The social networking bug has finally bitten the government as well, with the Department of Information and Technology (DIT) planning to put in place a framework for officials that would allow them to leverage power of social media.
"Social networking sites have emerged as a strong platform for interaction between the people. But the government officers are still not using them to seek public opinion on various government’s policies and projects due to lack of certain policy for the same. As this kind of platform can be a best tool for the purpose, we are considering development of such platform with a policy framework for the same in due course. We are creating a framework that would help all the GoI departments and officials to make use of social media like Facebook and Twitter effectively," said Shankar Aggarwal, additional secretary, DIT, Government of India (GoI) told reporters on the sidelines of an event.
Aggarwal was in town for ‘Citizen Centric e-Government’ – a State e-Governance Consultation Workshop held today in Ahmedabad.
Talking further about it, Aggarwal said, "We expect to give final shape to it (framework) over next two or three months and notify it. The idea is that they can enter into dialogue with public more freely, take suggestions, feedbacks and provide updates. It shall be more of a two-way rather than being a one-way communication."
According to Aggarwal, thee government officers are scared of using social media because they are not sure whether they are allowed to use it or not. "Even if they are allowed, then they are not sure what are the do's and dont's," Aggarwal added.