1/2 Today in, "Chris writes to Politicians” I wrote to the British Columbia Minister of Emergency Management and Climate Readiness today in relation to this news that she was negotiating with Meta to try to get access to Facebook to post emergency up...
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1/2 Today in, "Chris writes to Politicians”
I wrote to the British Columbia Minister of Emergency Management and Climate Readiness today in relation to this news that she was negotiating with Meta to try to get access to Facebook to post emergency updates. How did we allow ourselves to be so beholden to these corporations for basic communication!Province says it's collaborating with Meta to share important information during emergencies | CBC News
Emergency Management Minister Bowinn Ma says conversations with Meta are “just starting.”
CBC (www.cbc.ca)
Here is my letter:
Dear Minister Ma ([email protected])CC: My Local MLA Minister Josie Osborne
I understand and agree with why you feel you must try to get Meta to allow you to post Emergency messages on that platform, especially during the fire season when we all now face so much uncertainty.
However, you must also acknowledge that:1) Meta has made it clear its concern is curating its own content and “news” for its own financial benefit separate from any public benefit consideration.
2) You will never be able to control the algorithm on any Meta platform, so while you may post, you are still never guaranteed that your message can reach 100% of the people 100% of the time.
3) You as a Minister and as a representative of the Government of British Columbia cannot rely on third parties to get timely messaging out to communities and citizens. You are government, you have the means and responsibility to get the message out directly.
The question is how do you, as government, use social media directly? This has not been possible before, but it is now.
The answer is the Open Social Web. You may cringe at this example (and rightly so), but the pioneer and most famous person using the Open Social Web tools for public communication is Donald Trump with his “truth.social”.
#OpenSocialWeb #Emergency #Government #CanPoli #CdnPoli #SocialMedia #BCPoli
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2/2 Separate from him, there is a growing federated network of open social media platforms and millions of users (including tens of thousands in Canada) emerging as people get tired of corporate, walled, algorithmically opaque, social platforms. Most importantly, these platforms combine both app-based micro-blogging and sharing of content, with (if desired) fully open and publicly accessible web interfaces. That is why they are being called the “Open Social Web” rather than traditional corporate “Social Media”.
I urge your Ministry to create a presence on this Open Social Web by creating a Mastodon, or similar microblogging site, controlled and populated by Government entities like yourself.
The purpose at the start will not be to “go where the people are”, but rather to guarantee that “the people have somewhere to go” to see your micro-platform, up-to-the-second, messaging on Emergency events. You control the message. You can be sure the public and media can see that messaging at all times.
I am offering you my services on a purely volunteer basis, I do not want any acknowledgement or compensation, to answer any questions or concerns you might have. With the right tools in place, a presence could be created at very low cost in a matter of days.
The government doesn’t use gmail for its email services, why would or should it use Facebook for its social media services when Meta clearly does not want them there? There are alternatives.
Thank you for your time and consideration,
Sincerely,
Chris AlemanyPS. A federal e-petition advocating for the House of Commons to create an open social media presence was successfully completed earlier this spring. You can find it here at the link below. A similar presence for the BC Government and Legislature would be equally important.
#OpenSocialWeb #Emergency #Government #CanPoli #CdnPoli #SocialMedia #BCPoli
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@chris Excellent letter!
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This is excellent.
‘The purpose at the start will not be to “go where the people are”, but rather to guarantee that “the people have somewhere to go” to see your micro-platform, up-to-the-second, messaging on Emergency events.’
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@theteapixie thanks. I'm particularly happy with that section too... managed to turn the phrase around.
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@chris Wish there was no mention of DT.
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@ZebKing Ya. Double edged sword. His is the most glaring and obvious example that there is life after corporate social media for politicians and government agencies.