Open Gov Directive Hits the Streets (in an oh so ironic way)
So the White House released the long-awaited Open Government Directive this morning, appropriately accompanied by a live videostream at both the White House site and on Facebook with Federal CTO Aneesh Chopra, Federal CIO Vivek Kundra and new media director Macon Phillips.
With only time for a quick glance through the directive (it wasn’t made available prior to the announcement), if there’s one certainty it’s that the next four months are sure to bring additional change and increased activity in the Gov 2.0 space as agencies look to comply with the directive’s various deadlines which include:
- Within 45 days each agency must ID and publish a minimum of three “high-value data sets” and register those sets with Data.gov.
- OMB, the Federal CIO and CTO will create a government-wide working group in 45 days to focus on transparency, accountability, participatoin and collaboration throughout the federal government.
- Within 60 days, each agency must create an “Open Government webpage (to include a public feedback mechanism), and a government-wide dashboard will be created by the Federal CIO at this time to track/rate agency progress against the directive and its deadlines
- Within 90 days, OMB will issue guidance on how “agencies can use challenges, prizes, and other incentive-backed strategies to find innovative or cost-effective solutions” to improve open government.
- Within 120 days, agencies must create an “Open Government Plan” to describe how it will improve its transparencyand integrate public participation/collaboration into its activities
It will be interesting to see what key themes, issues and challenges emerge after folks have time for a more in-depth look at the directive (which is an unfunded mandate, by the way). An example of just how hard it can be to drive this new mix of cultural and technological change comes from the directive itself. Part 1-b of the new directive states that agencies “to the extent practicable…should publish information online in an open format that can be retrieved, downloaded, indexed, and searched by commonly used web search applications.” In a bit of unintentional irony, The White House chose to issue the directive as a non-machine-readable PDF.
View the directive here, and also the White House Blog post on the directive. [edit 12/13: Looks like they updated formats and now it's available as html, as well as pdf, txt, doc or view on Slideshare]
If you’d like to extend the discussion, I’ve started a topic up over at GovLoop.
One Year, Thousands of GovTwits
Today marks the one year anniversary of the GovTwit directory. Started as a simple blog post listing about 150 IDs, the directory now contains over 2,500 names of agencies and individuals in the public sector who are using Twitter to share information and ideas about critical issues facing government.
In the past year we’ve seen the first tweet from space, an official White House Twitter account, and agencies like the EPA, CDC and FDA begin using the channel as a central part of citizen outreach and education efforts (for green/sustainability, H1N1 and the peanut product recall among other issues). We’ve seen an explosion of state/local government gravitating to Twitter, and we saw the State Department ask the microblogging service to delay planned technical maintenance in order to allow messages from Iranian election protesters to continue to be shared worldwide.
As Twitter adoption grew throughout the government, GovTwit grew as well, moving beyond its blog roots to add search, tagging and other powerful tools to make it a more useful resource. There’s also now a Facebook fan page and FriendFeed stream to allow other outlets for people to get news on new directory additions. GovTwit has been featured in Mashable, USA Today (among other publications), and was ranked at the number two spot in Federal Computer Week’s list of “10 Social Network Sites to Keep You in the Loop.”
But beyond becoming what I hope is a useful resource for the larger public sector community, the research used to build GovTwit has helped me personally gain a better understanding of the issues facing government today. It’s also left me optimistic for the future of gov given the abundance of smart minds thinking and working and collaborating daily about how to make government better.
Without this platform I most likely wouldn’t have met or had the chance to interact with folks like Steve Ressler or Andy Krzmarzick of GovLoop, fruit fly brain surgeon Dr. Mark Drapeau or Chris McCroskey, the founder of TweetCongress. Very doubtful I would have otherwise crossed paths with people like San Francisco public servant Adriel Hampton, Luke Fretwell of GovFresh or Peter Corbett of iStrategy Labs. Not to mention Craig’s List founder Craig Newmark, tech guru Tim O’Reilly, GSA’s Mary Davie or EPA’s Jeffrey Levy. There’s also USDA’s Amanda Eamich, HHS’ Andrew Wilson, Brian Drake (now a colleague at Deloitte), Steve Radick (from a competing consulting firm), Bob Gourley (former DIA CTO), Dave Faggard and Alan Black of the Air Force, John Shea of FEMA or TSA’s Neil Bonner and Paul Worsham. Local councilman Ari Herzog, the Pentagon’s Jack Holt, Federal News Radio’s Chris Dorobek, Gautham Nagesh of Government Executive and literally dozens upon dozens of other “GovTwits” I’ve met over the past year have made interacting on Twitter much more than just “social networking.”
