Results tagged “govdelivery” from Reach the Public

Last week was an exciting week for us at GovDelivery, as we joined other volunteers working to make a difference in our community by helping Twin Cities Habitat for Humanity build a house for a family in need.

As a company, we volunteer each year with Habitat for Humanity.  Why? Because, like our government clients we serve every day, we believe in giving back to our community.

Check out these GovDelivery team members, happy to be part of something good..and supporting our local community.

 

Welcome to our second installment of the"Friday's Food for Thought" post where we take a light-hearted (and we hope funny) approach to what's happening in government-related news.  This installment's theme is about the new NBC show "Parks and Recreation."

Parks and Recreation Show Funny, But Real?  I think not.
We are the first to admit that Amy Poehler does a great job playing a bumbling and often confused bureaucrat helping run a department of parks recreation in the city of Pawnee, Ind. She takes a Michael Scott (from the NBC hit, "The Office," played by actor Steve Carrell) approach and always has a good heart, but seems to be awkward and have very poor judgement.

However, as an organization that works with state and local government across the United States, we believe this portrayal is far from the truth.  In fact, there are many local government agencies doing many progressive and forward thinking things that are far from bumbling.

For example, Idaho Game and Fish is especially committed to keeping its citizens and out-of-town visitors updated on new fishing and hunting related information.  And another DNR doing swimmingly well..Wisconsin DNR.  They send out updates on over 25 different fishing topics!

And then we have Texas Parks and Wildlife.  TPWD updates the public on state parks, destinations, fishing and more...  None of these examples reflects the obtuse or clueless antics of the Parks and Recreation show.  But, we can still find the humor right?  

Speaking of fishing, it just so happens that this weekend is opening fishing for Minnesota.  Thousands of people will pack up their fishing gear and head out for the lake first thing tomorrow morning. MN DNR sold over 256,000 licenses as of Wednesday.  

Now that I've reminded everyone that fishing opener is tomorrow and I've checked that 'to-do' off my list, it time to check out a promo clip from Parks and Recreation.  Enjoy and have a great weekend.  Bobbers down!

GovDelivery has had a lot of inquiries from citizens and media this week asking for our recommendations on how the public can stay informed during this critical time.  We are not public health experts, but our work with key health agencies gives us some perspective on resources available to the public.

We are all being bombarded with information on the H1N1 flu virus this week.  Official government information is invaluable when there is so much misinformation coming at us from all sides.

GovDelivery works with 300+ public sector entities in the U.S. and U.K.  The majority of federal health agencies (CDC, HHS.gov, Pandemicflu.gov, NIH, Medicare, & others) use our Email & Digital Subscription platform to manage outbound digital communication, and we work with state and local health agencies and departments in 30 states including the MN, TX, NE, and OR Health Departments, among others.

I'm not trying to provide a full commercial here, but rather establish how we are in a good position to see what citizens are interested in and what tools are available (particularly online) for citizens that want and need to stay informed of official information.

Some quick statistics on the activity we've seen in terms of citizen interest and government communication in the past week is truly unprecedented.

• Over 150,000 citizens have signed up to receive H1N1 flu updates from federal and state public health agencies, cities, and counties  (these same organizations already have millions of citizens signed up through our platform, but this 1 week jump is the highest ever).
• Government agencies have sent over 250 distinct messages through GovDelivery to more than 6 million recipients since the outbreak.

Messages have come out from a whole range of agencies: 

• The CDC has sent over 1 million email and wireless/text messages
  
• PandemicFlu.gov (run by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services) has also been an active sender
  
• San Diego County, the City of St. Paul, TX Governor's Office, FEMA, and many others have been sending messages as well

You can follow GovDelivery on Twitter for updates on the activity we are seeing.


Recommendation 1: Visit and monitor the official CDC web page on H1N1 flu outbreak where you can also register to receive email and wireless updates on the right hand side of the page.

Like any other commuter, the last thing you want to encounter on your way to work is slow moving traffic or a delayed train.  Whatever the reason for the delay - an accident, the weather, or road construction - you simply don't want to deal with the frustration or hassle. 

Getting traffic alerts through email or text messaging helps commuters make informed decisions that allow them to save time, fuel and traffic congestion.  (and maybe a little frustration too...) Signing up for these types of alerts allows commuters to get up-to-date information that is relevant to their commute, allowing them to make informed decisions about alternate routes or transportation. 

