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Gov 2.0 – Where to Start? And the Needed 101

I’ve spent the last week at a range of conferences.

First I attend the Gov 2 Expo and Summit where 500-1,000 people heard from amazing speakers ranging from Obama politicals, Amazon and Google leaders, and successfull start-ups like Meetup. My general experience here was that most people were pretty advanced in Gov 2.0. They had heard of a lot of speakers, active in platforms like Twitter, FB, GovLoop, and were pressing their agency forward.

Next, I gave a speech with Steve Lunceford (Mr. GovTwit) to the American Marketing Association – DC to a group of government marketers on the power of social media in government. My general experience here was that most people had heard of social media, knew they had to implement, but didn’t know exactly where to start. Had a lot of good standard questions such as “How do I convince my boss to do this?”, “How do I measure ROI?”

And yesterday, I attended the ALI Social Media in Government conference in Chicago. Approximately a 100 attendees (mostly feds) were spending a couple days learning about social media examples from fed/state/local examples. While there were some highly experience folks in the crowd, I’d say a large majority of the audience were in a similar boat that they had heard of social media, knew they needed to do something, but didn’t know where to start.

Often I get caught up talking to the so-called “experts” in Gov 2.0 and forget there is a large group of interested folks that still need the 101.

People need to hear the examples of how it has been done. They need easy ways to convince their bosses to move forward. They need quick wins and places to start.

The good part is a lot of people have started done that path already. I encourage people to check out the Best of GovLoop – Gov 2.0 page with tons of links to great Gov 2 Bloggers, rich discussions on topics like deploying wikis on GovLoop. The exciting part is that I feel this movement has legs and while it will take a few years to fully materialize it is excited to see both a strong early adopter community and a growing mainstream community wanting to learn.

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7 Comments

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Andrew Krzmarzick

Hey Steve – I know there are a few folks that do this “101” training, including Jeffrey Levy, myself and others. In fact, I think Jeffrey is creating a series of 101 videos, if I am not mistaken. Also, I direct people to the Common Craft videos for brief, animated tutorials on the tools themselves. My version of the 101 strives to answer three questions: 1. What is Gov 2.0/Web 2.0 and the associated tools? 2. Which agencies are using them effectively? and 3. How do you get started? More and more, the key is to talk about the tools AND the culture change that is associated with a more open, transparent and participatory government. What an exciting time to be in and around the public sector!

Jenn Gustetic

Steve–
Check out my new blog post and series where I’ll run through what I think are some of the intermediate goals of getting together and open gov plan.
I’ll discuss how the following are critical to consider from the beginning when deciding how to use Gov 2.0:
1. Technology, Policy, and Culture
2. Leadership, Strategy and Teaming
3. Public Private Partnerships and Innovation
4. Realizing Economies of Scale through Standardization
Let me know any thoughts you have!

Robin Paoli

Thanks for this insight, Steve. I think your statement: “People need to hear the examples of how it has been done. They need easy ways to convince their bosses to move forward. They need quick wins and places to start.” encapsulates a lot of this. Really gets me thinking about how to connect agency personnel with people who can help.

GovLoop

Thanks for the comments and links. Lots of good 101s out there but as stated in the comments people are looking on how to get this done – navigate the politics, get resources, sell it to leadership, and prove value.

John Peppard

My impression is that Gov 2.0 folks are primarily talking to themselves and have little patience for people that need info, want to participate and would if they felt comforatble. What do you think?

Margaret Brindzak

Adriel – That was a great presentation. Thanks for sharing it was a great help to explain the benefits to people that were unaware of what’s out there.