So if you’ve used the site for research, contributed an ID, rated it at oneforty.com or directed colleagues to GovTwit when someone says “I don’t understand how Twitter could be useful in government,” thank you. I hope to continue to add and grow the directory as government 2.0 continues to grow as well.
Government 2.0 #FAIL
Guest Post by Brian Drake
Evolving a conversation we started back in September, I think are quickly arriving at a solution to the nagging feeling that we need to take the Intra-Government 2.0 movement to the next level.
The Goverati are a small group of committed individuals. It’s not new news that the conversation has become an echo chamber. As a result, I opened a dialogue with Steve Radick, Steve Lunceford, and Lena Trudeau at the very end of the Gov2.0 Summit about how we can get more people, enthusiasm, and get some tough issues on the table.
This is by no means a reflection on the quality of the Gov2.0 Summit or the Expo. Both events, for the first time, drew out some new faces and new questions. The one group we continue to not hear from are the detractors or skeptics of social software.
Deep and Complicated Issues Are Emerging
Larry Lessig wrote a spectacular piece for The New Republic entitled “Against Transparency.” Larry supplies a very cogent argument against the disclosure of too much data from Congressional members. He wraps together several threads and arguments that the government transparency movement advances and dissects the second and third order impacts. For instance, the dangers of drawing conclusions from data (like campaign donation amounts) in the absence of context may have the opposite effect desired. Another example, the richness of some data betrays how poor it actually is because it requires deep analysis to understand it. Lastly, my favorite argument from Larry is the increasingly prevalent phenomenon of the public’s short attention span. We have so many mandatory reports that Congress members need to complete, but very few people in the public at-large are (a) willing to go through it all and (b) no one has the patience to listen to why it matters.
Lessig’s perspective is entirely undervalued in the Government 2.0 community. We need to hear from more people with similar perspectives and ideas.
Voices in the Wilderness of Failure
In addition to the slim number of public, cogent arguments against Government 2.0, our own discussions about failures are truncated. I’m noticing our Government 2.0 conferences either trumpet the achievements of the few or recast a failure as a success.
We all learn something valuable from failed projects. I think, however, that the presence of politics changes the equation. Gene Krantz’s immortal quote, “Failure is not an option,” is the mantra of many Federal executives, Congressional overseers, and taxpayers. And budget dollars are getting more scarce.
As a result, few people in this political environment wish to speak-out about their failures or their agency’s/department’s failures. Yet again, we are robbed of a unique point of view that should be shared, but no one feels insulated/comfortable enough to share it.
Reaching the Unconverted
The problem, in summary, is that the richness and depth of our conversation around Gov2.0 needs to be enhanced. So, in early 2010, our small federation of planners will be hosting a workshop on The Shortfalls of Government 2.0. We want to draw together the informed detractors and advocates who have been hinting at strategies and solutions that are helpful to everyone. We seek a dialogue that informs each side and allows us to advance mission objectives.
The Environment
Intimate settings, NO ATTRIBUTION– In order to hear from those who are the most afraid of embarrassment or political blow-back, we are shrinking the size of each break-out and building it around close conversations. While the number of people coming may be quite large, we will have enough break-out sessions so the there is topical variety and small gatherings.
The Format
Round-Robin Break-outs– One of the chief complaints of participants is that they never get to see everything they wanted to see. We will be working against that problem by having repeating topical sessions. So if you didn’t catch the session on “The Security Vulnerabilities of Web 2.0 Technologies” at 10:00 . . . don’t worry . . . the same talk will be held at 12:00 and 3:00.
Less Talk At You– I find that I learn more by talking to others. In a departure from past conferences and more in line with the Government 2.0 BarCamp, we will be having a conversation-centric format. Facilitators will expect questions from participants. Participants should expect answers from facilitators (and participants).
