Rock Creek Roundup (February 5 Edition)

Posted by: Meagen Ryan, Marketing Strategist Feb 05, 2010 0 Comments

The Open Gov conference shares info and ideas, Nextgov opens nominations, FCW takes a look at what government agencies can do to improve communication across channels, and Drupal-powered government sites get a nod, all in this week’s version of the Rock Creek Roundup, brought to you from Gov 2.0 Camp LA in Los Angeles.

—Gov 2.0 Camp LA is getting ready to kick things off with Scott Johnson and me representing Rock Creek at the un-conference. Can’t make it to the event? TechZulu will be livestreaming the panels.

—Earlier this week, the Open Gov conference welcomed more than 250 government employees to share ideas and information about ways to meet the Obama Administration’s Open Government Directive. At the conference, representatives from a variety of government agencies, including the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Department of Transportation, spoke about how their agencies are using technology to fulfill the promise of the directive. For example, DOT’s Adam Schlicht explained how his organization has created a virtual world called Transportation Nation where DOT employees can interact, receive training, and share information, without ever having to leave their desks.

—Do you know a government employee who is making a positive impact on the way that government interacts with citizens? Is your boss or co-worker constantly pushing the envelope and spearheading initiatives that will move government in a new direction? Why not nominate them for the Nextgov Awards 2010, an award program designed to honor and recognize those public officials who “have demonstrated their ability to contend with numerous risks—entrenched bureaucratic interests, apathetic colleagues, and political minefields—to push through their ideas. And they have the results to show for it.” Nominations are open through March 12, 2010 and the winners will be recognized at the Gov 2.0 Expo in May 2010.

—Even with all of the strides that the government has made in communication and transparency, there is certainly still room for improvement. And in Federal Computer Week‘s recent “3 Must-Do’s for Agencies to Improve Citizen Engagement“ report, author Alan Joch talks with agency representatives, government consultants, and other experts to identify the top actions government agencies must take in order to improve communication with citizens via every available channel. The report’s action item number one? “Make internal collaboration someone’s job.” Joch’s article is worth a read for government agencies and other large enterprises that are in the process of figuring out how their communication structure will grow and scale, and the impact that new media channels will have on constituent and consumer satisfaction.

—Drupal. These days, you can’t go to a Gov 2.0 conference or read a government technology blog without hearing raves about this powerful open source publishing system. With more than half a million websites currently running on the platform, it’s the most popular content management system in the world…literally. And this week on GovFresh, author Jeff Walpole takes a look at how federal agencies are effectively using Drupal to make government more open and transparent. Walpole cites the Department of Commerce’s Recovery at Commerce and the Federal IT Spending Dashboard as excellent examples of Drupal design and development at its best—check out the entire post for info on what other agencies, both here and abroad, are doing with this open source gem.

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Meagen Ryan

Marketing Strategist

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