The Gov Goes 2.0

Federal Computing Week recently came out with an article titled, “Twitter, blogs and other Web 2.0 tools revolutionize government business”. This article discusses the recent adoption of web 2.0 technologies by the government and the effect this change in culture has brought on. The article offers several cases where government employees are not only using but really embracing this technology in their day to day tasks. For example, in one case, instead of simply providing hard copies of a report to the intended audiences, the report can now be posted to a portal which is updated as needed. The portal is only accessible to a wider audience but now is always update to date with real information. Another example discussed the salmonella-tainted peanut butter and how the CDC would just normally post information to their websites. But in order to reach more people, they used software widget that automatically pulled the most recent recall information from an FDA database to various websites. This spiral effect is why so many more people received this information quickly. Cases like this are repeated throughout the article and offer profound insight into how useful web 2.0 technologies truly are.

In my opinion, one critical issue the government is dealing with is the breaking down of barriers not only between organizations but within organizations. The old way of doing things will simply not work anymore. The need is to be efficient and responsive to every threat/issue that arises. In trying to eliminate this problem, the government has done a great job in embracing web 2.0 technologies to break down stovepipes and increase communication and effectiveness between its people. Blogs are being used more often to offer people personal space to voice opinions and share ideas. Shared spaces are on the rise to help break down barriers to information flow. With the use of shared spaces and groups, the right people are getting the right information at the right time. Web 2.0 technologies are offering employees with a feel of community and team participation. Its easier now to be a part of a team where everyone may not be down the hall form each other but has access to the same information and can make well-thought out decisions. I think we will continue to see this adoption across all government agencies as our missions become more critical and our resourced continue to decrease. It will be interesting to see what the face of government will be in the next 5 – 10 years as new technologies enter the field.