Rock Creek Roundup (September 3 Edition)

Posted by: Meagen Ryan, Director of Strategy Sep 02, 2010 0 Comments

GCN discusses ways that social media has an impact on emergency management, the Center for Digital Government gives kudos for stellar sites, NARA gives agencies the green light to dump unnecessary data, and OhMyGov debunks social media myth number 4, all in this pre-Labor Day issue of the Rock Creek Roundup. Enjoy your long weekend!

—As we discussed in a previous blog post, respondents to a Red Cross survey indicate that emergency response agencies should monitor their social media channels in order to respond to requests for help, with the majority believing that help should arrive within an hour. And in an insightful article on Government Computer News, author Rutress Yasin explores the main ways in which social media is having an impact on emergency management. Yasin cites San Francisco’s emergency management agency, one that issues public alerts through Twitter and a text-messaging system among other channels, as a prime example of an organization that is taking advantage of the extended reach that social media can provide. He also points out how the U.S. Geological Survey is developing a tool that will allow them to monitor Twitter in real time for mentions of earthquakes so that confirmation and damage assessment can begin more quickly. A great article with interesting case studies, even if you aren’t in emergency management.

—The Center for Digital Government’s Best of the Web awards were announced earlier this week, and top honor were given to California, Boston, and Chesterfield County, West Virginia. California’s government portal won in the best state category, with judges calling it a “very innovative and excellent use of Web 2.0 technologies.” {encode=“http://www.cityofboston.gov/” title=“Boston received the best city website nod”}, likely due to the priority it put in making its web offerings more accessible through mobile devices. County honors went to Chesterfield County, West Virginia, where the site’s consistent navigation and clean design helped earn the site kudos. A full list of winners and finalists is available on the Center for Digital Government’s website.

—Should we keep or or should we get rid of it? Government agencies looking for guidance in ensuring their social media presence complies with federal record-keeping requirements got some guidance this week, courtesy of the National Archives and Records Administration. According to the newly released report (PDF), much of the information that appears on federal agencies’ social media sites does not need to be archived, including some public comments and statements that are a mere duplication of a statement posted elsewhere. The report suggests that instead of making platform-wide decisions about content to archive, agencies instead make the decision based on how the data is used and what the value of it is.

—Still think social media is only for sharing weekend plans with friends, family photos with distant relatives, and checking to see what your old high school sweetheart is up to now? Think again. Social media is serious business for many businesses, agencies, and organizations, according to part four of OhMyGov’s five-part series on debunking social media myths. The reality is that while social media’s initial pull was the fact that it could allow you to make those personal connections, it has since evolved in such a way that it’s a platform for just about any kind of communication, including that between businesses, government employees, and individuals. This is a great article to send to those few remaining social media holdouts in your organization who claim that only teens use Facebook.

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Meagen Ryan

Director of Strategy

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