NZ 2.0 and social networking

Note the increase in govt agencies using social networking in many and varied ways as a means of engaging with the public, ie their customers. The NZ Police were an early user in this way of communication. Other agencies have included the National Library of NZ; one of their projects has inclided posting images from its collection allowing people to discover new material. The Ministry for Culture and Heritage and Te Ara have added images to Flickr allowing users to comment and also post their own images. The Ministry for the Environment has introduced a number of sustainability forums and by using Facebook and You Tube hopes to attract feedback from a greater cross section of the population. The Wellington City Council are offering an e-petition service allowing anyone to comment on Council business via the Internet. There is also the possibility for residents to use this service to bring issues to the Council's attention and freely allow others to contribute to the debate. Not as much there as I would have thought, possibly needs more promotion! It is also used as an avenue for community news - often snippets of information rather than the meatier variety.
Organisations such as universities have used thjis technology as a way of allowing their communities to submit comment, receive feedback and generally open a dialogue. The entertainment industry can allow users to revisit a programme without the breaks.
Others demonstrate the ability of being able to collect information from a variety of sources in one place eg nzresearch.org and/or being able to search using some common starting points eg nzlive.com.