Software provider Adobe’s Government Bits Blog has a great post on using social media for government communications:

One lesson from social media is the immediacy and richness of information that can be shared through digital channels. Blogs, online video sharing platforms and Twitter have demonstrated the power and desire by the public to share information quickly and easily.

An example of injecting social media lessons into achieving core agency missions is the French Government, who in partnership with students of EPITA (France Graduate School of Computer Science and Advanced Technologies) created a cross-platform widget, DirectGouv, to increase transparency and communication to the press community and thus, to citizens-at-large.