Last week the Bank of Italy held an important conference on economic policy towards the still lagging Mezzogiorno. Mainstream media appropriately focussed on the talks by President Napolitano and the Bank’s Governor Draghi. Far from the spotlights, though, the conference saw the debut of a small yet important innovation for the Italian central administration: the Twitter account of Sistema Nazionale di Valutazione (National Evaluation System), an initiative of the Evaluation Unit of the Ministry of economic development (home page). Its initiator is “civil servant 2.0” Laura Tagle – obviously passionate about evaluation of public policies, who twitted in real time the highlights of the talks of Draghi, Barca and Giovannini.

If you use Twitter – and if it is not too much to ask – I would suggest you click here and then on the “Follow” button to stay in touch with Laura and the SNV. It is a small step, but it is in the right direction, that of using the Internet for an ever more transparent and accountable government – that’s why we participated in the Open declaration on the European public services process. If Laura and her colleagues feel the appreciation for what they are doing, chances are more people will follow their example, and we will all benefit from it.