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24 Responses to “Government Blogs: Is the Era of Web 1.0 Government Over?”

1. Joanne Says:
   July 8th, 2008 at 10:21 am

   Government 1.0 is over Brian. Sometimes people wonder why we’re getting into social media, but it’s really quite simple - when you’ve got a message or service to deliver, it makes sense to be where the people are - it’s the same reason why the post office is located downtown.
   I’m the Tuesday blogger at GovGab.gov and it’s our experience that blogging is really pretty easy. You have to start with bloggers you can trust and have an unobtrusive layer of review, but that’s really not so hard, is it? At GovGab.gov we’re free to blog on any topic we want and we’re encouraged to write like the actual humans that we are. I think that government employees are often perceived as zombies or something, when most of us are really normal folks like you that have to pay the bills and enjoy long walks on the beach and playing with our kids.
   Many government agencies are finding that blogging is a great way to deliver a message while putting a human face on government, and the list of government blogs grows every week.
   Other than the blogs, some of my favorite examples of government in the social media space are:
   The Library of Congress now has almost 4,000 photos on Flickr (http://www.flickr.com/photos/library_of_congress/). What a great way to share these treasures with the public! There’s a lot of activity on social networking sites like Facebook - government agency groups and networks and events. Government videos are popping up on YouTube, you can easily bookmark and share content from USA.gov and GovGab.gov. You can even follow us on Twitter. You’ll find CDC and NASA in SecondLife.
   I could go on all day, couldn’t I? Well, that’s just scratching the surface of what’s going on and we’re just getting started. It’s fun and exciting and creative and we think a lot of good can come of it.
   Stop by usa.gov or GovGab.gov some time and share your thoughts. We really do read the email and listen to what people have to say.

2. Jeff Says:
   July 8th, 2008 at 11:46 am

   I would agree with Joanne. I run Eye Level, the blog of the Smithsonian American Art Museum. We want to connect with our visitors in more of a “conversational mode” rather than a “broadcast” one. We’re using Eye Level to bring interesting content to the surface where people can find it. And the blog is an excellent format in which to do this.

   We are also experimenting with flickr and other Web 2.0 applications. The goal is always to make content as transparent as possible and to foster dialogue about the works in our collection. (BTW, the Smithsonian just joined the flickr commons, along with the Library of Congress and other cultural institutions: http://flickr.com/photos/smithsonian.)

3. Brian Giesen Says:
   July 8th, 2008 at 11:50 am

   Joanne, thanks for sharing! Those are some great insights and excellent examples. It’s reassuring to many to hear from someone like you that being active and blogging on behalf of a federal agency is not as difficult as some might think. Keep up the excellent work at GovGab!

4. Christopher Dorobek Says:
   July 8th, 2008 at 2:56 pm

   An excellent collection of government blogs.
   In Federal Computer Week’s May 12 issue, we looked at how agencies are using blogs.
   http://www.fcw.com/print/22_13/
   I am fascinated by this ‘government 2.0′ stuff because I think there are interesting opportunities — particularly for government organizations, which are looking to involve citizens. It does involve a significant shift in thinking. Traditionally, government has operated under the mantra that information is power. Therefore, the closer that one holds information, the more powerful they are. What we are learning is that all of us are much smarter then each of us individually. And that we become much smarter as a collective.

   One other link: One of the government 2.0 rock-stars is EPA CIO Molly O’Neill, who has actually been doing some of these things. We recently had her on our FCW-Federal News Radio show. You can hear it here:
   http://www.fcw.com/blogs/editor/153068-1.html

   Agencies are largely touching their toes into the Web 2.0 water to see what is possible. And it is important to remember that this isn’t a silver bullet for all problems. But I think it is very interesting and definitely deserves our attention.

