With Help of Unisys, Hong Kong Government Uses Social Media to Connect with Young People

Working with Hong Kong Government Efficiency Unit, Unisys is helping the popular Youth Portal to take advantage of social networks, mobile computing, and collaborative tools

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Unisys

Jul 12, 2011, 07:00 ET

HONG KONG, July 12, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Unisys (NYSE: UIS) has been commissioned by the Hong Kong Government's Efficiency Unit to help redesign its Youth Portal (www.youth.gov.hk/en) using public social networks and new mobile computing capabilities to better engage with Hong Kong's young people.

The Youth Portal is an initiative of the Efficiency Unit and public broadcaster Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK). It provides a one-stop, easy-to-use multi-media platform for young people to access integrated government services and information as well as showcase their own creations such as artworks and designs, videos, inventions, photos and articles. The portal is targeted at youth aged 15-24 years old and receives approximately 65,000 visitors a month.

Under the six-month consulting engagement, Unisys is conducting a technical and functional study for the future development of the portal to fully leverage Web 2.0 technology. A key objective is to further encourage two-way dialogue with Hong Kong's young people using the types of technologies that they like to use, including social networks and applications, or "apps," for mobile devices, in the most efficient and cost effective manner.

"Unlike a conventional government website that pushes information out to its citizens, the Youth Portal has evolved into a multi-media platform with integrated content from approximately 190 organisations as well as content created by the local youth themselves including 3,100 exhibits, 675 videos and 140 blogger articles," said Mrs. Patricia Lau, Deputy Head of Efficiency Unit, Hong Kong Government. "We have also used YouTube, RSS, Podcasts, iPhone/Android applications and existing public social networks such as Twitter and Facebook to engage with the youth. We want to be more efficient in leveraging these tools to engage young people and enable co-creation but are constrained by the current technical infrastructure and architecture."

Mr. Reuben Khoo, Managing Partner, Unisys Asia, said the modernisation project illustrates how social computing has fundamentally changed the way people interact and communicate with one another:

"More and more businesses and organisations are exploring the use of social computing to better engage with their customers," Khoo said. "Hong Kong Government's Efficiency Unit is seeking to fully leverage the publically available social networks that young people are accustomed to in order to improve engagement as well as the way services are delivered and information is shared. We are also exploring the use of location-based services where users can sign up to have information about relevant events sent to them when they are in close proximity to one of the events."

About Unisys

Unisys is a worldwide information technology company. We provide a portfolio of IT services, software, and technology that solves critical problems for clients. We specialise in helping clients secure their operations, increase the efficiency and utilisation of their data centres, enhance support to their end users and constituents, and modernise their enterprise applications. To provide these services and solutions, we bring together offerings and capabilities in outsourcing services, systems integration and consulting services, infrastructure services, maintenance services, and high-end server technology. With approximately 23,000 employees, Unisys serves commercial organisations and government agencies throughout the world. For more information, visit www.unisys.com.

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