The Speakers
Detractors and Strategists– We want a morning that is heavy with the dangers and issues around Government 2.0 implementations. This will be a combination of speaker keynotes, debates, and perspectives on the issues around social software. Buttressed against these sessions will be a cadre of strategic thinkers and battle-scarred veterans who can answer your questions and address each issue as it is raised.
What We Need
You. We need participants, presenters, and assistants to build the agenda. Our small planning committee have a few topics we want to address like: Smart Procurement Strategies, Policy, the Law, and the Difference, Detailed Case Examples (what worked, what didn’t), etc.
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About the author: Brian Drake is a Manager and social software evangelist with large consulting firm. He advises government and commercial clients on a wide variety of collaboration solutions that span behavioral, technical, and organizational change dynamics. His client focus areas include strategy development, communications, change management, and Enterprise 2.0 solutions. He presently serves a U.S. Federal Government client on the Collaboration Consulting Team.
Originally published on Brian’s blog, The Green Dotted Line; views expressed on the Green Dotted Line are his and his alone.
Mixing Up Some Awesome Sauce
GovLoop’s Sale to GovDelivery
By now you’ve most likely read the news stories and early blogs about GovDelivery’s acquisition of GovLoop, the government social networking site that has rapidly grown from zero to nearly 20,000 members in just over a year. GovLoop founder Steve Ressler broke the news on GovLoop via a blog post, and GovDelivery CEO Scott Burns also blogged about the acquisition at his site.
Steve and Scott sat down with me last week to chat a bit about the move and what it means to both of them. You can read more in the news stories linked below but the basic gist is this:
For GovDelivery, which helps government agencies deliver critical messages to key audiences (over 1 billion to-date), GovLoop provides an entre into the fast-growing Gov 2.0 community and a way to help drive additional collaboration amongst its client agencies through the existing forum and new (yet to be determined) services.
For GovLoop, GovDelivery provides resources and reach. This means Ressler can now manage the site full-time and bring on some additional staff. GovLoop will also be able to tap into GovDelivery’s core business to help federal, state and local govies learn and find out about the networking site to rapidly grow membership. As Steve said to me, “GovLoop is all about the ability to connect and share information. There are 20 million government employees nationwide [see Census data] and GovLoop is only reaching 20,000 right now. I’d love to see that number grow to 100,000 or more.”
With 15-30% of the tens of millions of emails sent by GovDelivery landing in .gov email boxes (as government employees opt-in to receive information from other agencies), growing GovLoop from 20,000 to 100,000 seems an aggressive, but attainable goal.
Some Analysis & Advice
I provided some high-level analysis and feedback on the acquisition yesterday to Federal Computer Week (as did Dr. Mark Drapeau). But let me take a moment to share what I think are the top five areas Steve and Scott need to focus on as GovLoop moves from Ressler’s “five to nine” job to his “nine to five” job:
1) Cleanup on Aisle 10: I tease Steve about messy content on the site, but for good reason – GovLoop can be an overgrown jungle of information that’s hard for newbies to hack their way through. As full-time resource is applied to the site, I’m hoping that content structure and presentation can be improved in a way that helps facilitate richer conversation.
2) Kill some children: [Figuratively people, figuratively] At my count today, 225 of the 550 GovLoop groups had just five members or less, partly contributing to point number one above. Give groups a chance to grow, but if they aren’t attracting a robust audience, don’t be afraid to shut them down.
3) Draw us a map: Changes are sure to come as Steve integrates GovLoop into GovDelivery and the two figure out how to work together to make this acquisition a success. You don’t have to be open kimono, but share directionally the types of new services and such *before* implementing to give the community a voice and chance to weigh in.
4) Just say no: That whole thing about giving the community a chance to weigh in? I think it’s sound advice. Rolling out on each and every idea the community presents? Umm, not so much. Cherish the advice you get from your users, continue to work toward making the site more useful, but keep in mind that you’ll never please everyone all of the time. Trust your gut and shape/grow the site as you believe it needs to grow.
