eGov, iGov, we all Gov

Image via WikipediaEfficiency and invisibility are the core tenets of Government 2.0, according to Hillary Hartley, director of integrated marketing for NIC, Inc, a Kansas-based technology services and outsourcing provider to hundreds of local governments.

As an online journalist, I attended Government Technology Magazine’s GTC East 2008 summit last week in Albany, New York as a member of the press. Over a day-and-a-half, I heard several speakers trying to motivate local government managers to both adopt new ways of doing business and be more productive.

In “Web 2.0: Cutting Through the Clutter,” Hillary opened her seminar with a general definition of Web 2.0 (she never said social media) as encompassing openness, collaboration, and community. She said those three concepts are further described under 5 Ws:

1. WHO:
   People are writing content on blogs, wikis, etc.
2. WHAT:
   Data is displayed in algorithms, such as how a result appears in a search engine; and in mash-ups, such as seeing Mexican restaurants on a map of Miami.When people participate in the data, sharing occurs, such as commenting on a blog, contributing to a wiki or discussion forum, buying or selling a product on eBay or Amazon, etc.
3. WHEN:
   Everything is happening now. There’s a reason why social networks are sprouting like flies now and not five years ago.
4. WHY:
   The network (or the Internet as an operating system, if you will) is the reason for everything happening in real-time around the world. Cloud computing is another name for it, as I recently described.
5. WHERE:
   The revolution is taking place here. Wherever you are reading this sentence, you are part of it.

Hillary later provided examples of government agencies using social networks that help answer the 5 Ws, such as The Commons, a Flickr photo sharing project by the Library of Congress; the New York Times‘ and the Los Angeles Fire Department’s Twitter feeds; and a customer service function of Ann Arbor, Michigan on getsatisfaction.com.

“Customer service is the new marketing,” Hillary said. When governments can answer questions online, those questions and answers are forever archived, thereby decreasing the potential for repetitive questions. Customer service “increases happiness and reduces support costs,” she said.

This is a shift in mindset as Jacob Morgan recently attested to the way many organizations operate today.

I am reminded of an article I read yesterday on Mashable.com by Mark Drapeau, where he questioned the lack of governmental urgency to build a technology roadmap while attending a recent conference:

Much lip service was given to welcoming new technologies, openness, information sharing, transparency, and collaboration. But there was no talk of a strategy, a plan, or a roadmap. Frankly, there was no talk of anything concrete in the way of actual progress towards Government 2.0…

I don’t know the solution, but as Hillary mentioned at the tail-end of her presentation (of which an older copy may be viewed here), government leaders “must embrace the shift” in ideals, enabled by technology.

What do you see where you live? Is your local mayor or elected official blogging? Does your city website have an online portal linked to a wiki where residents can interact with others on proposed legislation? Is there photo sharing or podcasting or mashups going on? Any tips for success you can share?

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