360DigitalInfluence

Myth: Government is as 1.0 as the day is long.

Fact: A community of civil servants are putting the 2.0 in dotgov.

The dearth of social media engagement from our fine government body is noticeable, especially when held against some of the spectacular spectaculars in motion by the sector’s corporate brethren. However, I stand as a witness to the fact that dozens (hundreds?) of people are putting an end to this madness.

I spent a day at this week’s Social Media for Government conference here in D.C., hosted by the Advanced Learning Institute. I was there as a speaker - my presentation, given with Stephanie Marshall, Director of Pandemic Communications at the Department of Health and Human Services, was about the Pandemic Flu Leadership Blog on which our teams collaborated this past summer. I snobbishly thought that the few PR/ad agency folks at the event would be those that were “in the know,” while government agency reps would be “in the dark.” Mr. T pities fools like me.

About 120 people from most government sectors, and consulting firms, were in attendance. Most of them were more than familiar with social and digital media tools, tricks, and troubles, and were simply trying to break the mold and get their management team on board.

Pictured at left: Paul Vogelzang of Porter Novelli and the event’s chairperson stands with Lawrence Swiader, CIO of the Holocaust Museum.

 
 
 
State of the Government Blogosphere

• David Wyld “dropped some knowledge” from his recently released report “The blogging Revolution: Government in the Age of Web 2.0:”

1. 34 members of Congress are blogging (more from the House than the Senate)
2. Over 100 state legislators are blogging
3. There are 5 blogging Governors and Lieutenant Governors (all Democrats)
4. Mayors and other public officials are stepping up, too.

• A few groups are setting the bar high for government in the social media space

1. The Holocaust Museum’s Google Earth mashup transports people on a guided, vivid haunting tour of the Crisis in Darfur
2. The CIA’s Intellipedia connects the intelligence community in secure and smart ways. Sean Dennehy and Don Burke, the brains behind Intellipedia, are pictured to the right.
3. CDC, renowned for it’s foray into Second Life, also offers practical and interactive resources for engagement (e.g. a blog and online videos) through its E-Health Marketing initiative
   
   
4. HHS’ Pandemic Flu Leadership Blog is an example of a short-term blog created to address a singular issue. The blog ran for 5 weeks this summer and remains online as an archive of the conversation. Secretary business leaders, etc.).Michael Leavitt is now maintaining his own blog.
   Pictured at right: Michele France, NIH; Stephanie Marshall, Director of Pandemic Communications at HHS; me

• Rounding it out: A couple weeks ago I attended a presentation of the new study by National Journal’s Policy Council: “Washington in the Information Age.” The report looks looks at media consumption habits of politicos, and among other interesting findings, reveals that active blog readers include 53% of Capitol Hill Staffers, 20% of Federal Executives, and 30% of Private-Sector Insiders (consultants, lobbyists,

Call me an optimist. But you know, when Shel Israel (event keynote) pontificates on the difference between Web 1.0 (connecting computers with other computers) and Web 2.0 (connecting people with other people), I can’t help but expect that a government of by and for the people will be catching up. And not as slowly as you’d expect.

Perhaps they’re not resplendent in social media culture, but we do know that government leaders are, at least, online (e.g., 915,000 of Washingtonpost.com’s 8 million monthly readers are using .gov/.mil email addresses). Plus, the Social Media for Government event is now moving onto a wiki to continue the discussion, and anyone can connect to this mini-movement on Facebook. It’s just a matter of time until two-way dialog is ushered into day-to-day government communications.

UPDATE: Federal Times’ Tim Kauffman covered the event. The article gives a good overview of government-driven social networking efforts, specifically CDC’s Whyville community and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s partnership with Care2, a leading advocacy network. (Thanks to Care2’s Eric Rardin, who also spoke at the event, for the heads up.)