Rock Creek Roundup (July 2 Edition)

Posted by: Meagen Ryan, Marketing Strategist Jul 02, 2009 0 Comments

This week’s Rock Creek Roundup happens a day early due to the upcoming July 4th holiday. Let’s take a quick look at some of this week’s most interesting posts and news items related to Government 2.0 topics:

• Yet another example of the power of social media! U.S. Forces in Afghanistan are using FM radio, poetry, cell phone technology, and Web 2.0 social media like Facebook and Twitter to help the Afghanistan government counter threatening messages delivered by insurgents, according to Rear Adm. Greg Smith.

• Harvard Biz School professor Clayton M. Christensen blogs about White House’s new Office of Social Innovation and Participation, highlighting several priorities that he feels the office must have to maximize the success of its efforts. To Mr. Christensen’s list of priorities, I would add that the Social Innovation Office must also make government the platform for innovation by making public information available for use by innovators, and by developing a mechanism for communicating specific needs to the public, who can then innovate to solve them. This point was made eloquently by Beth Noveck at a Brookings event on “Innovation and Government.” Watch the video if you’re interested in learning more.

• White House Chief Information Officer Vivek Kundra said he envisions a procurement process that looks more like a consumer-focused Web storefront than its current GSA schedule format. With technology moving so quickly, Kundra believes that such a system would allows agencies faster access to technology’s latest offerings.

• The Department of Energy this week unveiled the enhanced version of WorldWideScience.org. The enhancements allow for greater flexibility in searching and filtering search results, as well as the ability to easily share results on social networking sites like Facebook, Digg, Twitter and StumbleUpon.

• Outcomes, balance, engagement, and transparency: according to a research report by Accenture’s Institute for Public Service Value, citizens see those as the four pillars that mark the effective use of Web 2.0 by government. The fact that government is embracing social media opportunities is a big step in the right direction, according to Accenture’s Greg Parston. “These new technologies are enabling governments that are progressive and thinking strategically to really fundamentally alter and strengthen their relationships with citizens,” he said. Download the whole report here.

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