Rock Creek Roundup (August 28 Edition)

Posted by: Meagen Ryan, Director of Strategy Aug 27, 2009 0 Comments

In this week’s Rock Creek Roundup, we’ll cover contact envy and why quality trumps quantity when it comes to social network collaboration, as well as news that the IRS is using iTunes to enlighten taxpayers:

• It’s only human to feel a little twinge of jealousy when you notice your coworker has 50 more LinkedIn connections than you do, or to feel a sense of pride when you realize your agency’s Facebook page has a growing number of fans. But this “race to the top” mentality may actually be impeding one of the best features of social media—meaningful collaboration. In this opinion piece, blogger Oliver Marks reminds us that contact quality always trumps contact quantity when it comes to creating “valuable repositories of information
• Interested in what the government is tweeting right this minute? Head over to Nextgov.com and check out “The Feed,” a collection of tweets from a variety of government Twitter accounts, including the White House, Department of Homeland Security, the Army and more. The site lets you filter feeds by topic or view tweets in reverse chronological order.
• With the announcement earlier this week that as many as 90,000 Americans could die this flu season as a result of the H1N1 virus, questions and concerns about flu vaccinations are on the public’s mind. On Wednesday, the Department of Health and Human Services announced that it is using the CDC website to recruit public volunteers to participate in web-based discussions regarding messaging and approaches to vaccination. The discussions will continue through September 1.
• Unsure of how to take advantage of the $8000 homebuyers tax credit, or confused about what the expanding energy credits mean for you? You’re in luck, as this week the IRS launched both videos and podcasts aimed at helping taxpayers better understand some of the new tax provisions in the recently passed stimulus package. The videos and podcasts are available in the IRS’s multimedia center as well as on YouTube and in iTunes.
• The Potomac Forum Gov 2.0 Best Practices Symposium had the Gov 2.0 community busy tweeting this week. Themes and sound bites can be found via the Twitter stream, archived at TwapperKeeper (thanks @sjsanford), and in liveblogging courtesy of Robin Paoli, posted on GovLoop.

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Meagen Ryan

Director of Strategy

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