OSU master’s class gives communities ideas on managing social media services

ThisWeek UA 06/02/2011

http://www.thisweeknews.com/live/content/upperarlington/stories/2011/06/01/osu-masters-class-gives-communities-ideas-on-managing-social-media-services.html?sid=104

When Ohio State University professor David Landsbergen was looking for a service project for his Public Management Information Systems class, he didn’t have to leave his own neighborhood.

“David is (an Upper Arlington) resident, who reached out to us to see if there was a possibility of doing a real-world project that would be mutually beneficial to our work and to his students,” said Emma Speight, deputy city manager for community affairs. “A group of area public community affairs managers have been meeting for years, and we were just about to be a part of a MORPC (Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission)-hosted social media event, so it seemed like perfect timing.”

Landsbergen’s students participated in the April MORPC meeting along with representatives of Canal Winchester, Columbus, Dublin, Franklin County, Gahanna, Grove City, New Albany, Powell, Westerville, Worthington and Upper Arlington.

The master’s level class focuses on the use of technology in public-sector management. Social media technologies such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube have a wide set of legal implications, according to Landsbergen, who also teaches law, along with the technologies’ opportunities for innovative public interaction and feedback.

The students worked with the group of community affairs representatives to document current social media usage, policies, tools and risks, and to research possible future opportunities.

“We were fortunate to meet this group of public-sector professionals who were willing to give us some of their time and let us in on their ideas and issues,” Landsbergen said. “This network (of professionals) is really strong and shares really well. We needed people to work with and students willing to break out of the mold of just reading textbooks.”

Dublin public information officer Megan Canavan said that Dublin was very fortunate to have this opportunity to work with the students.

“Social media seems to be constantly evolving. Looking at the analysis done by the students gives us a viewpoint we might not otherwise have had the resources to see,” Canavan said. “It’s always worth looking at what we’re doing, and what other communities are doing to see if we’re being effective.”

Several of the community affairs group members agreed that the research has been valuable.

“We are a smaller residential community and still mostly rely on traditional media outreach with our residents, but we need to plan ahead,” said Scott McAfee, New Albany public information officer. “The class is wrapping up and will be providing us a report on issues for communities, who is doing what and a set of possible benchmarks for future planning,”

Landsbergen said that, since OSU is a land-grant institution, it is a part of the school’s mission to give back to the community.

“I look for projects that meet our three primary missions of teaching, research and service,” Landsbergen said. “This project hits all three beautifully. The (students and I) appreciate when you can put theory to action. We will present all of our research to the group next week and then we can have discussions about how we might move forward (with the project).”

Westerville’s community affairs administrator, Christa Dickey, said that the project is a step toward establishing central Ohio as a leader in community use of social media.

Speight said she is looking forward to where the recommendations lead.

“I hope these recommendations from the students lead to new projects and new opportunities, that this wasn’t the beginning and the end of our work together,” she said.