5. Will Fleiss Says:
   July 8th, 2008 at 4:08 pm

   As far as examples of government agencies using social media I was excited to see NHLBI of the National Institutes of Health create a group and web 2.0 informational platform on Eons.com for the promotion of Peripheral Arterial Disease (PAD) (www.eons.com/groups/group/peripheral-arterial-disease and http://www.eons.com/members/profile/LivingWithPAD). Full disclosure, I helped execute this campaign.

6. John Culberson Says:
   July 9th, 2008 at 12:17 am

   Heres how the House leadership will use this rule to control where and what I say and even exercise influence over your website/blog etc

   If the Ds rule change were in effect today, before I could post this, your website/blog would have to be preapproved as complying with House rules, my post would require a disclaimer that it was “produced by a House office for official purposes,” and the CONTENT of my post would have to be preapproved by the House Franking Committee as complying with “existing content rules and regulations.”

   This is a violation of your First Amendment rights and mine, and is an outrageous attempt by House leadership to stifle and control you and me. If Rs were in charge I would be just as outraged - forget the party label - I do not want the federal gov’t/House of Representatives certifying your website or the content of my posts. I am writing this post personally, in my official capacity, so it would fall precisely under their new rule and you and I would both be in violation unless we subjected ourselves and my words to their prior approval/editing.

   I am always ready to admit I am wrong but I am an attorney and this is what the letter means.

   This is a story worth following because I am going to continue to vigorously exercise my First Amendment rights on every social media outlet I can reach. It is my right as an American and my duty as a representative.

   thanks

   John Culberson

7. Tracy Johnson Says:
   July 9th, 2008 at 1:51 pm

   The Business Gateway Initiative is a cross agency program that develops and manages http://www.Business.gov. We are using many social media tools to reach out to small business owners and inform them of this great government resource: http://www.business.gov. You can find us on Twitter, Facebook, Myspace, and HomeBasedBusiness.com.

   Also, Business.gov has a regular blog on AllBusiness.com.

   The program itself uses Web 2.0 tools to communicate internally, such as Google sites. This is really helpful to communicate between contractors and government employees that may not have an agency email address.

   http://twitter.com/BusinessDotGov (others using Twitter include NASA & USA.gov)
   http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=389851008
   http://www.homebasedbusiness.com/profile/Businessgov
   http://www.allbusiness.com/government/government-support-business/10207067-1.html

8. Brian Giesen Says:
   July 9th, 2008 at 5:52 pm

   Jeff, thanks for the comment. You raise a great point about remembering to speak or write in a conversational tone, rather than an “official” or “broadcast” tone. For certain government officials (e.g., a Cabinet Secretary), though, I wonder if it might not appropriate to use a more official tone. I would want the secretary of defense to sound sure of him/herself, just like I wouldn’t want to see typos in the secretary of education’s posts. The key, which you and Joanne have hit upon, is to be authentic and communicate in a way that’s appropriate for the medium. And for social media, conversational is the appropriate tone. I noticed the link to the Smithsonian Flickr gallery wasn’t working, so I am putting in a new link:

   http://flickr.com/photos/smithsonian

9. Brian Giesen Says:
   July 9th, 2008 at 10:29 pm

   Thank you Congressman Culberson for taking time to comment on our blog! I think whether you’re talking to someone at a supermarket in your district or twittering, at the end of the day you’re having a conversation with your constituents. Which is a good thing. I hope experts like yourself and members of the House Administration committee make a good decision about whether and how existing rules (franking rules) apply to these new tools. I wanted to share a few links for people who are interested:

   Rep. Capuano’s letter
   http://gopleader.gov/UploadedFiles/Capuano_letter.PDF

   Mashable post:
   http://mashable.com/2008/07/09/is-congress-afraid-of-the-internet

   Let Our Congress Tweet:
   http://letourcongresstweet.org

10. Steve Fleckenstein Says:
    July 10th, 2008 at 7:35 am

    Nice post Brian. Your title suggests that there are distinct lines that separate one era of the web from another, but as you know there is in reality simply an expansion of the different ways we use technology to engage customers. In government (as in any sizable organization) there will always be a lot of information that is simply published with no opportunity for interaction; that’s appropriate if doing so meets customer needs.

