Towns, cities, developers, business leaders and activists should seize the communication opportunities available in social media to collaboratively and cooperatively plan their economic futures.

I recently blogged about how Boston World Partnerships is developing a social media approach to facilitate connections between "movers and shakers" in Boston and globally promote the city. I subsequently chatted with Eric Schoenfeld and got a better sense of how they are in the process of preparing to launch what will be a resource and affinity network--like an alumni network for the city. It could connect all those who identify with the creative and intellectual "gravitas" that is Boston in a way that fosters collaboration and cooperation. I see this project as a way to address the criticisms and comparisons of the culture of the past--most notably the Saxenian appraisal of why Silicon Valley beat Boston in the 90s race to be a technology capital.

Follow up:

That's big picture stuff. But there is a great deal that can be done right now by individual players to improve the lines of communication and thereby make growth more manageable. Social media is all about conversations. In the business context, it is about using new tools like blogs, wikis, facebook, and twitter to converse with customers. But in the local government context it is about resident and business constituencies.

We have a chronic problem with communication. Elected officials feel attacked by activists. Activists feel like the government ignores and disrespects them. Other residents just grow tired of hearing about it all. And developers and businesses are universally suspect as presumably only profit-motivated. Politics is viewed as a game to be played in secret with winners and losers determined by money and connections. In such a cynical world there is no trust. Without trust, there can be no collaboration and no cooperative work for the "common good." I think we can do better.

• I encouraged the developer of Westwood Station, to post to WestwoodBlog, and while it is not a full-blown "conversation," I am glad to see a couple of articles addressing resident concerns about cost-cutting and rental properties.
• Back at our last town meeting, we had a controversy over alcohol licensing and issues of fairness with respect to local grocery store chain Roche Brothers. CEO Rick Roche posted several times to the blog and responded to questions from residents.
• During our town election, I set up the Selectman candidates to blog and conducted podcast interviews with them.

These were small steps and I believe more conversations like these can help us move closer to a more transparent and trustworthy engagement between people in town. I think that kind of trust--even a contentious but working relationship--can make governance, development, and growth better. How?

• An ongoing blog, email newsletters, short videos, and photos of development progress would engage the residents in changes that are happening. Short periodic updates--with the opportunity for residents to comment--could demonstrate a serious commitment to listen to the needs of the community on an ongoing basis. The newsletters and website now are one-way communications that have been carefully polished to pitch a message--I'm talking about something a lot messier. The value is not only in the information, it is in the openness of the process and the willingness to potentially make mistakes and then have to react. There is an additional advantage to the developer as well: Other communities are following the activities of the developer and "girding" for their own fights. If the dialog between residents and developer were published for all to see, it would speak volumes of whether words matched actions.
• Roche Brothers has a strong, positive reputation in the community because they help just about every local organization in some way or another. Rather than simply tell that story or convince others to repeat it, Roche Brothers could look for ways to connect with residents online. No supermarket I know of has an official blog or facebook page, but there are informal facebook groups of Wegmans fans (15,000+ members) and blogs like We Love Wegmans and Wegmans Wire. I don't know that an official group would be useful, but perhaps monitoring and participating individually is the best approach for now.
• I believe there is a sense among elected officials that residents who are upset about decisions are partly to blame because they don't bother attending the right meeting. People show up at Town Meeting and want to amend an article--they are told that it is too late; they should have gone to the FinCom meeting. But mostly, people just don't know what is going on and so they assume the worst.
  
  What if one or more of our selectmen blogged regularly? Not the long-winded things I write, but just a couple paragraphs a week? What if they responded to things that were posted online as Selectwoman Sarah McDonald did in Dedham recently. What if they read neighboring town blogs and discovered, a month in advance, issues that were likely to affect our town such as Dedham's Adult Entertainment district on our border?

Social media is a very new field...there is no clear blueprint of how and what the "correct" strategy for towns and businesses is. But there are definitely new opportunities emerging to connect with people in constructive ways that increase transparency and provide opportunities for conversations instead of secrecy and misunderstanding.