Entry bubble Happy Birthday, GovGab! When I was One…

By: Joanne | September 23, 2008 | Category: General

Baby Joanne holding a teddy bear, sitting on her father's lap.Light your incense and get out your love beads, because we’re getting into the way-back machine to travel to 1968. Our country was at war in Vietnam, there was unrest on our college campuses, Robert F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr. were assassinated, and Richard Nixon was elected president.

“Hey Jude” by The Beatles and “Love Child” by Diana Ross & The Supremes and “I Heard It Through the Grapevine” by Marvin Gaye all made it to #1 on the Billboard chart. “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida” by Iron Butterfly was in the top 40 and Oliver!, based on the Charles Dickens novel Oliver Twist won the Academy Award for Best Picture.

When I look back, I see that there are many things in government that happened that we take for granted today. The Fair Housing Act, which prohibits discrimination in the sale and rental of housing, became law. Apollo 8’s three man crew was the first to orbit the moon (we didn’t land on the moon until Apollo 11 in 1969). And the network of scenic, historic, and recreation trails was created by the National Trails System Act of 1968.

Back in 1968, if you wanted to contact the government, you had to physically go to the specific office, write a letter, or make a telephone call—probably long distance. If you didn't know which federal agency to contact, you just had to take a guess and hope whoever you reached would be helpful, and know something about which agency did what. That is, unless you were lucky enough to live in one of the seven cities that had a Federal Information Center. Then you could make a local call, or visit the Center in person, and a trained Information Specialist would help you get to the right office. In 2008, the Federal Information Center program has grown into a nationwide government information service that you can reach by calling 1 (800) FED INFO. That's 1 (800) 333-4636, and information agents are available to answer your questions in English or Spanish from 8 AM to 8 PM EST.

So much has changed since I was one. Many things have changed for the better, I think. As we look forward to our second year of blogging, we want to hear from you and get your ideas for how our blog can serve you in the present and the future.

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Entry bubble GovGab Birthday Week!

By: Jake | September 22, 2008 | Category: Fun

Happy Birthday to us! Happy Birthday to us! Happy Birthday dear us! Happy Birthday to us!

Baby JakeGov Gab is now a Year Old. Technically today is not Gov Gab's first birthday (it was Saturday), but we decided to make our first b-day a week-long event. Each Govgabber will talk about what was going down in the U.S. when he or she turned the big numero uno. As you can see from the adorable whippersnapper on the swing (aka me), we're also including pics of ourselves circa 12 months. We've also released a Gov Gab's First Birthday Social Media Release, which we think is the first U.S. government example of a social media release.

Even though I was just swinging around, 1980 was a busssssy year. There was a United States presidential election, Olympics and the U.S. Census Bureau did its thing (conducted a census). Mother Nature showed her fury with the Mount St. Helens explosion and a major heat wave.

Ordinary People won the Academy Award for Best Picture and Robert De Niro won Best Actor for playing a Raging Bull named Jake (no relation). Of course Star Wars fans know 1980 as the year that Luke learned who his father was. Music lost icons John Lennon and John Bonham and was well on its way to becoming 80's music with releases by the Talking Heads, U2 and (sigh) Loverboy.

I think the most notable occurrence in 1980 that relates to Gov Gab was the passing of Canadian communications theorist Marshall McLuhan. McLuhan was best known for the phrase "the medium is the message" but he also wrote extensively about the term "global village," which today is synonymous with the Internet.

McLuhan's interpretation of the global village was negative, but he never lived to see the Internet. It's no secret that the Internet has changed our lives. From paying bills or even finding a date, you can do just about anything on the web (even conduct government transactions!).

So how do you think the global village has changed your life? Also, feel free to suggest on any post this week what we can do here at Gov Gab to improve as we work toward our terrible twos.

| View Comments [10] | envelope E-mail This Entry | Tags: 1980   1980's   birthday   global_village   govgab_birthday   jake   social_media   social_media_release