Government in the Cloud
Governing has a great article about governments using the cloud and takes a good look at how Scott County, MN, utilizes the Amazon Elastic Computer Cloud. The benefits?
And the fact that Amazon is such a trusted name helped too. When county officials and IT folks discussed the deal with a few Lawson reps, Ellsworth says the risk of using Amazon as a provider came up “and was dismissed very quickly, simply because of the name and that’s their business — and their business lives and dies by their own internal security.”
Should a disaster happen, the county would now recover its data and applications from the Amazon cloud. The cloud updates itself every hour, so minimal information should be lost if something unfortunate happens.
Is your organization utilizing the cloud in any way?
In-Depth Pew Study about Government Online
The Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project just released a study entitled “Government Online.” It is a very detailed report on citizens’ usage of government websites and interaction with government on and off official websites. For example:
These results should not imply that Americans are not involved in online discussions around government issues or policies—these conversations are simply taking place within the broader online environment rather than on “official” government blogs or fan pages. In the twelve months preceding this survey, one in ten internet users (11%) posted comments, queries or other information related to government poli- cies online, while 7% of internet users uploaded videos or photos online related to a government policy or issue. An additional 12% of internet users joined a group online that tries to influence government policies, and 3% participated in an online town hall meeting. Taking all of these activities together, nearly one quarter of internet users (23%) have posted comments or interacted with others online around government policies or public issues.
Another area I thought interesting was the discussion of minority usage of online government interactions:
The report also finds that 31% of online adults have used social tools such as blogs, social networking sites, and online video as well as email and text alerts to keep informed about government activities. Moreover, these new tools show particular appeal to groups that have historically lagged in their use of other online government offerings—in particular, minority Americans. Latinos and African Americans are just as likely as whites to use these tools to keep up with government, and are much more likely to agree that government outreach using these channels makes government more accessible and helps people be more informed about what government agencies are doing.
This is a rather long report, but I recommend you read it (here’s the pdf), but in case you don’t, I will likely post more information as I digest it all. And, the O’Reilly Radar has a good overview also.
Social Media Criticisms and the Military
The Emerging Media Coordinator at the Defense Information School, Staff Sgt. Joshua Salmons, was recently interviewed at SmartBlogs. I found this especially interesting and relevant to all of us:
Social media has some of the same vulnerabilities, sure, but there are tools to mitigate risk just like with e-mail, computer use or the chance that a spouse will give away information on the phone. Short of locking up all employees in the basement, there will always be security risks. Social media does have its own set of vulnerabilities, but to write it off as a lost cause because of the risk is overreacting, in my opinion.
A very interesting perspective on social media in the military. He responds to many of the criticisms of social media, a must read.
Gov 2.0 and the Digital Divide
For a little thought-provoking scholarship for your weekend, look at govfresh’s post on government 2.0 and the digital divide. Kevin Curry looks into our continued usage of electronic means of government, and the issues that causes when many of our citizens do not have broadband internet.
Do you have any thoughts on the digital divide? Are you avoiding government 2.0 because of citizens without computer access?
Open Government as a Social Movement
The OpenSF blog explains how open government is a social movement:
Open government is a social movement was repeated many times throughout the conference and I have to agree that open government isn’t a cookie-cutter policy in each city, department, or municipality, rather it is a manner of conducting government and public engagement that will take time and require trust and reliability to sustain.
BART Using FourSquare for Social Networking
Governing has another great article on web 2.0 in government, about the pursuit of “the next big thing”. They interview the web team of the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) on working with FourSquare (a location-based social network)
On Social Networking Security
Sophos released an advisory on security risks with social networking this past week. ReadWriteWeb has a great article on the subject, and has this recommendation:
The real solution to the social networking security problem is to embrace sites instead of blocking them. Rather than being overly restrictive, companies would do better to make social networking policies a part of their corporate policy and procedure manuals, spelling out what is and is not acceptable within their organization. Left up to users, it’s clear that for some, it’s anything goes…and that’s a danger most companies cannot afford.
Update to Internet Explorer Tomorrow
Following last week’s admission that the hacker attack on Google was through an Internet Explorer vulnerability (in IE6, IE7, and IE8), tomorrow Microsoft will issue an out-of-band update for systems. This is after the governments of both Germany and France told citizens to stop using the Internet Explorer web browser.
Mashable has an article on why must end use of Internet Explorer 6, a common vector for attacks.
Do you think it is time to stop using Internet Explorer in government?
North Carolina Social Media Policy
The State of North Carolina has issued a new policy on government social media policy, focusing on:
- appropriate implementation, authorization and acceptable use of social media
- Security measures to protect individuals, sensitive information and state systems
- Proper records management and preservation
Is There a Web 2.0 Open Records Problem?
Another of the Governing magazine articles on social media in government: The Web 2.0 Paper Trail Problem. At issue in this article is complying with open records requests in social network communications.
Many people use open records compliance issues as a reason not to utilize social networks and social media. If you make the Facebook page for your city and your Twitter account public, where is the issue? A citizen can see everything that has occurred. It is, by definition, open. I think this is a moot issue.
Social Media Friend or Foe of Government?
Governing magazine released a good set of article on social media in government yesterday. I’ll be posting links to all of them, but here is the first. Is Social Media a Friend or Foe of Government? This article had a good quote as well:
Nobody has control over what their Facebook friends do — that’s the fun and the flaw of Web 2.0 for governments. Then again, when citizens go to the microphone at a council meeting, nobody has control over them, either.