With more than 68 million people using their mobile device to get information (according to comScore), getting route information on mobile devices is just another convenient use of technology.  Individuals can sign up to get alert emails or text messages sent directly to them, wherever they are.  Check out Santa Clara VTA for instance.  Here you can choose YOUR specific route information, whether it's by bus, light rail or shuttle service and get email updates.

This is an email that Santa Clara VTA sent out about an accident that affected the light rail trains.

If you have a "this is cool!" commuter alert story, please share it!

 Email is the Internet's Killer App. Use it well.

 

To many, email communications seems like  "yesterday's news."  Even though we here at GovDelivery have been working with federal, state, and local government on improving email communication with the public since 1999, we still get excited about email!  As our marketing director, I want to share how we're helping clients leverage email to promote blogs, support Twitter, and utilize other social media.  I want to brag about what our clients are doing in the area of collaboration and Web 2.0.

 

When we step back and think about how we can best help government communicate with the public effectively, email rises above every other opportunity for two reasons.  First, it is ubiquitous.  Our clients care about reaching people and email is the number one use of the Internet by a landslide.  Second, there is still a lot of room for improvement. 

 

One stat from Jupiter suggests that citizens spend over 80% of online time using email.  It has become such a part of daily life that its dominance simply doesn't make headline news. 

 

The Pew Internet and American Life Project released a new report on daily Internet activity. Although the focus of the report was the growth of daily search activity by Americans, the report showed an astounding 60% of Americans use email every day. Search has grown to 49 percent, from about a third in 2002. But the author calls email "arguably the Internet's all time killer app:"

 

And just last month eMarketer released survey data showing the digital channels preferred by various age groups. Email is used by almost 53% of Americans to share information about a new product or service with others, second only to face to face communication and ahead of phone calls. Email is also the preferred digital channel for all purposes in every age group with the exception of young teenagers, who prefer text messaging where social communication is the priority.

 

So if email is the channel of choice of the majority of Americans, the question becomes "how well does your organization "do email?"  If you're wondering how you're doing, read through this document that was shared at the Federal Consulting Group's Proactive Communication Roundtable earlier this year: http://tinyurl.com/govd1 .

 

Consider this:

 

Do you do a good job of offering and promoting all important topics by email?  Are you offering subscribers many choices?  Are you promoting your new types of content (blogs, videos, social media content) by email (http://tinyurl.com/govd13)?  Are you treating your email subscription links like "add to cart" links and promoting them on your site?  Are you following the lead of NASA, EPA, and others by allowing citizens to signup for emails directly on your website (http://tinyurl.com/gddirectsignup).

  

Newer applications like text messaging and social networks like Twitter get far more attention. But for final measure, let's compare some stats.
Washington State Department of Transportation

Twitter followers: 2,411

Email subscribers: >28,000

 

Mayor of Minneapolis

Twitter followers: 984

Email subscribers: 7,498 (with >43,000 subscribed to all City information)

 

EPA

Twitter followers: <2,000

Email subscribers: >77,000 with 5,000-7,500 new signing up monthly

 

To top it off, it is much easier to track results and learn about your subscriber base with email than with many Web 2.0 channels.

 

RSS and wireless alerts are also very powerful, but when launched side by side with email, citizens prefer email at a 10-20 to 1 ratio over these other channels.

 

In fact, I'd bet that the Obama campaign and others found that email delivered the most tangible results in their campaigns for fundraising and mobilization.  They used other channels, but their most critical and reliable outreach seemed to be by email.

 

All of this is not to say that Twitter, Facebook, Texting, RSS, etc. do not have value.  They are amazing channels that build community, allow for direct conversations, and give citizens flexibility in how they will interact with government.  See how we use Twitter (www.twitter.com/govdelivery ).

 

However, the power of email for driving better communication with the public is unrivaled, and there are still many opportunities to use email better.  I suggest you treat email like the foundation of your digital communication house and treat other channels as nice additions that you can focus on when your foundation is strong.  If you focus too much on using new channels, you may fail to leverage the most powerful channel for public communication in history... plain old email.

 

Government agencies at all levels recognize that 2009 will be a big year for digital communication. 

 

The recent election demonstrated the power of digital communication for fundraising, network building, and organizing.  At all levels of government, new appointees and elected officials are coming in to government from private sector and political environments where digital communication was a key to their success (and in many cases, to their election).

