My current job

I work as a community coordinator for the city, and my job involves strengthening the participation of city residents. In this role, communication and information dissemination are integral aspects of my work. Without residents being aware of municipal matters, enhancing participation and community engagement becomes challenging. We work closely with the municipality’s communication experts, who guide us in determining the channels we utilize in our work. It can be challenging to choose new channels that we don’t currently use or where their use would bring significant added value.

At the moment in our work, we use various tools such as Teams, Moodle, YouTube, ChatGPT, Facebook, Instagram, and others. TikTok is one application from which we could benefit, and some departments have indeed used it, but it poses too many cybersecurity risks. Therefore, its usage needs to be reconsidered.

Positive and negative sides from social media

Social media platforms provide municipalities with a direct and interactive channel to engage with the community. It allows for real-time communication, feedback, and the dissemination of important information. In my work transparency is important. Municipalities can use social media to enhance transparency by sharing updates, decisions, and future plans. This helps in building trust among residents as they can stay informed about the local government’s activities. Social media has also big role among other communication channels in emergency communication. Social media is a quick and efficient tool for emergency communication. It also increases citizens participation. Social media platforms enable citizens to participate in local governance by expressing their opinions, providing feedback, and participating in online surveys or polls.

On the negative sites there are lots of misinformation and rumors that are spread in social media. False information can quickly gain traction, leading to confusion and panic among residents. While social media allows for feedback, negative comments and criticisms can sometimes be amplified, overshadowing positive efforts made by the municipality. Other negative aspect is that not all residents have access to or be proficient in using social media. Relying solely on these platforms can create a digital divide, leaving some segments of the population uninformed. Also municipalities are susceptible to cybersecurity threats, such as hacking or phishing attacks. Protecting sensitive data and ensuring the security of online platforms is a constant concern.

    New digital tools

    The Miro tool was interesting, and I believe that incorporating it could bring new perspectives to our work if we had the freedom to choose the tools we use. Customer-centricity is the foundation of our work, and Miro aligns well with this approach. Certainly, the Mural application could be beneficial in my work. As a visual person, the strong visual appearance of the application appealed to me, at least. I enjoy creating mind maps and organizing things visually, so the tool seemed suitable, especially for facilitating my own work. Integrating Evernote might work well unless the entire organization’s operations are centralized in Teams. Given the strong collaboration across various sectors, adopting such applications would require a unified approach to avoid causing additional work when information is scattered across multiple platforms. DeepL could indeed be an excellent tool. In our work, considering all target groups is essential, and that’s why translation is part of our tasks. While we use ChatGPT for translations, for more complex ones, the organization has competitively sourced translation services that must be used centrally.

    Self evaluation

    Although I didn’t necessarily find new applications for work now, it was interesting to explore the applications, and many of them were completely unfamiliar to me. A significant portion of these applications is in use, at least in some sections. Completing the task once again helped me realize the extensive scope within which I get to carry out my work.