The media is buzzing with the promise of Gov 2.0. But where to start? Should you Twitter? Start an online community? Create a Facebook page or a LinkedIn profile? Blog? Tag? The heart of Gov 2.0 is open communication. Here’s a list of things to do both now and later to help you communicate, collaborate, and connect with peers, partners, and citizens.
 Start small. Engage with peers, partners, and citizens on a personal basis.
1. | Check your agency policies.
Some agencies have policies that prohibit employee participation in mainstream social media or that restrict contributions from partners or citizens to agency online networks and sites, although some are considering modifications to improve agency interactions with citizens and partners. Before you engage in social media, make sure you are in compliance with existing policies.
| 2. | Join an existing online community or start a new one.
Connect with your peers, partners, and citizens:
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Create a Facebook page or LinkedIn profile and join relevant groups.
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Join a community, such as GovLoop.
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Create a Twitter handle and follow friends or acquaintances.
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Create a Windows Live space and invite friends to your network.
| | • | Start an agency-focused community for peers, partners, or citizens on your existing agency platform. |
| 3. | Talk, listen, and learn.
Think big.
Establish your agency strategy for driving conversations with peers, partners, and citizens.
| 4. | Define your Gov 2.0 goals.
Who is your audience (you probably have more than one), and what conversations do you want to have with them? How will you document and use any information you gather?
| 5. | Establish guidelines.
Determine what online communications and contributions from agency staff, partners, and citizens are permitted by your existing agency policies, and establish project guidelines to ensure that these are followed. At an agency level, you may need to consider updating policies that restrict your ability to share conversations and non-personal data with employees, partners, and citizens to achieve your Gov 2.0 goals.
| 6. | Start something.
Join the mainstream online communities where your audience is already talking. If you need to create a community, see if you can use existing technologies, such as Microsoft Office SharePoint Server, to set up blogs, wikis, or communities that you can build up and learn from. Or, investigate hosted services to help you get started quickly with minimal costs.
| 7. | Build a foundation.
Plan now to extend your conversations later. Whether it’s secure access from laptops or mobile devices or connecting with field staff or citizen kiosks in public places, start planning a secure and reliable foundation to support both private and open conversations and to make citizen services easier to consume. If you plan to capture personal information, make sure you can handle this information in compliance with your agency requirements.
| 8. | Share data.
Consider sharing your non-personal data with third parties. They may have a built-in audience for it, particularly if you give them the ability to combine it with other data to integrate operations and reporting. They may also mashup new applications that streamline government processes or serve citizens.
| 9. | Promote, promote, promote!
Get the word out about your communities. Use your involvement in mainstream communities to get the word out. You can even use your Web sites, e-newsletters, events, printed materials (even bills!), and media to communicate with the target audience and promote your communities.
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Find out more about getting to Gov 2.0.
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