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<br />. Social networks such as Facebook and MySpace work well as a gathering place for people <br />interested in the city, and for building affinity for the city. Social networks can serve as a place <br />to post information and pictures of the community celebration, a project that succeeded <br />because of volunteer efforts, or even of various city staff performing interesting aspects of their <br />jobs. These spaces also could be used to gather input and ideas from residents on projects, <br />services and ordinances. <br /> <br />· Video sites such as Y ouTube and iReport allow users to post, rate and comment on videos. <br />Posting video can be a way to provide a comprehensive picture of a city event such as awards <br />and even be a virtual way to show residents the range of work done by city staff. (Videos <br />shouldn't be posted of any individual without that person's knowledge and consent.) <br /> <br />. Photo sharing sites such as Flickr and TwitPic allow users to post, rate and comment on <br />photos can help create a comprehensive picture of a city event such as awards and even be a <br />virtual way to show residents the range of work done by city staff. (Photos shouldn't be posted <br />of any individual without that person's knowledge and consent.) <br /> <br />· Wikis, such as Wikipedia, can be used to develop information on a range of topics such as <br />about the city's founding residents, historic sites and so on. Wikis are encyclopedia-like <br />applications in which entries are created and edited by multiple people. <br /> <br />Should the city take a centralized or decentralized approach to social media? A city should <br />consider whether it wants an official social media presence and, if so, in what social media venues. <br />The city should think about when and how it wants to use social media, whether to have an official <br />city voice, and whether to use a centralized or decentralized approach. The manner in which social <br />media fits with other official forms of communication also should be considered. <br /> <br />It may be the case that having multiple city social media users - or a decentralized approach - <br />makes sense for a city because it allows subject matter experts to talk about issues related to their <br />areas of expertise. <br /> <br />For example, the city clerk might blog about changes to polling sites and announce openings for <br />various committees and commissions, while the police officer talks about the city's K-9 officer. <br />Microblogs might be used by public works staff to alert residents to snow parking emergencies, <br />while parks and recreation staff announce enrollment openings for new programs. <br /> <br />A consolidated - or centralized - approach assigns social media responsibilities to one or two <br />people. Depending upon the city, this approach could create a significant workload for those <br />individuals, who may riot have the time to support such a task. <br /> <br />On the other hand, a centralized approach probably would provide the city with a more controlled, <br />consistent and uniformed social media presence. <br /> <br />Are postings to social media government data and/or subject to records retention? A city must <br />determine whether the information communicated is about official or unofficial city business <br />before determining whether it is subject to the Minnesota Government Data Practices Act. <br /> <br />Page 4 of 12 <br />