Social networks? Blogs? Websites? Citizen centric services and solutions? Data transparency?
Web 2.0 can mean a lot of different things. Where do we start? What do we want to get out of this? Is there a way to measure success? The reality is that Web 2.0 is unique to every agency. The goals, objectives and desired outcomes are also unique to every agency. Anerian believes there are four essential domains that should be understood as we go down this path:
1. Strategy: What is our end in mind?
2. Brand: How do we want to present ourselves to our community?
3. Audience: How does our audience want to communicate?
4. Tools: What are the tools that accomplish the goals and create ease of communication for the community?
Sometimes the most difficult part of Web 2.0 is resisting the lure of sexy tools and their vices (low cost and limited security). Engaging the internal customers and thinking strategically about Web 2.0 can be equally challenging. One thing for sure in the IT business, things are never as simple as they seem.
But there are compelling reasons for government to pursue Web 2.0. The ability to develop non-traditional solutions, quickly, outside of the Agency’s legacy infrastructure for one.
To utilize cutting edge capabilities, such as social networking, to get closer to constituents for greater transparency. And the ability to extend an Agency’s relevance by combining a well-built website with social networking with web-based conferencing to create an expanded community around the mission, a topic, or an event would be another value add.
A simple example would be a conference. We have all been to conferences. Register, get a hotel room, find a cheap plane ticket, decide whether or not a rental car is needed, and pour over the agenda to determine which sessions to attend. But what about the staff members who could not fund the trip or their schedule did not permit it? What do they do? What about having a web-based conference that compliments the actual conference, where a virtual attendee registers for the conference, determines the topics, speakers, or issues (or they can “attend” the whole conference) that are most important to them and they are connected to an online community of people who share their interests. They can see the conference, over the internet in realtime or at their convenience, and then can ask questions to the presenter or to their online community. If the presenter is getting a number of similar questions, they can create a blog to reach out to the attendees (both virtual and on-site attendees) and create a dialogue that can continue as long as needed. Or the presenter can create a webinar or discussion forum to reach the attendees and address the questions. This community can exist year-round, with the annual conference being the cornerstone of the their interests, research, discussions, and relationships. It does not replace the physical conference, it extents it from an event to an experience.
There are numerous examples of how, with a good plan, these solutions can add value to an Agency.
Tell me your thoughts. How would you utilize Web 2.0 in your Agency?
