightskate.kintera.org/faf/donorReg/donorPledge.asp?ievent=1003640&supId=350029343.

This is a great project targeted at providing under privileged children and youth in our region with access to the sport of hockey and increased recreational opportunities in their neighbourhoods.

Any amount you are able to contribute would be greatly appreciated and help the Sens Foundation achieve their goal for this fundraiser.

On January 27th, my son Peyton and I will be participating in the Ottawa Senators Foundation first ever Energizer Night Skate along the Rideau Canal as part of the NHL All-Star Weekend. Thousands of skaters wearing Energizer LED Headlights will light up the Canal as they skate 5km from Somerset Street to Bank Street and back.

All funds raised from this event will assist the Senators Foundation (the sole benefactor) with their plans to construct outdoor, natural NHL sized ice rinks in priority neighbourhoods throughout eastern Ontario and western Quebec.

The Senators Foundation believes in creating community resources, delivering programs and funding charitable organizations that provide healthy and safe sport & recreation opportunities to children and youth so they learn and grow outside of school hours.

You can show your support for this initiative by sponsoring me here: http://energizernightskate.kintera.org/faf/donorReg/donorPledge.asp?ievent=1003640&supId=350029343

If you don’t like me (highly possible), but still want to support the initiative, you can sponsor my son Peyton, who is 3 and will spend more time in a stroller than skating, here: http://energizernightskate.kintera.org/faf/donorReg/donorPledge.asp?ievent=1003640&supId=350029344

Any contribution you can make is greatly appreciated.

Thank you for supporting this great community initiative by the Senators Foundation.

If you work in the field of consultations, public involvement or communications, chances are you are being asked to deliver an online consultation program. Welcome to the field of online public engagement – where communications and public consultation come together.

As a practitioner and presenter on the practice of “Online Public Engagement”, I thought it worthwhile to share the ideas and feedback gathered over the course of numerous presentations and discussions. This is a new and emerging field, and I would appreciate your feedback over the course of the journey.

First, let’s focus on a working definition of “online public engagement”.

A few thoughts on context

Before defining the concept, it’s best to start with the context surrounding communications and public consultations in a connected society. With social media and online news media, people now have the capability to easily and cost-effectively express their ideas and opinions about public issues that matter to them. They do this on their blogs, on community association discussion forums, on local newspaper website, or on the myriad of social networking sites available to them. If they are unhappy with an organization’s consultation process, they can mobilize online and set-up their own consultation.

What does this mean for consultation leaders and communicators?

Consultation leaders and communicators tasked with seeking public input need to understand two things about online public engagement. The first is that conversations about their issues are happening in social media and will be shared in online news media. The second is that if they want to engage people, they need to use the tools and methodologies to sync with society’s current communications and public participation habits. The upside of both of these is that they provide rich listening, learning and engagement opportunities.

A working definition of online public engagement

In light of this, I propose a working definition of online public engagement to be “the use of digital communications tools and public engagement methodologies to involve people in public consultation processes”.

Next up, the public engagement ecosystem

My next post will focus on a description of the constituent parts of the public engagement ecosystem – the pieces in the puzzle. If you would like a copy of the presentation, you can find it here on slideshare or you can send me a note and I will gladly share it.