    It’s important also to separate *use* of social media tools from *engagement* with customers through social media tools. Many organizations use blogs, twitter, etc. as simple extensions of content management systems. Others really engage citizens—the great work being done by CDC; use of blogs, twitter, YouTube, etc. by members of congress; and the wide open commenting on TSA’s Evolution of Security blog are all examples of engagement.

    Whatever the use, I’m encouraged that agencies are adopting these tools because seeing these examples gives other agencies “permission” to jump in.

11. Emily Goligoski Says:
    July 10th, 2008 at 4:21 pm

    Very timely–NPR ran a story on congresspeople and Twitter on NPR this morning that covered this topic: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=92398555.

12. Miguel Gomez Says:
    July 10th, 2008 at 5:22 pm

    Brian, thank you for the great post and for including the AIDS.gov blog. This is a timely post for us, as our blog just celebrated its six month anniversary — and we are taking time to reflect on the process, benefits, and challenges of blogging.

    There is a team of us that work on the AIDS.gov blog - so our blog is a hybrid of your first and second categories (official and group). Our team consists of three perspectives: government, public health, and new media. We collaboratively create each post, which has strengthened our internal dialogue and communication. On the other hand, this requires more coordination than if just one of us were writing the blog. We continue to grow and learn from this process.

    We look forward to continuing this conversation with you and others.

13. Brian Giesen Says:
    July 11th, 2008 at 8:17 am

    Christopher, thanks for the comment and the links to the Federal Computer Week coverage of government blogs and use of social media. You guys have covered this subject really well already and I wanted to point out the article “5 government blogs worth reading” specifically, as it’s something everyone should check out (although when I posted earlier this week I found the USA.gov list of govt blogs to be out of date already!):

    http://www.fcw.com/print/22_13/features/152467-1.html

14. Online Publicity Journal Says:
    July 14th, 2008 at 5:21 pm

    We saw this in the WSJ…. it’s crazy to think of politicians Twittering but everyone is entitled to free speech!

15. Brian Giesen Says:
    July 15th, 2008 at 8:25 am

    Agreed, and I think if elected officials’ press secretaries start drafting tweets for their bosses it will come through as inauthentic and won’t work. One of the reasons Congerssman Culberson has 1,300 followers on Twitter is because he’s speaking in his own voice. As someone who worked on the hill, I think it’d be so interesting if all 534 of his colleagues shared their experiences and points of view in the same open and transparent way.

    And thanks again to all who commented! I will be posting a link here this week to a new RSS feed page for government blogs on http://feeds.ogilvypr.com.

16. Alex, aka SocialButterfly Says:
    July 15th, 2008 at 12:32 pm

    Great post! I’ve been looking and following the government blogging scene myself for awhile. I recently created a post that (as of late June) listed all the government agencies and officials on Twitter. Currently, there are 5 government blogs that have expanded to twitter:

    @dipnote
    @govgab
    @greenversations
    @TSABlogTeam
    @USAgov - USA.gov

    There are a large number of GovTwitter-ers. You can see the full post here: http://snipurl.com/2z1qj or at http://www.fly4change.com

    I too look forward to how e-gov’t advances and expands. The CDC was already mentioned, but some of the other government blogs are also expanding into podcasting, youtube, bilingual posts (EPA), and more! Fun time for government! =)

17. Pedro Rocha Says:
    July 17th, 2008 at 9:15 am

    Awesome writting.

18. Jeffrey Levy, EPA Says:
    July 17th, 2008 at 11:32 am

    Very good post, and I especially appreciate your sorting the types of gov’t blogs. It’ll be useful as we look for ways to expand how we use blogging at EPA.

    In response to your headline, no. Web 1.0, 2.0, and whatever comes afterward are a set of tools, not a way of life. We’ll continue to use the right tools for the right job. Web 2.0 adds the ability to work with people to create content, but that’s not always the right thing to do, just like simply posting information (Web 1.0) isn’t always the best approach.

