Reaction to the news that the Clerk is on Twitter
Wayne Wouters is the Clerk of the Privy Council. He’s the most senior civil servant in Canada, and now he has his own digital footprint. Yesterday he launched himself onto the web with the www.clerk.gc.ca site and two Twitter accounts.
This was timed no doubt in conjunction with yesterday’s release of the 17th Annual Report to the Prime Minister on the Public Service, the first issued under Mr. Wouters’ direction. (Aside: for a really quick overview of the reports themes, check out these visualizations).
Anyhow, it’s pretty impressive — not to mention validating to those of us in the bureaucracy who’ve already gone out and started participating online. Apparently I’m not alone with this. Here’s a sampling of reactions:
From @marknca (screen capped above):
triplet of cool for “the clerk”; on Twitter, has a verified acct, replies! very encouraging to the rank and file, thanks @WayneWouters! [View Tweet]
From @simonaioffe:
If @WayneWouters has his Twitter feed on his homepage (great 2.0 #win) http://ow.ly/1t5cx then depts should follow suit #GoCclerk #goc #w2p [View Tweet]
From @scilib:
. @WayneWouters welcome to Twitter. Great to see emphasis on public service renewal & use of new tech on your website. #cpsr [View Tweet]
From @AngelinaMunaret:
Congratulations 2 Clerk of the Privy Council & Secretary to Cabinet @WayneWouters 4 having verified twttr acct & using it. #gc20 #ccobcc [View Tweet]
From @dbast:
#GOC @waynewouters (PCOClerk)’s latest report mentions “Web 2.0″ three times- Woot! #gc20 #w2p [View Tweet]
In perusing the results page for my search on “@waynewouters” I noticed that there is some question around whether it is the Clerk himself doing the tweeting or whether it is one of his staff. Plus some helpful tips to whoever is managing the account (this one is my fave – “Tip: you don’t need to bit.ly URL-shorten “http://clerk.gc.ca”: it’s short enough!”).
This is actually something that’s been rolling over in my mind as I’ve been building this post — the approach on display appears to be a mix of corporate and personal branding. Frankly not sure what to make of it at this point, as I haven’t really had time to reflect. But regardless, it’s nice to see the Clerk with a public digital presence!
What's a spaghetti test?
Peter – to me the fact that there are two separate accounts for FR/EN indicates that is fairly far away from the Clerk – ie. I wouldn’t expect a unilingual update via ubertwitter anytime soon.
Cheers.
You’re probably right, Nick, not only because of OL, but because of the general sensible corporateness of the tweets, but on the other hand, just see where he turns up… I think we have a very committed and down-to-earth clerk and would really like to believe that he’s not all that far away.
I think you are right about Wayne, Amanda. Just for clarity I’m not being critical in my comments; just saying …
Certainly a step in the right direction but I mostly like the fact that he is following himself.