Comments for U.S. Government Reaches Out to the Social Web for Collaboration, But Are Users Reaching Back?

U.S. Government Reaches Out to the Social Web for Collaboration, But Are Users Reaching Back?

2009-06-30T07:12:28Z

In the quest to open government processes to citizens, collaboration and participation were identified as explicit goals in a presidential memo issued earlier this year.

Upon the appearance of a tenuously connected web of blogs, sites, wikis, and forums, many were excited about the refreshing availability of public channels for dialogue between ordinary Americans and policy makers when it comes to deciding what the 21st century American government will look like. On the other hand, the participation in these initiatives has been dwarfed by what one might see on ICanHasCheezburger. In spite of what could be seen as lackluster citizen response, The Open Government initiative's final drafting phase, which was to have closed already, has been extended until July 3.

]]> When President Obama's office issued his memo on open government earlier this year, the document stated that transparency, collaboration, and participation were called for to improve the government's efficiency and effectiveness.

Phase One: "Thousands" Participated

The first phase of this program was a public online brainstorming session, which began May 21 and ended June 2. According to an Office of Science and Technology Policy blog post:

Some suggested creating a government-wide intranet and social networking tool to share contact information, resources, and otherwise facilitate collaboration. Others looked to flexible, third-party Web 2.0 tools, such as Wordpress, Wikimedia, Ning, and Drupal to strengthen collaboration. Still others recommended the use of Strategy Markup Language (StratML) to enable potential partners to more easily discover each other based upon common missions, visions, values, goals, objectives, and stakeholders.

While the site stated that mere thousands of participants were logged, it also contained language indicating that the most enthusiastic and engaged users were federal employees already working within government agencies.

Phase Two: Around Four Thousand Mini-Posts

An Open Government Dialogue page was then created - and largely ignored by users - as a second phase for discussion in this initiative toward openness.

What started off as a good idea apparently devolved into typically polarized flame threads and partisan insults. Serious suggestions about healthcare reform received comments numbering in the single digits, while politically weighted one-liners about Sarah Palin prompted hundreds of responses. Moderation of inappropriate or irrelevant topics and comments seemed as absent from the discussion as the deep thoughts of policy wonks who could have helped elevate the conversation. The Open Dialogue was closed, according to the site, on June 26.

Phase Three: Extended With Fewer Than 1,000 Participants So Far

An Open Government Directive page for a drafting phase has now been extended until July 3. Although the OSTP blog states that "well over 100 drafts of open government recommendations" were submitted by users, contributors number just 201 users, and fewer than 1,000 ratings have been registered by the site.

For example, what should have been a hot topic (enabling citizens' participation in government using new media) on the wiki-like MixedInk site only had 18 contributors.

Making Sense of the Numbers

Although measuring engagement isn't necessarily always a numbers game, when online debate, collaboration, and conversation is a stated goal of a project, it would seem that a higher percentage of the target audience (Internet-using Americans) should have been involved, if only through comments and ratings.

Millions of Americans have Internet access - around 75 percent of the population, according to a Nielsen report - and around 70 percent of those users are also using social media, according to a study from MarketTools. Even if we generously estimate the number of Open Government Dialogue participants at 10,000, the results are disappointing:

As the Open Government project's third phase draws to a speedy close, we are left wondering whether the initiative ran too silent and too deep for the average American to know or care about it, let alone feel that he or she could contribute to a meaningful, measurable dialog.

Do you think the U.S. government did an adequate job of publicizing its Open Government efforts? Do you think political and technology bloggers with a critical mass of traffic should have done more to spread the word and encourage user participation, much in the way that music television channels consistently harass youngsters to "rock the vote"?

Do you think that trends of citizen apathy have finally peaked to a point that - even when tools for participation are free and available via a simple Internet connection - no one cares enough to weigh in?

Or do you think that engagement measurement for this project is skewed, that meaningful and representative conversation actually has occurred through the Open Government websites? We look forward to reading your thoughts and encourage U.S. citizens to drop by the drafting phase website, as well.

