Social Networks in Local Government

I recently read an interesting post from Shel Holz around the links between social networks and corporate websites.  It got me thinking about Local Government websites and their Web 1.0 attitude to customers.

The public sector has always been more vulnerable to criticism than the corporate sector and managing the message has always been important, which is why social networking has never really caught on.  However, it is exactly trhis reason that should make social networking really important to the public sector.

Critics of local councils are already taking matters into their own hands and setting up forums, often harshly criticising  the authority with very little comeback from them.  Maybe, if social networking was embedded and included a greater balance of opinion, not only the critics would get a voice and the authorities could really start to get an edge in the community.