Agenda - 10-08-2013 - 5 - Laserfiche WebLink

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26 Social Media: Across the country, local governments are utilizing Facebook, Twitter, Nixle, YouTube, and other forms of social media to engage their citizens, solicit feedback, and provide additional outlets for information. Orange County currently does not have an official social media presence, but should consider developing a presence, as well as policies to govern use of social media in the workplace. In order to most adequately develop the social media presence, the County needs to designate a Public Information Officer. The position is not part of the IT Department and therefore outside of the scope of this plan, but consideration should be given to the issue. In terms of the policies governing social media usage within the County, the Human Resources Department, the County attorney, and the IT Department have worked together to develop appropriate policies. The IT Department should only be involved in policy making to the extent that social media poses a technical issue for the County, like bandwidth consumption, security risks, or virus potential. In terms of social media presence, Facebook is the most commonly used application in government, with organizations choosing to create Fan Pages for information sharing purposes. Due to the current Facebook policies, individuals are allowed to comment on any postings made by the organization, therefore, it is advisable that Orange County create a Comments Policy that indicates the informative nature of the forum, as well as articulates what form of commentary is unacceptable and removable. PRIORITY LEVEL TWO Field -based (Mobile) Access- A commonly requested application among all department heads and line staff is mobile field -based access to critical applications, including laptops, tablets, and a wireless network. Many County department heads and employees work from remote, field locations, and /or after -hours and desire the ability to access their programs and files through a VPN client or similar solution. However, the security issues related to such remote access are important to address and can be managed through a combination of technical solutions and in -depth end user training. During consideration of mobile access extension, the County needs to develop a justification process for determining appropriateness of access requests, including creating legal guidance related to remote access. In addition, many of the County's current software packages do not support mobile deployment, so as the County replaces outdated or unsupported software, mobility should be an overarching consideration. Finally, the County's limited cellular and broadband access in certain areas will make seamless mobile access difficult and should be recognized as a limitation that is outside the County IT Department's control. 24