DGI member Sarah Bourne, the Mass.Gov Chief Technology Strategist, attended the 27-28 March 2009 Government 2.0 Camp in Washington, DC. This first U.S. Gov 2.0 Camp has received plenty of attention in the twitterverse (#gov20camp, #govcamp20, #gov20 - analysis here) and the blogosphere, but Sarah captures it from the librarian-in-government perspective. Thank you, Sarah!
Her report:
In Massachusetts, we have been looking into using social media (a.k.a. Web 2.0) for its potential to foster civic engagement and as a way to reach specific audiences that might never visit a government website. The first step was to actually use these tools, and a side benefit of that has been finding our counterparts at all levels of government. When Gov 2.0 Camp was announced, I signed up immediately and, as I had hoped, many of my online govie friends did, too.
And I am so glad I went. I learned that state and local governments are slightly ahead of the federal government in using social networking, and that they are anxious to learn from us. I learned that we all face similar barriers, and shared and learned ways to surmount them. I was reminded that I am just as much a librarian as when I had books and magazines, because my job is to find, identify, organize and help people fid the information and services they need. I learned that lots of government employees, government IT vendors, and developers want this to happen because they are citizens, too. And I learned that friendships that start online are validated and nurtured by meeting in person.
This was the first Gov 2.0 Camp, and was therefore permeated with optimism if not downright euphoria. There are sure to be others, including regional ones so more people can participate. I would expect these future camps to be focused on tackling specific issues and getting things done. In between, much work can be accomplished with online collaborations. The biggest lesson learned at camp is that we can accomplish more by working together than each doing the same things separately.
Oh, by the way, more librarians are needed, especially librarians with experience working with government information and the people who seek it. If a Gov 2.0 Camp comes to your town, I encourage you to attend and share your expertise!
--Sarah Bourne
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