WORLD LEADERS RANIKING ON TWITTER

By: Digital Daya

http://www.digitaldaya.com/pdf/digitaldaya_world_leaders_twitter.pdf

October 2010

World Leaders On Twitter

How heads of state are

engaging their citizens

on the World Wide Web

Governance is no longer a constant – Accelerating social change and deepening globalization have created new challenges for governments in the 21st Century. Today, enlightened governments and their leaders have turned to social media to connect with constituents at home and abroad. Governments are turning more and more to social media to put a “face” to government and to express political views and agendas. So who is leading the charge? The Digital Policy Council (DPC) research provides analyses on government leaders and institutions of government employing social media outlets to engage the populations that these individuals and government entities lead. The increase in information velocity brought about through the use of Internet technology, and more specifically, through the use of social media websites like Twitter, Facebook, and other networking sites, provides for new opportunities for governments to rethink and reshape how they govern and the political discourse with their citizenry.

This research note provides an update to the ranking of heads of state engaged on the

social media website Twitter. The DPC has been tracking this activity since 2009 and issued its first report Real Leaders Tweet in Feb 2010 that examined how heads of state around the world are using the World Wide Web to engage their citizens.

Updates To World Rankings

The Movement Towards Open Government

The DPC has recorded a strong movement towards open government as more leaders are

aggressively pursuing social media channels as a new of type of direct communication with their citizens and the global community. Analyses as of October 2010 reveals that 20%, or one out of five heads of state, are at present on the social media site Twitter. A total of 33 world leaders out of 163 countries have accounts on Twitter set up in their personal name or through an official government office. This represents a 50% increase in the number of countries from the last quarter of 2009. The idea of governments to openly engage their citizens and the global community directly was brought to the forefront on December 8, 2009, when the White House issued an open government directive. President Obama signed into effect a commitment of his administration to create an unprecedented level of openness in government. The memorandum outlined three key principles that government must be transparent, participatory, and collaborative.

The effect of which was to declare Information maintained by the Federal Government a national asset to be made accessible online to the public, to offer citizens a chance to participate more directly in policymaking through the Internet, and to use innovative technologies to build new models for private-public-partnerships.

In March 22, 2010, the former U.K. Prime Minister Gordon Brown followed suit with his own manifesto entitled 'Building Britain’s Digital Future', which declared the determination to harness the new digital technology to drive a radical reshaping of government. The direction was further reinforced under the new administration of Prime Minister David Cameron wherein The National Archives announced the Open Government License, granting individuals, entrepreneurs and application developers unlimited use of government data without having to ask permission.

The Australian Government joined in on July 16, 2010 with its much anticipated commitment to open government. Spearheaded by the former Finance Minister Lindsay Tanner, the declaration fortified citizen’s rights of access to information and a pro-disclosure culture across the Australian Government - to the point where government agencies are explicitly directed to undertake social networking, crowdsourcing and online collaboration with citizens on policy and service delivery to enhance the processes of government.

The Japanese government launched its own open government portal in August of 2010 commissioned by the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry to utilize the Internet to promote Japanese citizen participation in public administration. The simple concept behind all these initiatives is good governance; that the adoption of Internet technologies can drive considerable efficiency and innovation to the practice of government. This transformation mirrors the technology-enabled business process reengineering that has taken place in the private sector over the last decade.

Noteworthy Changes in The Top 10

The heads of state in the Top 10 list has changed dramatically since the beginning of the

year seeing four new entrants from Venezuela, Mexico, Thailand and Turkey along with the exit of some key proponents of social media due to political administration changeovers.

President Obama retains the top spot with a vast 5.6 million followers having added over 1.5 million followers from the beginning of the year. However his Twitter account communication is often criticized as overly sanitized as it is being managed by the Organizing for America grassroots group sponsored by the U.S. Democratic Party.

The 10 Downing Street Twitter account retains the #2 spot despite remaining relatively static since the changeover in administration with exit of the former Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

Notwithstanding calls from his own conservative party for a "big hitter on Twitter", U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron does not personally tweet and all communications refer to him in the third party.

Former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd had amassed nearly one million followers, however Australia no longer finds itself in the top ten as current Prime Minister Julia Gillard's following of 60,000 falls far short.

The ever popular Queen Rania of Jordan retains the third place continuing to actively promote and inspire humanitarian causes around the world through Twitter and many other social media outlets.

Most notable on the new list is President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, who only back in March called for restrictive government oversight of the Internet in frustration over social networking web sites like Twitter and Facebook used by Venezuela's opposition movements to organize protests against the government; he has now come about 180 degrees. President Chavez joined Twitter in April labeling his account a secret weapon to connect to the world. "This isn’t capitalist or socialist, technology depends on how you use it.” “The

Internet can’t be just for the bourgeoisie, it’s for the ideological battle as well.” Chavez explained. The President quipped that he needs to place his account in a bucket of ice to

cool off; he is apparently spot on as his followers are now nearing one million placing him at the number four spot globally.

Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama appears committed to a citizen-centric approach amassing an additional half a million followers over the last several months to gain over 700,000 followers on his Twitter account.

The UAE Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum continues to engage his citizens and residents with open direct communication. In June of this year he held the first e-session with the public on the Prime Minister's official website. The frank dialogue covered many issues most prominent the fiscal health of Dubai. Sheikh Mohammed noted that evidence of a recovery from the global economic crisis is already in place. ''I would like to point out that the symptoms of recovery have started to manifest, and the duration of recovery is expected to be much shorter than that required for other economies." he explained. The outspoken President from Venezuela is not the only Latin leader in the top 10 as he is joined by the populist President Sebastián Piñera of Chile who with his entire cabinet have opened Twitter accounts. Another addition is President Felipe Calderón of Mexico who tweets to his Twitter account around four times a day and replies to tweets of Mexican journalists and political analysts. President Piñera and President Calderón have each accumulated about a quarter million followers.

Additional new entrants include Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva of Thailand and President Abdullah Gul of Turkey. Twitter played a key role in the civil unrest in Bangkok earlier this year. As many websites were blocked and Thailand’s traditional media clearly divided into pro- and anti-government camps, Twitter was a much valued source to Bangkok residents to understand the true situation on the ground and most importantly in local neighborhoods.

While in Turkey, The Turkish president is not shy on expressing his opinion on the Web having used his Twitter account to condemn his country's ban on YouTube and instructed

officials to examine legal ways of reopening access.

FULL REPORT AND TEXT ON : http://www.digitaldaya.com/pdf/digitaldaya_world_leaders_twitter.pdf