SLA Government Information Division

Government 2.0 Around the World

Government 2.0 - Best Practices Wiki charts gov 2.0 efforts around the world, so far with a North American emphasis. The wiki's tables list gov 2.0 initiatives from the Canadian Government, United States Government, and International Governments (non-North American). Below the International Governments table, there is a table listing "unofficial" initiatives. Initiatives from all levels of government are listed.

This is a wiki; if you don't see your project listed, you can add it.

For each initiative listed, the wiki provides fields for:

• Department/agency name
• Type (for external or internal audience)
• Objective/purpose
• Social media channel used
• Results
• Lessons learned
• Key contact
• Additional comments

The wiki was launched by Canadian social media consultant Mike Kujawski. In his blog posting announcing the wiki launch, Mike explains, "Every workshop or conference I speak at, I am asked the same first question by most public servants: 'Who else is doing this in government?'. I want this wiki to have all the answers and to continually grow as new initiatives arise."

GSA Negotiates for Government Social Media

The US General Services Administration (GSA) has announced an agreement for government-friendly terms of use with four social media companies--Flickr, YouTube, Vimeo and blip.tv--and they hope to reach agreement with others soon. (No need to negotiate with Twitter; their standard terms were acceptable for government use.)

GSA announced the agreement in a 25 March 2009 press release (posted to their site on 27 March). The release, titled 'Landmark Agreements Clear Path for Government New Media', states:

For the past six months, a coalition of agencies led by GSA has been working with new media providers to develop terms of service that can be agreed to by federal agencies. The new agreements resolve any legal concerns found in many standard terms and conditions that pose problems for federal agencies, such as liability limits, endorsements, freedom of information, and governing law.

Having these agreements in place will allow government to use free tools to dramatically increase access to information, offer education on government services and empower citizens with a voice in their government.

Government Computer News first reported the agreement on 25 March in their article GSA opens door to Web 2.0 content for federal agencies.

The Library of Congress welcomed the agreement in their own 25 March 2009 press release, 'Library of Congress Makes More Assets and Information Available Through New-Media Initiatives; YouTube and iTunes Launches Will Follow Groundbreaking Flickr Pact to Bring More Treasures to the Public'. The Library release outlines a few near-term plans:

The Library of Congress will begin sharing content from its vast video and audio collections on the YouTube and Apple iTunes web services ... The new Library of Congress channels on each of the popular services will launch within the next few weeks.

New channels on the video and podcasting services will be devoted to Library content, including 100-year-old films from the Thomas Edison studio, book talks with contemporary authors, early industrial films from Westinghouse factories, first-person audio accounts of life in slavery, and inside looks into the Library's fascinating holdings, including the rough draft of the Declaration of Independence and the contents of Lincoln's pockets on the night of his assassination.

Government 2.0 Radio & Camp

Government 2.0 insiders, or those aspiring to be, can tune into Government 2.0 blogtalkradio every Sunday evening at 5:00pm (eastern US). Government 2.0 is a new show on BlogTalkRadio, the "social radio network." The show's founder and host is Adriel Hampton, a Gov 2.0 community builder.

If you can't tune in real-time, listen to past shows archived at the site. The 22 March 2009 show featured GovLoop founder Steve Ressler and Steve Lunceford of GovTwit and BearingPoint in conversation with O'Reilly Media's Tim O'Reilly. This Sunday, 29 March 2009, will feature Ressler and Lunceford talking to the founders of TweetCongress.

The program notes don't say so, but it is likely that they may also discuss the Government 2.0 Camp going on right now (27-28 March 2009) in Washington, DC. Attendees are twittering away at #gov20camp.

See our previous post, Government 2.0 Club.

Federal Library Space Report Updated

The Library of Congress FLICC report on the future of federal government library space has been updated with an addendum covering the topics of embedded librarians and telecommuting. The report, Leadership in Uncertain Times: Federal Librarians Envision Use of Physical Space Through 2020 [PDF], was first issued in September 2008. The new sections of the updated report appear on pages 29-33.

The report is a publication of FLICC's Libraries & Emerging Technologies Working Group.