Comment from Omar Farooq on 2011-01-24

2011-01-24T10:24:44Z

This is really interesting and amazing. Nice share.

Comment from Mardin midyat on 2010-08-19

2010-08-20T00:49:09Z

good points! But my congresspeople probably don't know about me. I'll go and find them, check them out and see what they're doing on the social web. Hopefully something better than online newsletters.

Comment from aghadilbar on 2010-05-01

2010-05-01T10:55:43Z

Peace & Prosperity
Home
Blog
About Me
Guestbook
Photo Gallery
Agha Dilbar

My Open Letter (Blog) has been sent Eight Lak (800000) to International Community for the welfare of Humanity till today. I Agha Dilbar authorize Newspapers, Magazines, Internet, to Publish and Radio, T.V. Channels to broadcast this letter all round the World.
Website: http://aghadilbar.webs.com
Dear President Barrack Obama
the Great Leader of the World
I Agha Dilbar have sent Mr. President 100 registered research Letters (1000 new ideas to develop America and to Change the World for Peace and Prosperity)
Through Embassy of USA Islamabad till today and also direct sent these registered Letters to Whitehouse Washington DC 20500.These letters have been written on the guidelines of CHANGE WE NEED. And these letters are about the Common Men Problems of respected American Peoples and their Solutions. To end, Economic Recession, Unemployment and to Finish War, all round the World for Peace and Prosperity. In these letters I have sent one thousand new scientific Planning /Suggestions, about every walk of life for Peace through Friendship Progress and Prosperity all over the World.
My dear Barack Obama, the great leader of the world, my friend, my brother, provide an opportunity to Agha Dilbar to pay an official visit to America, that we two brothers sit together and by halt this horrible war. if this war continues for 10 20 or 50 –year, it will never end.
In this war 1-million people have died from 9/11 till today, if this war continues, it will become the 111- World War.200-Million people would die, if 111-World War is triggered) can take out 6.5 billion people of the World from abyss of destruction .We two brothers Barack Obama+ Agha Dillbar can put them on the road to Progress and Prosperity through Peace.
Dear President Barrack Obama considers, from 9/11 till today, America has conducted many war operations in connection with War on Terror, resulting the circle of war has spread hundred times. Millions innocent persons have died.
In this war. Many have been rendered homeless. One Lak (10000) war affected youth joined the army of Al-Qaida and Talban by the help of anti American countries have begun gorilla war in a horrible manner. It is the result of wrong war strategy. I Agha Dilbar desire to solve all above mentioned problems in a meeting with President Barrack Obama by adopting new revolutionary planning by bringing an end to present gorilla war in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. As a result the World can enter in a peaceful, advanced and progressive world, May it be so!
I Agha Dilbar have a new War Strategy to achieve success through Table Talk between Talban, Pakistan and American Gov. 90% of Talban that are fighting against Pak Army belong to Swat and Tribal Areas of NWFP. I can provide America all realistic facts in such manner that their implementation could convert these Talban into Patriotic Citizens of Pakistan.
In this War Strategy Pakistan Gov will never send his Heavy Artillery, Tanks, Cannons and Air craft in war. In this way 5-million persons will never Displaced. In the end Talban by their will handover, their Weapons to Pakistan Gov, they will come to Table Talk and Suicide Bombing will come to an end in Pakistan. Through this War Strategy Pakistani and American Gov can save expenses on war. Through this planning American and Pakistani Gov can utilize their saving on war budgets for development of Schools, Hospitals, Colonies, Markets, Industry, Roads, Bridges, Dams, Canals of Swat and Tribal Areas of NWFP that are war affected.
Due to wrong war strategies of the American and NATO forces.
The war on terror is getting worst mainly due to use of air craft, tanks, Cannons.
Because nine innocent people are killed for a single terrorist this way in these circumstances thousands
of innocent people lose their life or properties and any other source of income.
In the result many people join terrorist or become suicide bomber. As they think there is no other way to take revenge of the innocents killing of their relatives these are the basic reasons that hundreds of suicides are generated very quickly and easily in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq particularly who further kill thousands of other innocent public.
On account of present war strategy, Billion Dollars are being wasted yearly.
This war can cause Fall of America instead of continuation of war; my best suggestion for America must keep his Supper Power on the World and should conquer the World instead of war, but by his No-1 scientific technology spending on agriculture, industry, trade, education, scientific development and tourism, all round the World. Making an end to Economic Crisis in America.
A new Global Package is being offered for your kind consideration America will have to make complete and final announcement that in future all Multinational American Companies will get free land on 20-years lease and will set up under the BOOT agreement (in undeveloped and poor countries) factories, mills five star hotels, schools, colleges, universities, hospitals, air companies, shipping companies, latest railway, bus transport and steel mills. All these companies will be bound to handover without any cost to under developed and poor countries well as their machinery and transport after 20-yaars.
A new suggestion in connection with Global Peace is offered that in return of export American Agriculture and Industrial Products, will give his 50% profit to the exporting countries and utilize as Aid on the development of agriculture, industry, trade, education and tourism. This suggestion, making an end to American Economic Crisis and get full support to enhance his Foreign Public Relation
. May it be so!
To make successful American Foreign Policy at Global Level the following planning is put before:
a) America will have to provide free scholar ships at least to ten top master students (in each country) of medical and science in underdeveloped and poor countries of the world.
b) Highly educated and well trained one hundred cultural groups (each group contains 100 persons) will have to arrange one hundred cultural shows for three months in big cities of underdeveloped and poor countries.
c) America will have to arrange exhibitions through his Embassies for his latest products, in the underdeveloped and poor countries .All these mentioned above industrial exhibitions will be arranged continuously for two months. In the above mentioned exhibitions present products will be sold except export order booking. In these exhibitions, American Cultural Programs will have to arrange and American Traditional Dishes will be kept for sale. In these exhibitions American Tourism Stalls will also be put-up.
Following rules and regulations will be undertaken for the progress and prosperity of American students.
a) Among metric, Fsc, Bsc, (eng} .Mbbs, Llb, Ca and diploma holders in all institutions, all those receiving degrees at the state level, ten each from girls and boys by cash prizes will be announced on behalf of the gov during invitation on lunch.
b) For above mentioned top ten intelligent students boys and girls each, tours for different historical and healthy sites will be arranged free of cast.
c) Sport Talent Schools of international level will be set up over the country at the district level, in which students of extra-ordinary sports talent taught from class one to Fsc level.
d) American states gov will announce free transport, free medical facilities and free lunch during education to all school, college and university students.

