West Des Moines, Iowa, residents are busy. As in most towns, public meetings elicit low attendance. Even when elected officials make an extra effort to attend meetings and talk with their constituents, they do not see a large turnout. When City Manager Jeff Pomeranz realized that discussing local issues face-to-face with the community was not really working, he decided to start a virtual discussion “to communicate with residents on their own time,” he says.

Pomeranz launched a blog in February 2006. “My incentive for blogging is to communicate with citizens on a less formal level,” he says. “I consider having informed residents who understand the different functions of a city to be extremely important.”

Through his blog, Pomeranz has finally found a way to engage large numbers of his constituents and not only keep them informed, but allow them to ask questions and make suggestions. For example, in June 2006, Pomeranz wrote a blog entry about the city's accident analysis reports. “In response to that, a reader inquired about traffic signal delays and why traffic detection isn't always used even though it's possible at every intersection,” he says. “I explained what it takes to coordinate a large traffic system and that sometimes, even when a traffic sensor detects you, it is working with other sensors to move traffic down a larger roadway. In response to that entry, a citizen questioned why the city does not use yellow-red flashing signals when traffic volumes are low. I was able to respond to that question as well. [We had] a good conversation about our city's traffic system on my blog.”

As Pomeranz has discovered, many residents are interested in how the city works, whether or not they attend city council meetings. And, blogging can be a forum for connecting with residents and building rapport that may not be possible offline. “Their understanding makes our jobs easier, and their contributions make our work more effective,” Pomeranz says.

The trend of engaging residents in government through technology is reshaping the way government works. And, the newest interactive online tools are helping executives communicate with and engage constituents.

While a number of national and state legislators have used blogs to connect with voters, blogs are still uncommon among local officials. “We're at the early stages by any measure,” says David Wyld, Maurin professor of Management at Southeastern Louisiana University and author of “The Blogging Revolution: Government in the Age of Web 2.0,” a report published by IBM's Center for the Business of Government. “But five to 10 years out, blogging or other uses of interactive Web tools will just be part of the ratcheted up expectations people have for their governments.”

Why blog?

For most local officials who take the time to start and maintain a blog, the exercise is about much more than simply creating an online journal. In fact, the most effective blogs encourage readers to join the discussion. “In the big picture, blogging is an obvious way to transform the relationship citizens have with their city government,” says Dave Ruller, Kent, Ohio's city manager. “To contribute to progress, citizens must understand issues beyond the way the media presents them. I see blogs as another step in the evolution of civic engagement. As the means of conversation changes, we as governments must learn the new language and be sure we're communicating in a way that is relevant and meaningful to our customers today.”

According to Wyld's report, blogging is growing as a tool for promoting not only online conversations between residents and public servants, but also offline interaction. “Research shows that the people who are engaged online are more civically involved offline,” Wyld says. “If you can promote engagement online, there will be improved engagement offline too.”

Scott Neal, city manager for Eden Prairie, Minn., agrees. “My blog makes me more approachable to citizens because, if they've been reading my blog for awhile, they feel like they know me on a more intimate level,” he says. “If they see me in the grocery store, a faithful blog reader will approach me and start up a conversation about something on my blog that almost always leads to another question or concern about city government that I can help them with. The blog serves as a good conversation starter.”

And in Round Lake, Ill., Mayor Bill Gentes finds that when he promotes an event on his blog, it has higher attendance. “Seven years ago, 100 people came to the Christmas tree lighting; and now 500 people come,” he says. “The blog absolutely helps build community offline as well as online.”