November 3rd, 2009

Developing government's human voice

Posted by Jennifer Leggio @ 9:19 am

Categories: Government 2.0, Social Business, Social Media

Tags: Voice, Lovisa Williams, Government, Vertical Industries, Jennifer Leggio

* Jennifer Leggio is on vacation

Guest editorial by Lovisa Williams

What is Gov 2.0? There has been much heated debate about this subject. We have spoken about Government as a Platform, Government 2.0 as a way to influence and change behavior and how Government should be bringing citizens closer to Government. There are a wide range of ideas which can be seen in the video interviews about “What is Gov 2.0 Mean to Me?”. We definitely do not agree on the definition and perhaps that is not a bad thing.

To add some additional thoughts to the discussion the bottom line is there is no App for Government. Government can function as a platform, but Government is not as simple as this. Although, it is a great way to sell products and services to the Government. Don’t get me wrong, some of the Apps that have been developed are interesting and perhaps even useful, but I really see them more as one of the outcomes and not what our goal should be.

The world is changing. How we work and how we think are changing because of advances in technology and the speed in which we send and receive information. Development of new tools and technology is happening all of the time, but a fundamental shift in how we think and how we work does not happen every day. It is occurring now whether we like it or not. If we choose to ignore this fundamental shift we run the risk of becoming obsolete organizations. This is not just a Government thing, this is an everyone thing! Government, unlike private sector companies, has not had a major review of its business processes and corporate culture. We are long overdue and now is the time to explore how we can modify, re-engineer and make government more useful to citizens.

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October 27th, 2009

2010 Predictions: Will social media reach ubiquity?

Posted by Jennifer Leggio @ 9:19 am

Categories: Blogging Best Practices, Brand Management and Monitoring, Branding, Corporate Social Networking, Enterprise 2.0, Government 2.0, Marketing, Microblogging, Public Relations, Social Business, Social Media, Social Media and Security

Tags: Social Networking, Facebook, Marketing, Network, Twitter Inc., Social Media, Foursquare, Poken Pulse, PR People, Jennifer Leggio

The year 2009 has been a pivotal one in social media. We’ve seen the explosion of a previously misunderstood social network as well as the rampant adoption of social media by major brands. We’ve seen these companies take big chances, some ending in success and others ending with harsh lessons learned. It seems that almost everyone’s brother, sister, mother and grandfather are now on Facebook, and that social media itself is a bubble baby no more. At the same time, it’s important to note that both business users and consumers have barely scratched the surface of opportunity that the tools and strategies around social media can provide.

In order to achieve continued success many things have to happen. Cracks in the echo chamber, widespread communication of proven successes, best practices for return on investment (ROI) are just a few. And as companies embark on their 2010 planning, they are hoping for a glimpse of what is to come.

Rather than create a wish list, I followed Peter Kim’s model and turned to my network to find out what it believes social media will become in 2010. I asked about 40 people to participate and 31 responded with at least a few words on what might happen next year.

The predictions are meant to be thought-provokers more than gospel, and come from a mix of thought leaders, entrepreneurs, and folks who get their hands dirty every day dealing with social media for their companies. Predictions range from general social media to enterprise 2.0, government 2.0, security, public relations and even location-aware social networks. But the over-arching theme of most of the predictions say that 2010 is the year that social media will just be, rather than serving as a shiny new toy.

Without further ado, here are the 2010 social media predictions.

Next: David Armano, Karen Auby, Andrea Baker, Nenshad Bardoliwalla –>

September 9th, 2009

Government as a dialogue: Will the Gov 2.0 Summit contribute?

Posted by Jennifer Leggio @ 10:13 am

Categories: Enterprise 2.0, Gov 2.0 Summit, Government 2.0, Social Business, Social Media

Tags: Web, Leader, Government, Enterprise 2.0, Conference, Programming, Andrea Baker, Summit, Beltway, Deadliest Catch

Guest editorial by Andrea Baker

A fall breeze has come to Washington DC in the form of the Government 2.0 Summit. This week in Washington on Sept. 9 and 10 O’Reilly Conferences and TechWeb bring to our mostly political town to talk shop with the whose who of Goverati. The Summit is about Government as a Platform, according to the man behind the conference, Tim O’Reilly.