5) Someone’s knocking at the door; do me a favor open the door and let ‘em in: This is a pure strategy decision, but it’s time to open up GovLoop’s content to those that aren’t members. Currently you must first register before you can read any blogs, posts, wikis or information on the site. When links are shared in blogs, Twitter, Facebook or by email, I’m certain many recipients simply abandon their interest once they hit GovLoop and see they must first register as a member. Perhaps you have public groups and private groups. Perhaps there are features available only to registered users, but the information needs to be set free. Now’s the perfect time to unlock the content and expose more people to everything the members are talking about and sharing via GovLoop. Remember the 90-9-1 theory can be powerful, and sharing doesn’t necessarily have to be two-way to be valuable.
Click on the GovDelivery/GovLoop banner above for a list of most media coverage regarding the sale of GovLoop. Some of the more interesting stuff I’ve seen online:
- An Awesome Interview with the Founder of GovLoop, Steve Ressler - Steve Radick’s blog
- GovLoop finds new home at GovDelivery – Federal News Radio’s Daily Debrief with Chris Dorobek & Amy Morris
- GovLoop acquisition by GovDelivery strengthens both, analysts believe – FCW’s Alice Lipowicz
- GovDelivery acquires ‘Facebook to the Feds’ GovLoop – NextGov’s Gautham Nagesh
- Gov 2.0 Shakeup: GovLoop merges with GovDelivery – OhMyGov!’s Richard Hartman
- Fast-growing government social networking site GovLoop acquired – GCN’s Doug Beizer
BREAKING: Steve Ressler and Scott Burns will join Adriel Hampton and myself tomorrow night (Wednesday, 9/30 at 9 p.m. ET) on Gov 2.0 Radio to talk live about the sale. Join in and ask questions; and to make it even more fun, take a shot every time you hear Ressler say the word “awesome.” 
GovTwit Week in Review 9/21 – 9/27
So the highlight of my week in Gov 2.0 came last Thursday, when I had a chance to listen to and meet the crew of NASA’s STS-127 thanks to @NASA’s tweetup at the agency’s D.C. headquarters. The event drew nearly 20o participants from all over (including@argelialibertad who came all the way from Venezuela) who took up the agency on its offer to get up close and personal with honest-to-goodness astronauts.
NASA Astronaut and STS-127 Mission Commander Mark Polansky, left, answers questions at the NASA Tweetup event held at NASA Headquarters, September 24, 2009 in Washington. Nearly 200 of NASA's Twitter followers are in attendance. Photo Credit: (NASA/Carla Cioffi)
This was the second such Tweetup the agency has conducted, and it was truly a first class event: goodie bags with NASA posters, puzzles, pins, reporter’s notebooks and the like; live feed of event on NASA TV (complete with cool NASA Tweetup animation); opportunity to ask the crew questions and get autographs; photos and more (see some of the agency’s Flickr shots here).
To show what a Gov 2.0 geek I am, while others queued up to speak to the astronauts, I was trying to track down @BethBeck (office of space operations) and NASA Public Affairs team members Stephanie Schierholz and Mike Curie to chat about why they put the event on. Beth put it best when she told me they get to work with these men and women all the time but the public has very few opportunities to meet, speak with and ask questions of those who are completing the agency’s missions in space. The Tweetups are a way to help communicate directly about NASA and help the public understand the importance of the various missions.
Speaking with STS-127 Pilot Doug Hurley, Colonel USMC (photo by NASA's Beth Beck)
While other agencies may not have the star power of the space program and astronauts to help fill seats, I believe other agencies could learn from NASA’s efforts in terms of sharing info in a new way with citizens. It would be great to see other examples of gov using public Tweetups as one of their Gov 2.0 tactics.
Check out Beth’s blog here, and below is a video presentation on the mission of STS-127 (same video presented at Tweetup, but missing the astronauts’ personal commentary.
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The first “Twitter App Store” launched at OneForty.com and GovTwit is listed under the networking section. If you get a chance to review/rate GovTwit at the site, it would be appreciated (and many thanks to @sarahebourne, Chief Technology Strategist at Commonwealth of Massachusetts for leaving a review).
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Great video on the Top 10 Stupid Things People do Using Social Media according to Pentagon Channel’s FNG (For the New Guys) HatTip to @mixtmedia for originally pointing out the video on Facebook. In addition to being entertaining, I learned that the Pentagon Channel has a great Facebook presence as well as YouTube presence.