Minimize the aforesaid differences, which I will deliver to president
the increasing distress and hatred between the Muslim world and America is the major cause of weak relationship on public and government level.
As a sincere friend I have practical suggestions to Barack Obama in my official visit to America.
I request the government of America to allow me to describe (first of all my briefing with president’s advisors). My one thousand plans & ideas for changing the world before one to one meeting with the president Barack obama.thanks
Today we are presenting a new planning in America for the rapid progress in industry.

American government will allow to 50% relief in the following things. Petrol, dizel, electricity,
gas and water bills

For the establishment of new industries in industrial zone American government will allow 25%relief in taxes .

1) Sugar mills, textile mills, Garment Industry
2) Shoes tire tube factory.

3) Milk powder industry, tin pack fruit industry, ornament industry, carpet industry.
4) Frozen fish, chicken beef, and meat industry.
6) Dairy forming, poultry forming, fish forming, cattle forming, fruit forming.
7) Vegetable forming biscuit sweet industry hotel industry.
8) Electronic industry, sanitary industry paint industry.
9) Furniture industry.
10) Steel mill industry.
11) Engine industry.
12) Aero plane industry and shipping industry.
13) Computer and mobile industry.
14) Medicine industry fertilizer industry and insecticide industry.
15) Car, bus truck loader, harvester industry.

