I’m a bit slow with this one, but just to close a loop that was opened a few weeks ago here, those Civil Service Social Media Guidelines are now public.
Over at Puffbox, Simon seems slightly pleasantly surprised:
“But whilst there’s a requirement to limit ‘civil servants’ participation in a professional capacity in social networks’, I don’t necessarily read that as the draconian ban it might have been. So whilst the government online community’s unanimous decision to go quiet is perfectly understandable, and unquestionably the safest thing to do, I’m not sure the guidance actually demands it.”
My own view is that – even though the guidance doesn’t demand it, the natural risk aversion of British civil servants are fairly well-known for erring on the side of caution on these things.
When I was given an insight into what it could be a few weeks ago, I wrote about it here in unequivocal terms and got a few interested phonecalls from journalists as a result. I was given a bit of a hint that – fearing a bit of teasing, they decided to wait until the election was announced before publishing them. Remind me, how did Jo Moore put it again…?
Maybe this blog played a small part in toning the whole thing down a bit though?
A blog about representative democracy, social media and a conversational politics. How will peer-to-peer communications change local democracy? How is representation changing? 