 

Within government, 2008 was a critical year at all levels as organizations embraced new communication tools at a rapid rate.  Having previously shied away from new or "fad" approaches to communication methods like blogging, Faceboook and Twitter, hundreds of government organizations have now integrated these tools into a comprehensive communications strategy, with more coming on board everyday.  

 

Now, if you are a government Web manager or communicator, in all likelihood, you are currently or will soon be asked to take maximum advantage of all of these opportunities with similar resources to what you've had in the past.  You need a plan to improve communication at your agency/office/department, and you're wondering where to focus.  As always, budgets are probably tight and everyone has an opinion. 

 

Here are my ideas for government Web manager and communicator goals for the New Year:

 

1. Focus on adapting (not just copying) best practice from outside government. Adapt but don't transfer best practice from political campaigns and e-commerce.  At a typical government organization, the focus is on communication not target marketing, selling, fundraising, or electing a particular candidate.  Explain to the new people coming in that you are open to their ideas, but while they bring useful experience from outside government, you can help them put it to use inside government.

 

2. Map digital communications to your mission. If you are at a local or state government, focus on improving communication while using more cost-effective approaches (ROI is the ticket in these tough budget times). We're seeing GovDelivery clients increasingly focus on ROI in state and local government by thinking outside of the box about how processes need to be changed to leverage digital communication. If you are at a federal agency, explain how better communication will help you catch criminals (FBI), improve public health (CDC), or support more efficient regulation (SEC).

 

3. Prioritize communication channels. There is no need to reinvent the wheel - focus your energy on what has already been proven.  When clients ask us where to focus their energy, we point out key statistics.  The average citizen spends over 80% of online time using email, according to Jupiter. Our clients use the GovDelivery platform for email, wireless (text) alerts, and in some cases, to manage RSS feeds to best reach their audience.  But, if they ask us where to focus first, we're going to say email because it is the most far-reaching channel.  If you're optimizing search results, focus on Google as they have the most market share. If you want to post video, focus on YouTube, not a site that no one uses.  This is not government picking winners.  This is about government knowing where the public looks for information and going there.

 

4. Build your subscriber base and connect all channels. If you're using social media, promote your new media content in your emails to the public and on your website.  By the same token, promote your website, digital communication channels, and subscription options wherever you have a social media presence.  You will build your social media community on an ongoing basis and increase your overall website and subscriber audience (people who have provided at least their email address and registered for updates from your organization).

 

5. Set goals and track metrics. Include Web traffic (site visits, length of visits and sources of visitors) as well as the number of people signing up for email and/or wireless updates, the number of topics chosen by each subscriber, and, if you're using social media, the size of your communities in Facebook, Twitter, and elsewhere.  Share your goals and engage other staff and your stakeholders to help your organization improve against its digital communication performance metrics.  

 

6. Engage stakeholders. Post video on your websites if not already doing so and look for ways to use YouTube, provided your office/agency allows it.  Post comments on blogs of interest and engage in conversations through Twitter and other tools.

 

7. Collaborate. Find other government organizations serving a similar audience to you and work with them to build your audience.  One amazing benefit of online government communication is that governments don't generally compete with one another.  We've seen cities work with counties to build their subscriber base by "cross-promoting" subscription options to residents signing up for updates.  We've also seen state and federal agencies collaborate and many different federal agencies work together.  You can read more about the work GovDelivery is doing in this area at http://tinyurl.com/gdcollaborate.  Our collaboration tools are free for any of our clients and the results achieved to date provide a good example of what can be accomplished through collaboration with minimal effort.

 

8. Be a leader. Promote your Web communication efforts internally.  Talk to your colleagues about how every office in your organization can leverage the tools you have in place to improve communication and, where possible, shift spending from old media (mailings, print publications, etc.) to more efficient electronic approaches.  Your internal audience is as important to your long-term success as your external audience. At the state and local level, get creative in how you help elected officials become more seamless and visible to the electorate.  Challenge yourself to help your elected officials embrace Twitter, blogs, Facebook, and other tools that make them more available to the public.

