Welcome to the Future, Salem!

I went to a meeting with some folks from the city last week and heard a presentation from a group University of Oregon communications students. The presentation focused on how to keep neighborhood associations active and relevent in this modern era of technology. I thought it was good information with some good ideas.

Although it would have been nice if the people making the presentation had actually been to a neighborhood meeting, like, ever.

Anyway, the interesting point was that most of the people in the room are in what we'll call the "older generation" and pretty resistant to the ideas in many ways. And yet, we ended up spending the entire 1 1/2 hour meeting talking almost exclusively about this subject and how to make it work, concerns they had, some successes, and creating a smaller group to plan and discuss it. The city even sounds like they will get involved in figuring out how to use social media to communicate with citizens better.

As a blogger, a citizen, and a social media junkie I am very excited about the prospects! What do you think? How could neighborhood associations or the City of Salem use social media to get your attention?