#Politics. UK Government turns to Social media to cut costs

 

David Cameron may well be joining in on the big discussion (hope he doesn't slip up and tweet #itsokaytocheatif), with a new government strategy for jumping into social media "to facilitate a two-way dialogue with citizens." 

The plans come as part of yet another huge cost cutting proposal, to skim a cool £1bn off the budget as the Government implements a their new IT strategy.

This sudden rush to social networking comes from the need to get more people accessing online services (obviously social media is a good way of taking your message to the citizens also), so Government is acting with a new “digital channel,” that is a requirement for all future government consultations from the end of the year.  Their action plan reads:

“As a first step, to facilitate a two-way dialogue with citizens, departments will ensure that a digital channel is included in all government consultations by December 2011.”

A very ominous statement with not much concrete matter in the form of what they'll be using beyong the inevitable Twitter.  Google+?  Facebook?  Both?  Maybe even Myspace!  Will this prove to be a good thing?