 

9. Be active. Become active in Government Web Manager.  Most importantly, monitor and join www.WebContent.gov as it is the premier resources for government Web managers and brings together some incredibly passionate and talented public sector Web managers

 

10. See the opportunity.  At all levels of government, social media, citizen engagement, transparency, and efficiency are priorities.  Effective digital communication fits in with these priorities, but you have to waive the flag to make sure that new efforts build on the momentum you already have in place and that the leadership at your organization understands how more attention and investment in digital communication supports traditional and new objectives. The Obama election and the new White House agenda to press for better use of Web 2.0 will bring exciting attention to these opportunities. Strike while the iron is hot!

 

Please share your thoughts.

As Web 2.0 technologies become increasingly popular, government agencies can truly benefit from experimenting with existing social media tools and collaboration capabilities.

It is widely believed that government officials have been slow to take advantage of these technologies, but in actuality public sector agencies are adopting Web 2.0 tools quicker than you may think. In fact, some departments of the U.S. federal government, including the EPA and DOD (both GovDelivery clients), began adopting these tools as early as 2006.

Government officials have come to view such tools as blogs, wikis, and social networking as cost-effective alternatives to traditional communication channels. In many cases, Web 2.0 provides a direct line of communication to an audience that is otherwise difficult for government to reach. We've provided a number of examples before, but the State of Iowa serves as a great illustration of how agencies can be selective in utilizing Web 2.0 tools that will best help to accomplish agency goals.

How Iowa state agencies leverage Web 2.0 technologies:

Iowa Lottery

• Shares the excitement of winning through YouTube videos of lottery winners
• Reveals winning lottery numbers through text-messages and "Tweets" on its Twitter page

Iowa Department of Transportation

• Takes to its blog to communicate news releases and traffic incidents
• Reaches out to a younger audience through Facebook and YouTube to engage in a teen traffic safety contest

Iowa Department of Public Health

• Sends text messages to teens regarding the "Just Eliminate Lies" anti-tobacco program

Iowa Homeland Security

• Distributed podcasts of news conferences during floods earlier this year

Read more of the article, "Government officials embrace social media," by William Petroski at DesMoinesRegister.com. 

You've been talking about it for a while, but now your organization has finally decided to get a new content management system (CMS).  This is the "BIG" project of the year.  All of your hopes and dreams for where your website is heading are wrapped up in your CMS project. 

In fact, if you're a typical organization, everyone has started to project their own goals onto the project.  "We'll have that fixed when we get our new CMS," they say, and, "That will all be addressed with our new CMS." 

Goals for almost every CMS project:

• Keep content more up to date
• Allow individual "content managers" easier access to update their areas of the website
• Create a more consistent look and feel for the organization
• Make search indexing and search within the site easier
• Improve navigation
  

More advanced goals for your CMS project:

• Improve content structure: Produce content in multiple standard formats so it can be reused by other websites and systems
• Support improved navigation: Publish content with appropriate tags and categorizations so that new content appears in all appropriate locations rather than just in one place.  For example, if you publish three safety publications on water, fire, and snow, the publication on "fire" should appear in the fire safety area of the website as well as the "safety publications" area without much extra effort
• Works well with other technologies (Web 2.0 widgets, other systems you buy, etc.):  Your CMS needs to "play well with others."  If you are looking at CMS vendors and the vendor says, "we do that" in response to all of your questions, that is red flag.  CMS are not best in class at everything.  You may want to use YouTube for video, Google for search, GovDelivery for email communication, and Wordpress for blogging.  Find out how the CMS will work with these systems rather than hoping the CMS will do everything you want.
  

5 outcomes you should expect from your content management project:

1. New content can be posted within 15 minutes by any approved individual in the organization. 
   
   I know that some content has to be approved, but if your project is more focused on "workflow" and approvals rather than efficiency, you may want to rethink things.  The fact is that in order to be current, Web content cannot be bottle-necked by cumbersome approval processes.  Set policies and guidelines for content and let people publish without too many extra steps.  As long as you're not publishing the new interest rates, you can make edits later without major consequence.
   
   
2. Any web page can be published as an XML / RSS Feed at the same time as it is published in HTML.
   
   This ensures that other Web managers, bloggers, and even other systems (including GovDelivery) can read and interpret your page in an automated way.  In the Web 2.0 world, this type of openness and sharing is important and will ensure that your content "has legs" and gets reposted and repurposed across the Internet.
   