I Agha Dilbar have sent Ten Million research Peace Letters to International Community from 9/11 incident till today. This letter is my Great Peace Mission plan which is continued. Present Global Economic Crisis is the result of War on Terror. This Crisis if further accelerates could initiate a 111-World War. Please hear my Voice of Truth; I can save the World, for my Great Peace Mission, with the help of President Barrack Obama, Peace and Prosperity.
The Government of America will announce to provide free home facility to employees after 20 year of service as per following rules and regulations.

1. For providing free home facility to their employees after retirement the government will deduct 2 ½% amounts for their monthly salaries.
2. The government of America will deduct 2 ½% amounts of salaries to the employee and will deposit the same in government treasury which shall be paid to the housing company on allotment of plots.
3. The housing company shall provide beautiful home to the government or non government employee after 20 year of service.
4. The people not acquiring home after 20 year of service shall be paid in whole by deducted total amount from their salaries during their employment.
The government of America should follow the below regulations immediately. For giving facilities to the government and
private employees.

The employees working in America shall be given pension from the government treasury equivalent to 50%
Of their salaries.

Such employees who suffer from disabilities shall be given insurance benefits for their whole lives for the government treasury.
And their children of the employees who face death also be paid insurance to their parent’s salary.

All the employees working in America shall given free transportation, medical facility, food and living during their tenure.

Employees leaving their jobs in America shall be paid given 3 months advance salary.

President Barack Obama will become more popular by taking above action, and industry wills also prosper more in America.

Ten thousand small dams planning during seven years in USA as a result of this planning ten million
people shall obtain employment. Other than doubling the electricity shall also benefit fish forming, tourism, agriculture
and trading.

To obtain the subjective following rules and regulation shall be observed.

Government and private institutes of America shall pay 5%share of their income
In the new international development of corporation (IDC).

2.IDC shall invest to build ten thousand new hydro electric dams adjacent to all the rivers
with 100 km.

3.From these small dames network of rivers shall be obtained this benefit fish forming and tourism spot.

4.1500 hundred Dams shall be built each year at every cost.

5. To speed up the progress of IDC government state government, arms forces and semi government
organizations shall help and support the implementation of these small dams.

The following regulations would be implanted to install American institutions of international standard for progress and construction in all the backward countries of the world.
In the suggested institutions, the 50% investment would be done by American government, and these institutions would work private autonomous bodies.
In the underdeveloped countries, the developmental institutions would sell these services privately in the following fields, in collaborations with the suggested institutions.
Roads and bridges
Industrial zones
Housing projects
Car, bus and truck industries
Agriculture projects
Schools, colleges and universities
Hospitals and nursing training institutes
Poultry fish and cattle farm training institutes
Paper sugar and furniture industries
Textile and garment industries
Milk powder and tin pack fruit industries
Ghee oil and soap industries
Electronic and electric industries
Engineering industries
Steel railway aero plane and shipping industries

To bring an agriculture and industrial revolution, the following regulations would be implemented
a) In America, all the agricultural and technical institutions would be given following concessions instantly.
1) All the new and old agriculture and technical institutes would be from all kind of taxes i-e income Tex, sales tax and property tax
2) In America, all technical and agricultural training institutes would get 50% investment from federal and provincial governments
3) Free books would be provided to students studying in these institutes of international stand red.
4) All the expenses of students studying in these institutes would be borne by the federal and provincial governments.
5) New courses of international stand red would be planned to teach in these agricultural and technical institutes.
.

During the next seven years in America, the foiling rules and regulations would be observed to install one million wind mills and one million off shore tide tribunes.
In the result of implanting the suggested plan, besides a large scale of production of pollution free electrical energy, there will be great development in employment, agriculture and industry
1) Federal and states government would announce no tax on wind mills and off shore tide tribunes.
2) To install wind mills and off shore tide tribunes the federal and states governments provide free land near off shore.
3) To act upon the above mentioned plan, the federal and states governments America would announce to provide 50% capital to initiate the business.