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The FCC upped it’s online interactions with the launch of OpenInternet.gov including soliciting feedback on Chairman Julius Genachowski’s speech on to The Brookings Institution, which is a prelude to upcoming official proceedings around the topic.
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According to @Hitwise_UK, UK Govt websites now receive more traffic from social networks than news sites – http://twitpic.com/ike22
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Interesting Additions to GovTwit Directory Tweeted Last Week:
Added @USAMB4REFORM (Dept. of State, Kenyan Ambassador) to directory: http://bit.ly/ID1Om
Hmm, @2gov seems to be mashup of @tweetcongress & not yet deployed @govluv http://bit.ly/aIGDP (HT @civicvoice)
Just added @Astro_127 to GovTwit (yeah, should have had him in before @NASA tweetup): http://bit.ly/156ubM
We’re happy to welcome Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke to Twitter! Follow him at @SecLocke
GovTwit Week in Review 9/14 – 9/20
Lots of interesting stories and discussion continued the week after Gov 2.o Summit, so let’s get to it…
As pointed out in a Washington Post story, Tweeting Their Own Horns, many politicians spend most of their time on Twitter promoting themselves. This according to a study of 6,000 tweets over the summer by researchers at the University of Maryland. The story calls out GovTwit sister site TweetCongress as it reports that members of Congress spent just 7% of their time interacting with citizens when using the microblogging platform.
Jim Gilliam (creator of Act.ly, NationBuilder and the upcoming GovLuv), Alan Silberberg (co-founder and CEO of You2Gov), and Nisha Chittal (of New Media Strategies and Politocoholic) joined myself, Adriel Hampton and Steve Ressler Sunday on Gov 2.0 Radio to talk a bit about how the legislative branch is struggling to get its arms around using new media tools to interact more effectively with constituents. The guests also filled us in on Congress Camp. Interesting conversation; you can listen below.
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Over at the White House blog, new media directory Macon Phillips posted about how to better manage 1978’s Presidential Records Act obligations in today’s digital world. The Act requires the preservation of records created or received by the President or his staff, and that of course covers posts on Flickr, YouTube, Twitter and more. As Macon points out:
“The PRA was written in 1978. It doesn’t have a section on email. But everyone agrees that these electronic communications meet the Act’s broad definition of presidential records, and that the White House is legally required to preserve them.
The emergence of social media has created new forms of communication. Instead of sending an email, people often now post on someone’s profile or comment on a video or photo that’s been uploaded. When people want to tell the White House what they think, they’ll often do the same thing on our social media pages. A lot of times, we solicit this feedback because we want to hear from you.
These new types of communications from individuals to the White House, even though they take a different form, are governed by the PRA. Working with NARA, we’ve concluded that comments and messages the White House receives on its official pages are presidential records. That means the PRA requires us, by law, to preserve them.”
To that end, the White House has posted a draft request for a proposal for an automated archiving process. It will be interesting to see how this shapes up.
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Federal Computer Week’s Federal List issue was published and GovTwit was honored to be ranked at the number two spot in their list of “10 Social Network Sites to Keep You in the Loop.” Also featured were GovLoop (at number one, of course), NAPA Collaboration Project (3), The Gov IT Wiki (4), NASA CoLab (5), The Federal Contractor Network (6), GovStation (7), Sensorpedia (8), FedScoop (9) and MeritTalk (10). Glad to be in such great company.
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Stumbled across a must-read case-study on how the military tweets from Corey Christiansen (an undergraduate Communication/Social Science student at University of Washington). Probably one of the most in-depth independent looks at how the U.S. DoD and it’s many moving parts have gravitated toward Twitter as a channel (small GovTwit shout out as well).
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The Federal CIO Council released its guidance on security & social media. One of the big themes in the document centers around workforce education, something I’ve been talking people’s ears off about of late. Seriously, do you go out and try to chop down a tree without training on the right way to do it (see below for answer)? My Deloitte colleague Mike Smith (@rybolov on Twitter) was a reviewer/contributor to the guidance. Check out his excellent blog The Guerilla CISO.
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GSA launched its Apps.Gov cloud service and Google said it would follow in 2010 with a government-centric cloud of its own. Interestingly enough, Twitter was absent from the first cut of Apps.Gov
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3121, a new social network designed for congressional members and staff launched after several months of testing. The National Journal says its “walled-off Web site offers a secure directory of contacts, communications tools and customizable news feeds so users can find and collaborate with colleagues and create personalized news filters.”