   
3. All web pages are easily indexed by major search engines.  I'm not an expert on this, but it's an easy topic to research online.  Google has all kinds of tools for this at www.google.com/webmasters
   
   
4. Content can be published to multiple locations at the same time without too much extra effort.
   
   
5. Your system supports a user-centric design. 
   
   Oops, you thought your CMS project was going to give you a "usable website."  If that's the case, you should stop right now and focus a bunch of time on the design and usability of your website.  A CMS is for managing the content on your website.  If you have a poor design and a good CMS, you will just have very up to date, but unusable content.  

Finally, you need to have a way of capturing information from people who are interested in your content so you can reach out to them when updates occur.  My company, GovDelivery, works with government websites on this and has found the following best practices to support the rollout of new content management systems.

• Have a proactive communication system in place before you launch your CMS. Why? You want to know what people are interested in on your current site so you can focus more effort on that content and make sure people know how to find it when the new website is up and running.  Even the best redesigned websites often annoy their most regular users.  You can help prevent this frustration by allowing regular users to signup for updates before you rollover to the new CMS when links/designs/navigation will typically change dramatically.
  
  
• Make sure that your new CMS will work with whatever proactive communication solution you are using or plan to use to allow you to automatically send updates when you publish Web content.  You don't want to publish Web content and then have to login separately to send email.  In GovDelivery's case, if you publish information in RSS or can connect to a Web Services API, you'll be able to automate your outbound email communication.
  

This is a complex topic that I will return to if there is any interest.  When I mentioned I was writing this blog entry, I got some great links to other resources on vendor websites and regarding open sources CMS.  If the topic is of interest, I will write another article on vendor selection.

The Federal Consulting Group (FCG), a franchise operation within the U.S. Department of the Interior, is hosting a thought-provoking and educational roundtable event beginning at 8:30 a.m. on Thursday, Nov. 20 - and you're invited. The panel will include federal agencies that are driving awareness, policy and their mission through compelling online content. The panel includes:

 

• Jeff Morin Senior Web Editor, Environmental Protection Agency
• Maxine Teller, New Media Strategist, U.S. Department of Defense
• Sheila Campbell, Team Leader for USA.gov Web Best Practices Team
• David Haradon, Associate, Booz Allen Hamilton
• Ron Oberbillig, Chief Operating Officer, FCG
• Brett Berntsen, Director of Product Management, GovDelivery

 

The discussion will focus on embracing new channels, leveraging channels like email and how different agencies use compelling content to engage users.

 

Event details:

 

November 20, 2008, 8:30 a.m. EST
Treasury Executive Institute
1st Floor
801 9th St NW
Washington, DC 20239

 

To register for the event, please visit http://www.govdelivery.com/usergroups/federal_nov08/index.html

Citizens crave information, but they are also busy and difficult to reach.

Blogs, social networks, and other Web 2.0 capabilities can help you reach citizens with critical information how and where they want to obtain it.  But, are any government agencies really using these tools?  We've provided examples before, but here are some new findings.

In April, a ScienceLogic survey found that more than 65 percent of government IT workers surveyed said Web 2.0 tools are important to their operations and 20 percent were using tools like wikis, blogs and RSS feeds. More than 50 percent said they are planning on having these tools in place by next year.

In some cases, such as the Intelligence Communities' wikopedia project, Intellipedia and the Navy Department CIO blog, the Web 2.0 tools are internal communications tools.

But other applications face the public such as those at USA.gov where they use social media applications to reach the public, including blogs, RSS feeds, podcasts and microblogs.

A recent article on Read Write Web, "To 2.0 or Not 2.0? That is the Governments' Question" (http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/government_20.php), provides additional examples of how the government is using social media to reach the public.

In a recent blog post by Daniel Mintz, chief information officer for the U.S. Department of Transportation, states, "The second generation of Web access will change the way government delivers services and its relationship with the American public."

While there are many examples of government embracing Web 2.0, I am now looking for more examples of how this embrace of technology is resulting in positive change and efficiency in how government interacts with the citizen.  The changes instituted following comments on the TSA blog are very positive examples.  I hope to find more and document them here over time.

One thing we do see is that content that challenges and engages the citizen (what we call, "Compelling Content") seems to be more successful in Web 2.0 which is fundamentally an environment where content faces a lot of competition for attention.

We will be discussing these issues at the Proactive Communication Roundtable at the Department of Treasury where we will talk about embracing new channels, leveraging channels that have been with us for longer (mainly email), and how different agencies use compelling content to engage users.