Mr. Barack Obama you are not only the Leader of America, you are Great Leader of the World. In this connection I am waiting for your Email response, dated 2.10.2009.
Please Confirm.
Thank you, God blesses you and God bless America.
Agha Dilbar (founder)
International Revolution Movement
64-neelum block ait Lahore (Pakistan)
Phone: 0092427830084
Cell 03224628349
Email aghadilbar4@gmail.com
Website http://aghadilbar.webs.com/
This Open Letter has been sent Eight Lak (800000) to International Community for the welfare of Humanity till today. I Agha Dilbar authorize Newspapers, Magazines, Internet to publish and Radio, T.V. Channels to broadcast this letter all round the World .
I Agha Dilbar challenge with 100% trust that own result of my meeting with Barack Obama war on terror and suicide attacks in PAKISTAN, AFGHANISTAN ,IRAQ And all over the WORLD could be put to an end and due to this great success Barack Obama would be able to rule the America till 2016. And on my return of my official visit from America the world will be set on the way of implementing the CHANGE WE NEED. Live with Dignity and Die with Grace.
It has been extraordinary to read and hear, some of the things I did my decision alone by the voice of God, who called me in my heart.
Mystery of success to rule the World
Peace through friendship progress and prosperity.
Thanks
Members Area
Sign In or Register
Recent Photos

Recent Blog Entries
Peace and Prosperity
by aghadilbar | 0 comments
©2010
Create a Free Website at Webs.com

Comment from aghadilbar on 2010-04-29

2010-04-30T03:42:07Z

Comment from Brett Husbands on 2009-07-07

2009-07-08T01:25:34Z

I am kinda connected to the community that cares about this stuff, so I knew about it, read it, and thought that it made the world better than it would have been otherwise.

If I was outside the community/echo chamber I doubt I would have been told about it on Fox News (or any other of the popular news outlets). This does mean that the engagement will have been with those people more closely connected to government activity and the current administration.

Sure there could be more people involved, and whether that is lack of awareness, disengagement, disenfranchisement, conditioning, or disinterest that prevented more involvement the idea that the results of one try constitutes a "fail" or a "success" is absurd and the kind of thinking that discourages trying new things/ taking risks.

Perhaps we should just applaud the effort and see how we can help better engagement next time around.

My experience was that there was nothing to get involved with - apart from something valueless, like saying "I agree". Maybe it is just all too agreeable and polished. If there is nothing to disagree with, nothing to 'fix', and what is there is largely good why would I get involved?

Comment from VS on 2009-07-01

2009-07-01T12:27:39Z

What's important here is that the White House is taking unprecedented steps to engage the public. Beth Noveck recently said: “What we’ve seen is enormously thoughtful suggestions that no small group of people in the White House could have come up with themselves.” That's exciting because there's a recognition that the government doesn't have a monopoly on wisdom, a recognition that there is a lot of expertise among Americans. The fact that they are benefiting from distributed knowledge from "ordinary Americans" is what's important... That most people don't have an opinion on how to make data more open doesn't invalidate their efforts. That said, yes, more outreach would be great & bloggers should be encouraging people to "rock the participation!"

Comment from Tim on 2009-06-30

2009-07-01T06:40:30Z

Correction:

Phase 2 of the Open Government Initiative (the "discussion" phase, June 3 through 29) did not use the same tool as in phase 1 (IdeaScale). Rather, phase 2 took place on the Office of Science & Technology Policy (OSTP) blog. The blog runs on Wordpress, which allows threaded discussions. For comment rating, flagging and removal, it appears they used the "Comments Vote" plugin.