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Interesting Additions to GovTwit Directory Tweeted Last Week:
Added @craigstoltz (who joined USDA) to directory
Added @jsc_a to directory: Joint Sustainment Command – Afghanistan
Added @NASATweetUp to directory
Added @sbgovwins, managed by ASBC.org, tweeting small biz gov wins
Added @NIEMExecDir to http://govtwit.com; learn about the National Info Exchange Model DOJ/DHS partnership here: http://www.niem.gov/whatIsNiem.php
GSA’s Industry Relations division now on Twitter @GSApbsIRD & in GovTwit
Added @ILDOI, IL Dept of Insurance to http://govtwit.com; new acct with only 5 followers, show them some love
Added @nhlbi_nabel (Dr. Elizabeth Nabel, Dir of Natl Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, part of NIH)
Added @gopoversight & @oversightmaj tagged to the-hill, house sections
Added @bacadem, Baca County Emergency Management in CO
Looking for a colleague:
Deloitte’s Federal Practice is looking for Sr. Manager for Internal Comms; 10+ yrs experience. If you know of anyone, ping me. The listing is here.
Gov 2.0 Expo/Showcase Contest Winners!
The GovTwit & GovLoop contest for tickets to Gov 2.0 Expo Showcase and the invite-only Gov 2.0 Summit September 8-10 in Washington D.C. has ended and here are the winners:
Passes to Gov 2.0 Summit: @JulieJulie and @Lemur6; Passes to Expo Showcase: @JoeBoutte, @Mecredy, @atweber and @oxala75
Winners will be notified today (DM from GovTwit) and if any can’t attend, alternates have also been selected. Thanks to those who participated, and see you at the shows next week!
GovTwit Week in Review 8/23 – 8/29
Busy weekend, so consider this the “day-late but hopefully not dollar short” edition of the week in review…
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Great commentary posted on the “Web 2.0 Revolution” by GSA CIO Casey Coleman over at Federal Times last week where she draws parallels between Revolutionary War pamphleteer Thomas Paine’s “Common Sense” writings and the rise of citizen engagement through social media.
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I had the good fortune to attend the first day of the Potomac Forum’s two-day symposium on Gov 2.0 Leadership, Collaboration, and Public Engagement Symposium, where presenters from across government talked about how they were using web 2.0 tools and strategies to help innovate, collaborate and drive mission success in their agencies.
There were speakers from the Coast Guard, National Defense University, the Navy, FEMA, NASA, OMB, EPA, TSA, USAID and many more. A standout for me was a presentation from the State Department’s Molly Moran as she discussed Diplopedia and other online communities rolled out by the departments new media team. A lot of good information I hadn’t heard of before and great examples of how the tools, but more importantly the strategy behind the tools, can help drive success.
There was liveblogging of the event over at GovLoop (courtesy of Robin Paoli), and livetweeting using the #pfgov hashtag (captured/saved at both Twapper Keeper via Steve Sanford and TweetDoc). Thanks to Ken Fischer and all of the Potomac Forum team for such a great event.
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GovTwit kicked off a Twitter contest in conjunction with GovLoop to give away passes to the Gov 2.0 Expo & Summit. Contest ends this Friday, Sept. 4, so if you haven’t yet entered, get on with it! If you don’t want to tinker with the contest, how about 30% off Gov 2.0 Expo Showcase? Use GovTwit’s code gxp09bd5 to register.
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While the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency’s Chris Rasmussen spoke about Intellipublia and the future of collaborative intel gathering over at the Potomac Forum event, the Washington Post had a nice write-up on Intellipedia: For Intelligence Officers, a Wiki Way to Connect Dots. A good read and if you haven’t seen Chris’ YouTube video on Living Intelligence, certainly worth a watch.
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The Wall Street Journal’s Digits blog posted a story titled “Federal Government Mulls Web 2.0″ discussing the growing Gov 2.0 movement from a broad sweep. Not a lot of new info in the article, but interesting if for no other reason than we’re seeing more mainstream organizations starting to take note of the move toward more open and collaborative government via the use of social technology tools.