Wired's Government Data Wiki

The folks at Wired.com have hopped on the open government data bandwagon. They have set up an Open Up Government Data Wiki. The purpose of the wiki is to identify useful government data that is locked into formats (for example, PDF) that do not lend themselves to analytical re-use. From the wiki:

We've established this wiki to help focus attention on valuable [U.S. government] data resources that need to be made more accessible or usable. Do you know of a legacy dataset in danger of being lost? How about a set of Excel (or — shudder — Lotus 1-2-3) spreadsheets that would work better in another format? Data locked up in PDF's?

This is your place to report where government data is locked up by design, neglect or misapplication of technology. We want you to point out the government data that you need or would like to have. Get involved!

Based on what you contribute here, we'll follow up with government agencies to see what their plans are for that data — and track the results of the emerging era of Data.gov*

*"Data.gov" is the name used for a future U.S. federal government website that would facilitate the bulk download of government data sets and real-time RSS feeds for scientists, web developers, and others to use in their own analyses. As envisioned, it would be similar to the online data catalog for the city of Washington, DC. DC's data catalog was established under the leadership of the city's former Chief Technology Officer, Vivek Kundra, who is now the nation's first Federal Chief Information Officer at the White House.

WhiteHouse.gov Under the Microscope

WashingtonPost.com is putting WhiteHouse.gov under the microscope. In his 24 March 2009 Grading the WhiteHouse.gov column on the Obama Presidency section of the Post's website, Jose Antonio Vargas says:

Today, we begin a monthly feature that invites five thinkers across the online political and cultural spectrum to grade President Obama's WhiteHouse.gov.

The emphasis on monthly has been added.

The celebrity thinkers are to judge WhiteHouse.gov based on how well it achieves transparency, accessibility, and user engagement. This month's thinkers include Craig Newmark of Craigslist.org and Ellen Miller of Sunlight Foundation. So far, WhiteHouse.gov gets a C+ average.

Public Printer to President on Open Government

The U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO) just sent this notice out to the Federal Depository Library Program email list:

GPO is releasing the Public Printer's Letter to President Obama regarding transparency and open Government. The letter offers GPO's support in helping to implement the President's initiative leveraging the Federal Digital System (FDsys) <www.fdsys.gov>.

Five goals with accompanying actions were provided that GPO is prepared to undertake to help implement the President's initiative.

The letter and five goals are available at
<http://www.gpo.gov/news/2009/03-09-09_OpenGovLtr.pdf>.

Google, Government, and Cookies

Neil Munro of NationalJournal.com has written an article about Google, government, and cookies. Read Google Stands to Gain from Capital Connections, 17 March 2009, for the full story. While there are plenty of interesting stories to relate about the Google-Government connection, this one focuses on the cookie story.

The "federal technology managers" paper referenced in the article is Barriers and Solutions to Implementing Social Media and Web 2.0 in Government, from leaders of the Federal Web Managers Council. See recommendation #7: allow persistent cookies; retain ban on tracking cookies.

Report from the 'Future of Government' Program

DGI Chair Chris Zammarelli has added an article to the DGI website's What's New page. Chris reports on the 12 March 2009 Future of Government seminar hosted by the Washington, DC chapter of SLA in cooperation with DGI. Featured speakers were Jonathan Breul and Michael Keegan from the IBM Center for the Business of Government. Breul discussed the IBM Center's Ten Challenges Facing Public Managers [PDF] report. See Chris's event summary for more.

The event was sponsored by Leadership Directories Inc. and Thomson West.

New FOIA Guidelines from Justice

The Justice Department has issued new guidelines for U.S. government departments and agencies to follow in compliance with the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). From the 19 March 2009 press release:

Attorney General Eric Holder issued comprehensive new Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) guidelines today that direct all executive branch departments and agencies to apply a presumption of openness when administering the FOIA. The new guidelines, announced in a memo to heads of executive departments and agencies, build on the principles announced by President Obama on his first full day in office when he issued a presidential memorandum on the FOIA that called on agencies to "usher in a new era of open government." At that time, President Obama also instructed Attorney General Holder to issue new FOIA guidelines that reaffirm the government’s commitment to accountability and transparency. The memo rescinds the guidelines issued by the previous administration.

Read the full Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Memorandum.