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Entry bubble Government in the Web 2.0 Age

By: Sommer | April 11, 2008 | Category: General

 the word connect spelled out with computer keyboard keys

Since you’re reading this blog you know that government is somewhat active in the social media arena. Here at GSA's Office of Citizen Services, we’re really having fun with this new and exciting way to communicate with the American public. We have very supportive leadership that encourages us to be innovative and creative and to reach out to you in a way that’s most convenient for you rather than making you come to us and conform to the bureaucracy.

However, some government agencies don’t have the same flexibility we do. A lot of agencies are afraid of losing control of their information and content and many don't understand if and how using social media tools can advance their agency missions.

So, America, I pose a question to you… What do you think of government agencies using social media tools like blogs, RSS feeds, podcasts, YouTube, Flickr, widgets, and microblogs to reach out and give you information? Is it good? Bad? Are there ways you’d like the government to provide information that we haven’t thought of or addressed yet? After all, we’re public servants and we’re here to serve, so let us know what you want and need.

| Comments [19] | envelope Email This Entry | Tags: blogging  conversation  government  media  rssfeeds  social  sommer  web2.0 

Comments:

We welcome your comments and expect that our conversation will follow the general rules of respectful civil discourse. This is a moderated blog, and we will only post comments from bloggers over 13 years of age that relate to topics on Gov Gab: Your U.S. Government Blog. We will review comments for posting within one business day. You are fully responsible for everything that you submit in your comments, and all posted comments are in the public domain. We do not discriminate against any views, but we reserve the right not to post comments.


I am 100% for it, we need more open access to information not less. All government info needs to be freely accessable to the public, and not just sold to info brokers with sweetheart insider deals. Of course certain info, like ss# and medical information does need restrictions, but anyhting that is public info should be accessable on the web.

Posted by Citizen Jmaximus on April 11, 2008 at 07:10 AM EDT #

As a librarian interested in the dissemination of government information, I think that many Web 2.0 projects make our job easier - or at least more interesting. In particular, RSS feeds allow me to keep up with developments at agencies and note new and hard-to-find resources. Blogs, podcasts, and other media give me a window into the priorities and interests of these agencies.

I think one major priority for agencies developing these tools is to determine how this information will continue to be fully and freely accessible in years to come, just as it is now fully and freely accessible simply by virtue of being on the open web.

After all, even in the long run, these products will always have an audience of librarians!

Posted by rhonabwy on April 11, 2008 at 09:22 AM EDT #

WELL I JUST THING THE BLOGS ARE THE NICEST THINGS I'VE EVER SEEN. IT HELP AMERICAN FEEL CONNECTED TO THERE GOVERNMENT AND FELLOW AMERICANS. LIKE SOMEONE OUT THERE CARES AND IS LISTENING EVEN IF ITS TO OUR OPIONION ON COUPONS TO SUMMER CLEANING PRODUCTS. I'VE GOT THROUGH SOME VERY PERSONAL PAINS WITH ONE OR TWO POLICTIANS THAT DON'T LIKE ME. YET OTHER SHOW GREAT SUPPORT AND EFFORTS IN ASSURING MY RIGHTS ARE OBSERVE REAL HERO'S. AND ON SOME DAYS AFTER FEELING BEATEN UP I JUST BLOG ON USA.GOV AND READ SOME. SO I THINK IT GREAT AND GOOD THERAPY. AND VERY INFORMATIVE.

SO GO USA BLOGS.GOV
HELPING AMERICANS TO FEEL GOOD ABOUT OUR COUNTRY

Posted by the nicest thing (the blog) on April 11, 2008 at 01:17 PM EDT #

I work for a government agency and we have thought about how to get more into the social networking arena. One of our biggest concerns (aside from the obvious lack of resources & funding) is security. I'd like to learn about how other agencies are able to have databases, listservs, etc. and make sure they're not "hackable." Any resources on learning more about this and what other agencies are doing?

Posted by Me on April 11, 2008 at 01:24 PM EDT #

I'm in the same boat as "Me." I'm a government employee that gets hundreds of requests to download information from the web. Our agency does provide a lot of information through the web, but a lot of citizens want to download sensitive private information through the web. They don't think about the risk of having that information accessible on the Internet. Unfortunately, there is no security feature that can completely protect information. If it is available on the Internet, someone can get into it. It doesn't matter what passwords, encryption, and security exist, it is hackable. The only thing that is almost completely foolproof is a physical separation. If the information is not connected to the Internet, the chances of it being attacked from the Internet are slim to nil. The difficult job that the government and the private sector is dealing with as we explore this Information Age, is how do we balance the risk with the benefits?

