Rock Creek Roundup (May 21 Edition)

Posted by: Meagen Ryan, Director of Strategy May 21, 2010 0 Comments

The Chairman takes the plunge into social media, Santa Clara County makes e-gov history, Data.gov celebrates its first birthday, and Federal Computer Week has a little fun, all in this week’s edition of the Rock Creek Roundup.

—When Admiral Mike Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, decided to embrace social media, he did so wholeheartedly, launching a Twitter account and a Facebook page in close succession. But the Chairman and his staff, including his Special Assistant for Public Affairs John Kirby, quickly learned that there was more to social media than simply setting up profiles. In this interview with Federal News Radio, Kirby talks about the reasons why the Chairman felt so strongly about getting involved in social media and the lessons that they’ve learned along the way—including the fact that when it comes to social media success, “you really have to commit manpower and resources to it.”

—Voters in Santa Clara County, California made history this week as the first people to fill out and sign voter registration forms electronically. The move, approved by Santa Clara’s Registrar of Voters, allows voters to forgo the old clipboard and pen methods of the past, and instead input their voter information on an iPhone, iPad, or other touchscreen-enabled mobile device. E-registration proponents believe that electronic registration will cut costs and help avoid mistakes that may be introduced when working with paper files. I suspect plenty of county governments will be keeping their eyes on Santa Clara to see how it all works out.

—A lot can happen in a year. Take, for example, online government data repository Data.gov. In the span of just 365 days, the site has added almost 250,000 datasets representing a variety of agencies—up quite a bit from the initial 47 datasets that graced the site at launch. The site also recently got a makeover (scheduled to launch today) that puts a stronger emphasis on searchability and making popular datasets easily available. I can’t wait to see where Data.gov is when it’s celebrating its second birthday if it’s made these kinds of strides in the first year alone.

—So, a guy walks into his office and notices a man on a horse in the far cubicle. While it may sound like the setup for a bad joke, it’s actually a fun little contest being hosted by Federal Computer World. In the spirit of Government 2.0 and having a good laugh, the site is hosting the FCW Challenge Caption contest. Simply take a look at the cartoon in question (which really does show a man on a horse in a cubicle) and submit your Gov. 2.0-themed caption in the comments section. The winner will be announced on June 14 in a special user-contributed version of FCW.

Meagen Ryan

Director of Strategy

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