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From FCW: “The Internal Revenue Service launched a YouTube video site and an iTunes podcast site filled with content designed to provide taxpayers with information about tax provisions in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.” Also covered by the Wall Street Journal.
Despite a snarky tweet from Fox Businesses personality Shibani Joshi (below), it’s good to see the IRS looking at video and other tools to better inform citizens about complex issues like ARRA.
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Interesting Additions to GovTwit Directory Tweeted This Week:
Added @129RQW (CA Air Natl Guard) to directory
New NASA to follow: added @StationCDRKelly & @ShuttleCDRKelly to directory
GovTwit Week in Review 8/16-8/22
The DoD rolled out a new website last week at Defense.gov, highlighting social media tools in the site’s redesign. Check out the press release, Armed Forces Press Service story as well as the Social Media page in addition to the homepage.
In related news, there was an interesting story from PBS Media Shift on How US Departments of Defense and State differ in their approach to social media.
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On Wednesday the 19th, San Francisco launched the beta of its open data web site, DataSF.org. Mayor Gavin Newsom blogged over on TechCrunch that the site “will provide a clearinghouse of structured, raw and machine-readable government data to the public in an easily downloadable format. For example, there will be updated crime incident data from the police department and restaurant inspection data from the Department of Public Health.”
Jay Nath, manager of innovation for the city, spoke to WFED’s Daily Debrief about the launch, you can listen here. Jay and city CTO Blair Adams also spoke about the project on Gov 2.0 Radio late last month, listen below.
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GovTwit rolled out a new “Recommend” button on its homepage; now *you* can help build the directory. Learn more here.
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The Atlantic wrote a story on social media in the government, touching on the new DoD website launch and mentioning GovTwit in the copy as well: Gingerly, The Security Side of the Government Explores Twitter
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One of the best videos about social media was released this week on YouTube, built off of great data at SocialNomics.com by @equalman. Definitely a new opener when I go to give internal presentations on the growing import of social media.
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Emergency Management ran a story about Twitter and social media in emergency response drills.
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The Wall Street Journal’s Amy Schatz wrote about the FCC stepping up its online presence with a new blog and twitter account.
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Gov 2.0 Radio discussed Rethinking Conference Learning with the Graduate School’s Andy Krzmarzick and Ken Fischer of the Potomac Forum. Hear about the as he discusses the Open Government Innovations Tweetbook and more below:
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Found browsing http://govtwit.com/videos: @thejointstaff (Admiral Mike Mullen) wants your YouTube Q’s by 8/31 for Virtual Town Hall:
Interesting Additions to GovTwit Directory Tweeted This Week:
@robmoore518 was the first to use new “Recommend” button @GovTwit homepage. Thanks! @PuebloCounty now added
Added the Millenium Challenge Corp. (@MCTweets); U.S. Gov corp. designed to work w/some of the poorest countries in the world (HT @natenash)
It’s termite infested logo makes USDA’s @invasiveinfo a must-add to directory (2nd user to use new “recommend” button): http://bit.ly/JNXAp
Added 3 IDs from Fish&Wildlife: @USFWSHQ and @USFWSSoutheast @USFWSPacific (HT @ariherzog) – http://bit.ly/3lp8AX
Added @USMSOffice (NIST, Dept. of Commerce) – http://bit.ly/5FP1Q
The FCC joined Twitter today w/@fccdotgov (HT @schatzwsj); now listed in GovTwit
Win a Pass to Gov 2.0 Expo or Summit
The Gov 2.0 Expo Showcase and invite-only Gov 2.0 Summit September 8-10 in Washington D.C. are some of the hottest tickets in town to learn about how government can use technology as a platform for change.
These are can’t-miss events, and GovTwit & GovLoop have teamed up to give away four passes to the Expo and two passes to the Summit.
Here’s what you have to do to win:
Simply follow both @GovTwit and @GovLoop on Twitter and ReTweet the following message:
You gotta hurry, this contest ends September 4, 2009 at noon Eastern! Winners will be selected and notified via Twitter direct message September 4th, 2009 from random drawing of all participants. Prizes consist of pre-paid registration codes for Gov 2.0 Expo (Four winners to be selected) & Gov 2.0 Summit (Two winners to be selected).
This contest is open to everyone, one entry per person.
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