I was happy to be on Federal News Radio today discussing what apparently (based on what I come up with for the blog anyway) is my favorite topic lately which is Web 2.0 / Government 2.0. 

I discussed several GovDelivery clients today including HHS, CDC, TSA, and USA.gov.  I was happy to be able to share so many examples of government using technology in innovative ways and to be able to share my thoughts on the importance of the Web Manager role... something that I think is also critical in state and local government.

You can listen to the interview here: http://www.federalnewsradio.com/?nid=363 (scroll down to 5th story).

Or find the direct link to the recording here: http://www.federalnewsradio.com/emedia/134638.mp3

Many thanks to Daily Debrief co-host and former Federal Computer Week editor Chris Dorobek for inviting me on.

Chris is a long time blogger and has one of the best blogs covering Federal government here: http://dorobekinsider.com/

GovDelivery thanks guest Blogger, Jamie Findlater, for this interesting post.

Posted by: Jamie Findlater, Department of Defense, Community Relations and New Media Team Member

Going Viral: DoD's New Media Tactics for the Troops

 

This year marked the fourth annual Department of Defense America Supports You (ASY) National Freedom Walk in Washington D.C.  The ASY Freedom Walk is an opportunity to reflect on the lives lost on September 11, 2001 at the Pentagon and remember the sacrifices of our veterans past and present.

 

Employing new media tactics to communicate to the public about DoD policy and programs is an important part of the Department of Defense's public affairs mission, and letting folks know about the ASY Freedom Walk is no exception. This year, for the first time, we incorporated viral marketing and new media tactics to increase awareness about the opportunity to walk in the DC area, which led to great walker registration and turn out. We also experimented with new media tactics the day of the event, understanding that these components are an important way to connect with our audiences.  

 

A central part of our new media campaign was the creation of an America Supports You Freedom Walk widget. The widget displayed a countdown to the day of the national walk and tallied the number of local walks being organized around the country. The widget also provided links through which participants could register and spread the word about the event. Milbloggers, military spouse bloggers and online publications could post the widget on their sites. Then, during the ASY Freedom Walk, we enabled participants to send text messages honoring our troops and the lives lost on the day of the event. The messages scrolled through the widget after the event.

 

In terms of viral outreach, we relied largely on cross-promotion from the ASY homefront groups, military support organizations and partner government agencies. GovDelivery sent our viral e-mail to its own subscription lists and partnered us with their other subscribers. Here at DoD, we placed e-mail footers at the bottom of our news articles. Other organizations, including DisabilityInfo.gov and USA.gov, were instrumental in helping us get the word out to their subscribers through similar tactics.

 

The viral outreach campaign also incorporated online video components. The DoD New Media team created a video blog, or "vlog," to share information with communities about opportunities to start local walks in their area. The video was showcased on the DoD "video on demand" Web site, DoD VClips, along with many other DoD videos centering around September 11^th. This year's ASY Freedom walk and recognition of September 11^th was particularly important due to the dedication of the Pentagon Memorial, and viral video was an important part of telling this story. 

 

Overall, thousands of participants participated in the ASY Freedom Walk. This event provided a good opportunity to experiment with viral notification and new media tactics.

We have a host of other new media ideas that we hope to develop as well. At DoD, we are constantly experimenting with new ways of delivering information, realizing that the way the public consumes information is constantly evolving.

GovDelivery invites anyone with interesting government-to-citizen communication issues to discuss to be guest bloggers on reachthepublic.  Please contact product at govdelivery dot com with your ideas.

Is Web 2.0 the end of government-to-citizen email communication?  Not likely, but effective public email communication is the foundation of taking better advantage of Web 2.0.

I have been really pleased over the past year at how much government has embraced Web 2.0 as a way of improving service to the citizen, but I sometimes wonder if my enthusiasm for Web 2.0 is cluttering up our message as a company that effective email communication remains a fundamental / foundational step for any government city/county/agency that values communication with stakeholders.

Prior to our more vocal embrace of Web 2.0, we had the opposite problem.  Our clients were asking us whether GovDelivery is going to "get into Web 2.0."  The sense was that government-to-citizen email communication, where we are the world leaders, is very Web 1.0. 

So, we're trying to strike middle ground.  I'm completely bias, but what we are trying to communicate and support is that while the potential for Web 2.0 to help government improve service and lower cost is exciting, we are 99% certain that email will continue to play an important role in government-to-citizen communication well into the future. 