I feared at first this conference might be too vague in thought. As I looked at the conference being planned and the names announced presenting, many Web 2.0 thought leaders are talking, but few actual inside Government change agents — going into today it feels more balanced. The Government 2.0 Expo seemed to feature those types mostly, but the marquis event–the summit billed towards decision makers in government screams more “Industry Tell Us What To Do”! I do not doubt this line up is stellar, but are the efforts of our own being out-shadowed by the cool and the hip? I hope I am wrong.

I hope the decision makers in Government 2.0 come out to hear our successes and this is not another echo chamber. For those of us breathing and living Government 2.0 have seen many of these names representing government before. I am optimistic there will be those open to the message O’Reilly is bringing to us over this week. I know one of my government customers will be attending, but he is not the typical government leader. He gets innovation and has been an exemplar for others. The ideal attendee is one that has heard these buzzwords and has a strategic plan to collaborate and transform their organization to a more open one, but is just starting to implement the plan.

We aren’t immediately considered innovative in DC in tech or new ideas, but we are very much a buzz every night of the week. In fact, while I am attending the summit with great hope for new ideas and momentum. I am also fraught with skepticism on how experts in Web 2.0, whom I can hear at the Web 2.0 events are going to impact what is already happening in the Gov 2.0 world.

DC: A tech center –>

November 25th, 2008

The (Government 2.0) revolution should be televised

Posted by Jennifer Leggio @ 8:02 am

Categories: Election 2008, Government 2.0, Social Business Analysis, Social Media

Tags: President, Government, Social Media, U.S. Government, Twitter, *Jennifer Leggio, Andrea R. Baker, E-mail, Online Communications, Jennifer Leggio

*Jennifer Leggio is on vacation

Guest editorial by Andrea Baker

Each generation in United States Government has created an internal revolution. From the Pony Express and telegrams, to typewriters and carbon paper, to computers and email. Now we are in the middle of yet another technological revolution: Social Media in Government or the more common moniker, Government 2.0.

A week ago, I sat in as a panelist on a Web talk show regarding Government 2.0. There have been many discussions in the main stream media, bloggers and in the hallowed halls of Government buildings on who will be and what is the proposed “Chief Technology Officer’s” role. In all the talk about the Presidential Transition, I have felt that maybe Barack Obama and quite possibly the digital world are fixating to much on just one type of CTO. During the Web cast I posed the thought, “maybe what the people really want to see of their Government is transparency? So why not a “Chief Transparency Officer?”

I believe if we are going to use the term Government 2.0, we might as well come to terms what that means for those inside the Federal, State, and Local Governments, as well as what does it portend to the U.S. Citizen. I cannot profess I know all the definitions of either side of the coin, but I can shed some light as to what I think is essentially one of the many parts of a User-Generated Government. I am going to break this down into two parts: Citizen 2.0 and Patriot 2.0.

Citizen 2.0
“Citizen 2.0″ or a proletarian revolution is what I believe the above-average social media user/voiced U.S. citizen. While its more likely that an American has a MySpace account versus Twitter and/or FaceBook, both social media sites continue to reach bigger audiences, the average “Citizen 1.0″ doesn’t necessarily go online to use social media sites or vote for that matter. The Citizen 2.0 crowd are the citizens and constituents that engage the Government by writing their congressional representative, vote and create questions on HubDub or ObamaCTO.org or engage in online debate with others via Twitter or to their pundits on main-stream media programming.

Patriot 2.0
“Patriot 2.0″ types are those within the U.S. Government who are those willing to fight for bureaucratic change of the archaic processes and vicissitude. This also covers those willing to become versed in and change their existing work processes based on the efforts of those agents of change. In my experience I have seen most employees either pragmatic or idealistic, and some are a little of both. It is those who are a little of both who I feel are the change agents, the music makers:

We are the music makers,
And we are the dreamers of dreams,
Wandering by lone sea-breakers,
And sitting by desolate streams;—
World-losers and world-forsakers,
On whom the pale moon gleams:
Yet we are the movers and shakers
Of the world for ever, it seems.
– Arthur O’Shaughnessy, British Poet

Transparency
The need for transparency for the incoming and outgoing President appears to be in digital demand by both the Citizens 2.0 and Patriots 2.0. And I say this with the upmost respect, but nerds and geeks have indeed taken over the world. The digital divide of Gen Xer’s and Millennials vs. Boomers in office is clear. Boomers and old generations are more likely to get their news and information about Government via traditional news media on television or from a printed newspaper. While the younger generations are more and more getting their news from social media Web sites and other alternative methods.

Next: Are you a Citizen or a Patriot? –>