Convener involvement during phase 2 was much more pro-active compared to phase 1. Various Open Government team members were actively participating in the discussions. For the most part, moderation happened swiftly and regularly. During the first week of phase 2 alone, 142 of 536 comments seem to have been moved to the off-topic section (roughly 25%).

From what's currently still visible on the site, phase 2 counts 967 comments spread across 13 blog post. In terms of quantity (both number of comments as well as word count), phase 2 was indeed much smaller than phase 1. However, comments were much more on topic and overall quality of contributions was considerably higher.

Comment from Monika Lorincz on 2009-06-30

2009-06-30T21:19:42Z

A commendable initiative. People need to be involved in govt issues and even if it's not the best tool, it is a great way for allowing a great number of people to provide feedback. It is hard to believe that the govt is interested in so many opinions or even that anyone is listening, but why be skeptical? Even more people should get involved, contribute and make themselves heard.

Monika Lorincz
http://surchur.com/

Comment from Nancy Creighton on 2009-06-30

2009-06-30T19:33:04Z

@Justin, good points! But my congresspeople probably don't know about me. I'll go and find them, check them out and see what they're doing on the social web. Hopefully something better than online newsletters.

Comment from Justin on 2009-06-30

2009-06-30T18:12:26Z

@Mark Turrell, I partially agree with your comment. I think one of the problems has been that all the recent efforts for getting citizen involvement have been coming from the executive branch.

Do we really think that the White House is going to be able to distill the likes and dislikes of the entire USA (350 million?)?

Isn't this why the founders made the legislative branch (the people's branch)? They're supposed to be the ones that are taking constituent feedback getting it into the system... representing the people. In Congress isn't the ratio more 600k to 1 (instead of 350M to 1 in the White House)?

Where is my congress person? Why isn't she out there using social media tools trying to build a relationship with me and forming community around her ideas?

Comment from Karoli on 2009-06-30

2009-06-30T17:41:37Z

Bill Rice really nailed it. What differentiated the mybarackobama.com site during the election was that it was built as a community of like-minded people aimed toward a common goal. For the most part, there wasn't a ton of partisan bickering because both sides had their own communities.

Where we're failing is on bringing the dialogue into a community. The Open Government ideas site was a good idea, but incorporating Digg features guaranteed that it would be gamed and the best ideas buried, similar to what happens all the time on...Digg.

I had hoped that the dialogue would come out of online communities on these sites. That means taking the time and effort to build them, to have a presence, to have a conversation. Conversation means having people willing to monitor and engage. That's what's been missing.

As to the wiki...well, let's just say that wikis are not my deal. I'd much rather write a blog post and link it up because I know I would hate the editing wars that would ensue as a result of partisanship and the general bile that comes out of opposing factions.

Comment from Bill Rice on 2009-06-30

2009-06-30T16:49:59Z

I think this shows a clear distinction between building an audience and building a community on the Web. The later is much harder.

A lot of the early examples of social media success has been in creating targeted audiences. Granted they participate and often react to initiatives, but I don't think they evolve into creative self-sustaining communities--the goal of the open government initiatives.

Does this make sense? For anyone that has really tried creating a valuable community online I think understands this distinction. Audiences are quick, fleeting, flash mobs. Communities are just that collaborative efforts that require contribution and work.

Comment from Mark on 2009-06-30

2009-06-30T15:38:12Z

The citizens of the US form an incredibly powerful body of knowledge, insight, aspiration, desires... you name it, the citizens on mass have it.

The trouble is that no one yet in government has found a way of tapping into it effectively to solve problems.

The analogy to use comes from the origins of the oil industry. Oil has existed under the ground for millions of years. And yet, up until 1858 oil was barely used at all as an energy resource (the East coast used to butcher whales to support the 'Illumination Industry'). It took a cross-over technology from salt water drilling to actually commercially extract oil, and it was this new technique that allowed the resource to be tapped effectively.

And this is the key point. The resource had always been there. The tools we used to extract the resource were the problem.