Consider this evidence:

• By most measures, email is one of the most effective communication channels in history:
  -Over 85% of citizen online time in the U.S. is spent using email (Jupiter).
  -Virtually all adults that are online use email; email is the number 1 use of the Internet.
  -Even people under 25 say that they would rather get official communication via email; you don't want to get your financial aid application in your Facebook inbox.
  
  
• Email is asynchronous which is why even my gmail chat, facebook updates, and twitter feeds rely on my email account to keep me connected.  Email never sleeps.
  
  
• Email use has actually increased since RSS has become more readily available. 
  -Why?  Because we all have hundreds of different types of communication we want from government/marketers/media/friends/etc.   I don't want notices of changes to my local park hours via RSS feed, I want them by email when they occur (which is not very often)
  -RSS feeds are useful for a very limited number of news sources.  I use RSS to follow a handful of blogs and other updates, and I am a heavy RSS user by most measures.  One study recently suggested that 8% of Internet users use RSS regularly vs. 98% that use email.  RSS feeds make Web browsing more efficient and are great for creating content mashups, widgets, etc.  They are poor for proactive communication.
  

What does GovDelivery mean when we say that we embrace Web 2.0?

1. We believe in open systems.  For example, a government agency using our service can trigger an email alert by updating an RSS feed on the agency's website or on the agency's YouTube account or blog.  In this way, our clients can offer highly-specific updates from across their hosted and external Web enterprise.  RSS feeds are machine readable so we rely on the openness of others to make interfacing with our system easy (side note: any feed that validates at www.feedvalidator.org works to trigger messages in GovDelivery).
   
   
2. We have created a revolutionary level of collaboration between our clients which helps breakdown silos between government agencies.  You can read more about this in our recent announcement.
   
   
3. We have launched a new Discuss this Email blogging capability which leverages an off-the-shelf blogging capability to give our government clients a blog that is easier to manage and actually gets readers.
   
   
4. We are using the vast amounts of content flowing through our systems (80 million messages in September; on track for over 1 billion in 2009) to create new types of tag clouds that pull the most popular and interesting content forward.
   

There's more in progress and more to come, but these are a few good examples.

So, given email's prominence, I believe that it is not an interim solution for communication as much as it is one of the key building blocks to creating an audience for your content that you can further engage through a broad range of approaches made easier by Web 2.0.

Our press release today got me thinking... what we are doing for our clients is valuable, but it raises this question:  Are we continuing to make the important case for email communication while also embracing these new areas?  I welcome your feedback.

The article below includes a variety of thoughts on how Web 2.0 is being used in business-- including thoughts from me on how we use Web 2.0 at GovDelivery which is something we've been talking about a lot lately.  It's interesting to see that Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter are the only sites mentioned more than once.  Clearly, critical mass matters in any social network.  It's hard to have a network without members.  Still, the power of Twitter is clear by the fact that it is smaller, but still gets a lot of positive feedback.  I'm sure it will continue to grow exponentially.

I took an informal survey of our government clients.  I looked up 20 clients (individuals working at government agencies that work with us).  I found that all but two of them were on LinkedIn or Facebook.  15 of them were on both. 

Obviously, our clients are Web managers and are inclined to use these tools, but I think we could all infer a lot about the increased use of Web 2.0 in government over the coming years by looking at what individual Web managers are doing and by looking at how campaigns are using Web 2.0 today which will undoubtedly translate into a new wave of elected officials and deputies that want to see Web 2.0 put to use in government.

My company, GovDelivery, just completed a Webinar on Web. 2.0 in government where we had 150 attendees.  The quality of the questions was very exciting because it shows how much government Web managers are thinking about how best to use Web 2.0 to meet the needs of the public.

For anyone who attended the webinar or is interested in this topic, I want to point out some useful links:

1. Previous post on Web 2.0  which includes a useful glossary
   
2. Follow-up on Cloud Computing
3. Post on TSA Blog

Also, we have some upcoming webinars on on-demand emailing (cloud computing) and other topics as well as a recorded version of the Government Web 2.0 webinar you can request from us by going to the registration page.

Are you trying to understand your website traffic?

I am a big fan of a service called Quantcast. 

From their website:
Quantcast is a new media measurement service that enables advertisers to view audience reports for millions of sites and services to build their brands with confidence.