    For example, we’ll always issue press releases. For the forseeable future, though, emailing them to people who subscribe to a mailing list makes sense. That’s Web 1.0. We’ll also make announcements on our Web site, which is also Web 1.0. But we’ll also continue issuing them in RSS feeds, blog about relevant stories of the day, do podcasts about them, ask questions of the week in our blog, etc. And that’s Web 2.0.

    Similarly, for Earth Month last April, we wanted to spread 30 environmental tips. We used a mix of Web 1.0 and 2.0: email subscriptions, RSS feeds, widgets, podcasts, and home page banners. And a news release announcing the whole thing.

    The keys to successful communication haven’t changed: identifying the audience, determining what we want to accomplish, and choosing the right mix of tools.

19. Brian Giesen Says:
    July 17th, 2008 at 12:17 pm

    Pedro, thanks for the comment and post on your blog, Will It Brand (http://willitbrand.blogspot.com/2008/07/social-media-politics.html)!

20. Brian Giesen Says:
    July 17th, 2008 at 12:28 pm

    Jeffrey, you really hit the nail on the head - thanks for the great comment!

    My colleague John Stauffer and I just did a webinar on how to develop a social media strategy. Our main argument was, like yours, is that any sucessful social media plan involves 1) understanding the audience, 2) having a crystal clear understanding of your business/communications objectives (i.e., what are you looking to accomplish), and 3) then developing your program around certain pillars of engagement.

    The webcast is archived here if anyone is interested:

    https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/762430297

    A widget’s not always the way…

21. Alex, aka Socialbutterfly Says:
    July 19th, 2008 at 11:16 pm

    Ditto - great response Jeff! Whether its government, a non-profit, corporation, community group, etc…many of the same rules cross-over. With social media, especially sometimes in the government, getting the buy-in and a consensus on new communication channels can be tricky. But, I’ve found that when you approach the task using some of the same processes used for traditional media (clear objectives, research, identifying the target audience, etc.), some of the anxiety can be eliminated.

    However, wherever you go and whatever you do, something new and shiny shouldn’t just be built for the sake of looking at its reflection. This pitfall, I’ve found, is very true in the social media world. So, that would be my precaution for anyone entering web 2.0 waters. Before jumping into building a social network, virtual world, avatar, etc., determine your true objective that furthers the cause/issue. Jeff, you summed it up much clearer and greater than I, so in conclusion, I agree. =)

    I’m all about expanding and sharing the toolbelt, not necessarily eliminating items from it. (ie Web 1.0)

22. Brian Giesen Says:
    July 25th, 2008 at 3:21 pm

    I just created a new Government Feed collection on the Ogilvy Blog Feeds site.

    You can go to this page and subscribe to a single RSS feed that will pull in all of the recent posts into your rss aggregator (e.g., NetVibes or iGoogle). Or you can also choose feeds from individual government blogs. I will be adding new government blogs to the category as I find them so check it out!

    http://feeds.ogilvypr.com/index.cfm?event=viewCategory&categoryId=40

23. Craig Thomler Says:
    September 21st, 2008 at 7:21 am

    Great article and very interesting discussion thread.

    This isn’t purely a US phenomenon, similar initiatives are occurring around the world, from New Zealand’s Police wiki (www.policeact.govt.nz/wiki/), which is in the process of being passed as the first NZ citizen written Act of Parliament to the UK’s ‘Lords of the Blog’ (http://lordsoftheblog.wordpress.com), where several members of the House of Lord are actively blogging on the issues of the day and demystifying how the UK political system operates.

    Both the UK and New Zealand have clear online participation guidelines in place for public servants and this step has supported the growth of government blogging in those jurisdictions.

    I think that having these clear guidance is a critical step in the Web 2.0 maturity process.

24. farmer Says:
    November 13th, 2008 at 8:26 am

    but how about microblogging? there are few politicians from UK and US with twitter accounts!