The Future of Federal Web Page Design?

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has launched My.FCC.gov. It's currently in beta and it allows a visitor to choose from eight customized dashboards to accommodate their specific interests and/or needs of different industries (e.g. consumer, media, etc.). Or users can create their own personal dashboard using a combination of 22 different agency widgets that correspond to a publication or agency activity.

I love this for a lot of reasons. When the White House announced that it was freezing the issue of new .GOV URL's for three months and putting the existing federal agencies domain list under review, there was internal rumblings from federal contractors and government workers that a streamlining of government Web sites could lead to the cancellation of key program micro sites or even designated government URLs to highlight specific programs. This lead to fear that promoting and highlighting key services to taxpayers on owned government digital channels would become a gatekeeping nightmare and that programs would be unable to provide information demonstrating the effectiveness of their promotion strategy as related to program performance.

What I like about My.FCC.gov is that it seemingly resolves the issue of providing relevant information to multiple stakeholders by allowing visitors to the site to determine what content is most relevant to them. I also think this approach will hopefully address the concern of what content is presented on a federal agency's home page, avoiding any editorial squabbles over which programs to highlight.

I like that the site has the ability for a user to sign in and save customized dashboard experiences using existing social media and online accounts such as Facebook, AOL, Google, OpenID, Twitter and Yahoo. I hope this trend of personalization of government services continues.

What do you think of My.FCC.gov? Is it a step in the right direction?

Government 2.0 Expo - Part Two

The conclusion of the Government 2.0 Expo left me inspired and appreciating the strides that the government and industry have taken to create and implement better applications and policies that truly move government towards transparency as well as more collaboration among its constituents.

My lasting impression is that while many government agencies that "get it" have adopted social media policies to begin using these tools, the progress and innovation that has taken place has been due to a small minority (although rapidly growing number of government stakeholders) who rebelled against the status quo culture of their organization in order to implement something new.

This theme was repeated again and again in the keynote speeches, but nowhere was it quite as obvious than in the talk by Price Floyd, Special Advisor for International Communication, Department of Defense. In his talk, Floyd reiterated the need to embrace social media tools as a way to engage a broader audience. He spoke specifically about how the lack of policy should not dictate a lack of action. I strongly urge you to listen to the presentation he gave to get a sense of how the U.S. Department of Defense was able to go from one extreme (the banning of most social media sites) to a very open policy allowing soldiers, civilians and their families to communicate using these tools and the implementation of these tools in strategic communications plans.

Finally, it's not just in the defense world that social media tools are enhancing communications. In what was one of the most interesting keynote speeches, Mary Davie, Assistant Commissioner for the Office of Assisted Acquisition Services (AAS) in GSA's Federal Acquisition Service (FAS), spoke about the GSA's initiative towards collaboration and engagement with industry and government subject matter experts in order to facilitate better and smarter acquisitions. Any company interested in winning government contracts should view Davie's presentation to learn more about the BetterBuy program and the collaborative wiki that seeks to engage all stakeholders earlier in the procurement process.

I left the Gov 2.0 Expo with a sense that there will be a continued and accelerated adoption of more Web 2.0 technologies by government agencies in the months to come. What started out as pockets of innovation and adoption seem to be growing into a mass movement where the benefits of engagement, collaboration and transparency far outweigh the detractors' arguments against these ever-evolving technologies.

Want to see more presentations from this year's Gov 2.0 Expo? Check out O'Reilly Media's YouTube Channel.

My First #PRBC post: "Communicating to Uncle Sam"

I am super excited that my first contributing post to PR Breakfast Club (#PRBC) is posted this morning: 'Communicating to Uncle Sam' is a very broad overview about what companies looking to market and raise awareness about their products and services to the federal sector should consider when seeking to reach a government audience. The post is in no way exhaustive or comprehensive, just a snapshot of how to approach and effectively communicate to the government stakeholders. I plan on writing future posts to expand upon this topic.

I would love your comments and feedback.

PRBC is a great resource with amazing PR professionals who contribute to the site everyday. I highly recommend signing up for the Daily Mailing List which will deliver each day's posts directly to your inbox. It's great!!!

Social Media's Impact on Government PR

I ran across Dr. Mark Drapeau's EXCELLENT post on PBS' MediaShift blog regarding how social media can impact government communicators' and truly facilitate a government not just for the people, but "government with the people."

What struck me the most about Dr. Drapeau's post is how similar it is to ideas and strategies being implemented by companies in the B2B market. His thoughts for government are easily transferred to the emerging and dynamic corporate communications agenda of most companies. Moreover, it is probably the most remarkable post I have EVER seen on the role of emerging (arguably established) social media tools for the government.

Dr. Drapeau advocates the rise of government social communicators or federal and civilian agency brand ambassadors that become the face of a government agency - transforming the faceless government bureaucracy to a community of government brand ambassadors that become a trusted friend over time.

Dr. Drapeau states:

"Engaging, trusted personalities employed as brand ambassadors will complement -- not replace -- traditional public affairs and government outreach. Depending on their agency or office's mission and goals, individuals can follow customized strategies to engage specific niches of the public at events, in interviews, and through constant, pervasive use of new and emerging media tools. In an ongoing bi-directional conversation, brand ambassadors employing I3 would work not only on behalf of the government among the people, but also on behalf of the people within the government."

As part of their job description, Dr. Drapeau notes that government brand ambassadors should conduct research to better understand the "marketplace" on how key audiences/constituents feel about certain issues. While consensus may not be reached, Dr. Drapeau argues that the insight may help politicians and agencies when evaluating policy decisions.

Definitely check out his post and leave your comments.