I personally agree with Citizen Jmaximus, though, all public information should be available through the web.

Posted by Ray on April 11, 2008 at 02:05 PM EDT #

I note that your Flickr photos are tagged "all rights reserved." Is that correct? Shouldn't these images, as government works, be in the public domain?

I applaud government involvement in social networking and think it should expand. Putting artificial restrictions on public information prevents members of the public from disseminating it even further, as is their right for materials in the public domain. There may be times (as articulated above in the security comment) when we want that to be the case, but most of the time I suspect we just aren't paying attention to things like Flickr's default setting.

Posted by lentigogirl on April 11, 2008 at 02:06 PM EDT #

I'm game for it -- after all, people are often sadly very misinformed about things in general. I think it is of great use to the agencies and to people who make use of the information they would provide.

Go social media!

Posted by gohyaku on April 11, 2008 at 02:21 PM EDT #

I think that some agencies' attitude toward Web 2.0 technologies is extremely frustrating. I see a plethora of pages devoted to schmaltzy articles and officials' bios instead of engaging the public on its level. I want better site indices. I want to see more Government blogs with 2-way communication. I shouldn't have to go to upload sites AT HOME to view videos of my Dept's Secretary--I should be able to access them through my Dept's Website while at work. I want electronic forms. I want podcasts. I want to be able to subscribe to news feeds. I want better site search capability. Technology is our friend more than our foe, but it seems like we're blocked from doing a bevy of things that could really assist us in our jobs. Let's address Privacy, FOIA, and Records issues and roll with the tide rather than fight against it.

Posted by Misanthrope on April 11, 2008 at 02:25 PM EDT #

lentigogirl,

Thanks for the heads up on the Flickr photos. I hadn't noticed the photos were labeled "all rights reserved" before. Whenever I view our photos I'm logged into the account and that piece of information isn't displayed to you on your own account.

I've done some research on Flickr and they don't offer an option to set your photos for the public domain. The closest I can come for now is designating them "Attribution-NoDerivs Creative Commons" (for more info http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/3.0/). Also see the Flickr Help Forum for more information on this topic: http://www.flickr.com/search/forum/?q=photos%20in%20public
%20domain
Based on comments in the Help Forum I think the best solution might be to just tag all our photos with a "public domain" tag.

Thanks for teaching me more about Flickr -- it really is all about communicating with each other!

Have a great weekend!
Sommer

Posted by Sommer on April 11, 2008 at 04:12 PM EDT #

I think Gov agencies using media tools is great. It's wonderful having the Gov to provide information and to be involved. I think the Gov is doing great.

Posted by Gail on April 12, 2008 at 01:32 AM EDT #

Perhaps a way to "gain traction" is for the publication of best practices for governing the use of the tools.

Best Practices might include:
a) vetting process;
b) publication authority
c) recommended uses and prohibitions
d) data quality review process;
e) correction process;
f) development of "reviewers" cadre;
f) etc.

Several Federal Agencies are using these tools to make content available to the public. Perhaps some organization can capture their lessons learned, work with an independent entity to formulate some best practices and then host an event to disseminate the information, answer questions through a panel discussion and Q&A session.

Posted by danm357 on April 12, 2008 at 08:30 AM EDT #

Well, yeah! Why wouldn't government join the hundreds of millions of Americans already in this space?!

Posted by americanpie on April 12, 2008 at 09:33 AM EDT #

I had another comment. I wanted to share with all the blog readers these two videos I saw recently. Don't you think whoever our next President is will use web 2.0 after they win?

Social Media and the 2008 US Presidential Election (from a TV interview) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBzjRdEMjEU

and

Barak Obama on Social Media (from a speech where at end he talks about applications to government) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CD099nxF3L0

Posted by Unknown on April 12, 2008 at 09:45 AM EDT #

I think government agencies using social media tools like blogs, RSS feeds, podcasts, YouTube, Flickr, widgets, and microblogs to reach out and give information is great.

Posted by Gail on April 12, 2008 at 05:34 PM EDT #

I do not believe that all government agencies or employees believe that their job is to serve the public. It seems that they believe that we are here to serve them. If they were to make all the public information that they have easy to access, then they would lose their sense of power that they have over the average American.