That is the issue here with Open Government 2.0 I believe. The tools to date have been the wrong tools, inappropriate for the task at hand. The resource is a good resource, a great resource, we just need different tools.

I've been working in this area for the past 15 years, and have practical experience from the corporate side from the last 10 years. Recently my firm, Imaginatik, has been working to apply the techniques for social good projects (charities, NGOs, etc) and we are just starting to approach the area of Gov 2.0. Same problem, same resource - and this time we believe we have the right techniques and tools to extract value.

Thanks for an important article - it is good to not get carried away with the hype and to occasionally look back at results. Nice work!

Mark Turrell
CEO, Imaginatik plc
www.imaginatik.com

Comment from Marcello on 2009-06-30

2009-06-30T13:32:55Z

I think your graph shows the answer: more than half of the American population is already using social media. Which raises the question, "What can the government bring to the table that isn't already there?"

The answer is "not much". If the government wants to know what it's online constituents are thinking, there's already a plethora of websites that can help them answer that question. If our politicians want to join in on the online conversations, then they should set up an account and post away (as many of them have).

Perhaps the one thing that government can do that can't be done by anyone else is to make it's data publicly available. Unfortunately, that's another part of the "open government" initiative that is not going well.

"Government 2.0" was a catchy phrase that appealed to a certain demographic; but ultimately it was a solution to a problem that never really existed.

Comment from mathew on 2009-06-30

2009-06-30T12:12:01Z

Thanks for the reality check. Here in Europe, where the recent elections to the European Parliament recently reached new depths in terms of voter turnout, the Obama campaign is regularly invoked as being some sort of 'miracle cure' that we need to adopt wholesale.

@Nancy: I agree that the issue is trust. Why on earth should anyone believe that their online view will be listened to? Only when government starts listening to, and acting on, those views, rather than paying lip service to the idea.

I can feel a meme coming on - how about "putting their policy where their mouths are"?

@Justin: yesterday I posted a tongue-in-cheek job ad for an EU community manager (click my link above). Feel free to take a look ... ;-)

Comment from Justin on 2009-06-30

2009-06-30T11:48:56Z

Thank you so much for starting this conversation. These are questions that I've wanted to ask for some time.

I live in Washington, DC, am active in the tech scene, and have had many conversations with folks within the transparency and government 2.0 movements. There has been so much focus put on opening the data and creating the tools (which is GREAT) but MUCH less focus around getting people excited to use the tools...getting people excited about participating in government.

The government needs to go above and beyond to reach out and show people that they care so that we can get past the apathy which I think is SOOO rampant. "If we build it, they will come" isn't a successful marketing strategy for government 2.0.

I think of myself as the perfect test case. I'm very politically minded. I have lots of thoughts... plenty that I'd love to share but I get the feeling that the folks in Congress don't care. They don't really want to start a genuine dialogue with me. So... I don't participate.

Maybe I'm a lil biased because this is my day job but what if government agencies & congressman had community managers?

Comment from Nancy Creighton on 2009-06-30

2009-06-30T09:16:28Z

Since this is the first time I've read about this, no, I don't think the administration has done a good job of reaching out and letting people know about this avenue for direct participation in our government. However, I'm not sure that people are apathetic.

I suspect there are a number of influences, one may be that reading, thinking and then writing about anything significant takes time, and many people come to the web for fun, not to spend time giving feedback to the government.

Also, I think that we've been trained to expect to be ignored. President Obama's administration may be trying to change that, but there's a deep seated mistrust because we haven't had such a mechanism in the past, and what we've tried has been unsuccessful, so why try again?

Comment from Chanda @ BizDharma on 2009-06-30

2009-06-30T07:36:52Z

I believe the initiative is good but not the way its spread to the normal citizen. When Obama won his victory was quiet credited to the way he was viral all over the web. The intentions are remarkable but not the way it is passed on. Govt needs to gauge new ways to increase participation else this will not succeed.