In regards to private information being improperly released or stolen, that is nothing new. It sure was nice of the V.A. to send me a letter saying that the computer that had my military information had been lost or stolen. I wonder why my information was on a laptop that could be easily be lost or stolen.

You Gov Gabbers truly understand that the average American should have easy access to public information and are trying to make that happen. Thank you for all you do.

Thomas

Posted by Thomas on April 13, 2008 at 08:43 AM EDT #

I am definitely in favor of the gov't using Web 2.0-style communication services, particularly services I can subscribe to like RSS feeds and podcasts. However, I would hope the services would be used for the purpose of disseminating information, not for the purpose of using a Web 2.0 service. For instance, Gov't Gab is a great use of a blog, but a blog would not be a good service for creating a departmental listing for the USDA.

Since I run a health and nutrition blog at thelifeledger.com, I am particularly interested in seeing more timely information on recalls, new FDA/USDA regulations, and other health-related information. I have noticed many federal agencies participate in the wellness arena, but don't seem to offer the same access. For instance, the FDA uses RSS to disseminate some of their information, but places like recalls.gov or nutrition sites like mypyramid.gov do not. I'm sure many people don't even realize there are free tools offered by the gov't to look up nutrition information, plan healthy diets and track caloric intake - everything you need to maintain a healthy weight-loss track! Exposing services like this through screencasts on YouTube, timely information through RSS, weekly informational shows as podcasts - adoption of web 2.0 services like these could go a long way to making the information the gov't has to share more transparent and accessible.

Posted by Cris on April 14, 2008 at 03:20 PM EDT #

I'm of two minds (at least) on this issue. In part, I welcome and encourage efforts to reach out in various ways to various audiences. I'm a blogger myself.

In part I'm overwhelmed with all the data and info bouncing around in e-space -- talk about information overload !! So I personally, rarely subscribe to RSS feeds or other push techology - would rather visit a site when I have time. My favorite first source of information is a well-designed website, with comprehensive and current information, and CONTACT names and phone/e-mail addresses, so I can get to a real person when needed. With the blogs, podcasts and you name it easily linked to and from the website.

And as a business researcher and librarian, I want it all to be well-organized and cross-searchable :-) Tall order? Yeah.

Nora Stoecker, NKS Info Services
http://www.linkedin.com/in/norastoeckerandnksinfo
nstoecker@nksinfo.com




Posted by Nora Stoecker on April 16, 2008 at 10:19 PM EDT #

I THINK THE ISSUE ARE TO JUST BE BLUNT BIG BROTHER LITTL BROTHER IS WATCHING IS WHAT PEOPLE ARE AFRAID GOVERNMENT UNLAWFUL IN OUR HOUSE HOME AND LOOKING DON'T DOWN OUR OPINIONS AND THOUGHTS. SO NETWORKING SOMETIMES IS AND ISSUE IF YOU FEEL YOU LOSE FREEDOM OR WILL LOSE FREEDOM FOR PARTICIPATION AND CONTENT OF WHAT YOU HAVE TO SAY. WANTING TO SHARE INPUT NOT BE TAGGED BY THE GOVERNMENT TO BE PROGRAMMED LIKE A LAB RAT. SO IF LAWS ARE OBSERVE THE RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE THERE SHOULD BE A PROBLEM BUT IF BUT IF THESE ARE JUST THINGS TO BE USED TO SPY ON AMERICANS AND TAKE OUR FREEDOMS AWAY IT'S NOT SAFE . THE IDEA OF THE BLOG IS SAFE ILLEGAL GOVERNMENT MONITORING ISN'T

VET IN MI

Posted by BLOG SAFE/ BIG BROTHER ISN'T on April 18, 2008 at 01:39 PM EDT #

There is an interesting article in toda's Federal Computer Week titled "Governmetn enters the blogosphere (http://www.fcw.com/print/22_13/features/152474-1.html?type=pf)." It mentions TSA blog but it fails to mention most of the other federal agency blogs or point to the long list of Government Blogs posted on USA.gov (http://www.usa.gov/Topics/Reference_Shelf/News/blog.shtml).

The title of the article should have been something like "Government has long been in the blogosphere. Many agencies joining in." Maybe you could tell the FCW author John Zyskowski that.

The government is already in web 2.0. It's not a matter of if they should be...it's a matter of how long it will take other agencies to jump on board and realize the public is making it happen.

Posted by Unknown on May 12, 2008 at 04:22 PM EDT #

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