Recently I came across an interesting paper from Princeton University titled "Government Data and the Invisible Hand." The paper proposes ways that government can do a better job making information more available to citizens. It's a good read and only ten pages: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1138083

The paper makes a strong statement that government web sites have failed to provide government data to the public, and that private industry can do a better job. I don't agree with this view, but I believe that the paper makes many insightful observations and provides useful direction to policy makers as well as government professionals involved in planning the future of the web and e-government within individual agencies.

 

The bottom line from my standpoint:

1)       As the authors of the paper suggest, government should put far more energy into publishing information in highly-structured formats so that the information can be repurposed for distribution by other organizations (private, public, non-profit, etc.).

2)       The authors think government should make structuring content the top priority, but they discount two areas where the government Web manager plays a critical role.  First, the government Web manager acts as an editor raising awareness of the most valuable content.  An agency may have 50 publications on its website on a certain topic, the government Web manager can feature the publication that is most current and has the most potential public valuable.  Second, government agencies are increasingly acting as citizen/customer relationship managers by learning what citizens are interested in, recommending complementary services and content, and creating ongoing ways of receiving updates direct from the government.  In my opinion, the biggest obstacle for a citizen trying to get content or services from the government is time.  Government Web managers are increasingly adept at making interaction with their agencies more efficient.

 

On the web, we value Amazon's ability to create an efficient and pleasant shopping experience over its ability to offer lots of different products.  Amazon features the most interesting (or maybe profitable) products, allows users to see suggestions based on what other users have purchased, and gathers information from users so it can notify them when new information and products of interest are available.  In working with federal agencies since 2003, I've seen enormous strides in how government Web managers understand their audience and play the role of trusted editor.  In addition, we've seen many government websites deploy strategies to use the website as the hub of the citizens relationship with the agency so that it serves not just as a content repository, but also as a place to signup for email updates and submit questions and comments.  In full disclosure, my company, GovDelivery, is a private sector organization that serves many governments with a digital communication platform.  This might make me bias, but it also gives me insight into how government websites have leveraged at least one platform created in the private sector to offer tens of thousands of different topics for subscription and send over 50 million digital messages out every month.  This seems to be the best of both worlds.  Government controls the content, the message, and the citizen relationship, but is able to leverage the best technology from the private sector.  Should GovDelivery fail to continue to innovate and meet government needs, another company will step in to fill the new needs of the government (this is exactly how companies move between technology providers over time). 

Highly-structured content on government websites has the benefit of making the websites easier to manage and facilitating easy deployment of new services that leverage the content in different ways.  This is a tremendous benefit, but expecting the private or non-profit sectors to manage and improve this type of service without a direct connection to the government agency is, in my opinion, like telling Amazon to outsource its homepage and its customer database.

 

Complaining about the TSA is like complaining about the weather in Minnesota.  Even when things run well, we assume bad things are on the horizon.

TSA is playing a cruel numbers game from a PR perspective.  They must inconvenience a lot of people to capture or deter a small number.  Not an easy job if you are trying to make friends, but they are taking many steps to be more effective.

I have flown around 2 million miles since 1997.  Currently I take 4-6 flights per month (mostly from our corporate headquarters to DC, but occasionally to see clients in the U.K. and business partners around the country).  I have a theory that everyone is a little afraid of flying and that is why we all look for the worst in air travel.  What I find in reality is that security is reliably efficient across the country and that I am much safer in an airport or airplane than I am in a car.

The main reason I'm impressed with TSA is their approach to communication.  They are proactive at getting the word out and incredibly open.

Three examples:
1) The most open blog I've seen where the whole world can comment (and sometimes rant) about the TSA and air travel in general.
2) Every time they have a rule change, they immediately get the word out through any and all channels as well as through incredibly easy to understand (e.g., "3-1-1" for liquids)
3) They use email and RSS alerts to get the word out on new information.  (Full disclosure: my company, GovDelivery, provides the email alerts.)

Finally, they now put up posters saying what they have accomplished over the previous week.  These posters make the public aware of the work TSA is doing to improve security.   When I see what they are accomplishing, I'm more agreeable to taking my shoes off.  Plain and simple: when citizens know that government is getting its job done, we are more cooperative and appreciative. 
 

When we organize websites and determine what kind of content we're going to offer for subscription when communicating by email, there is a common question that needs to be answered.  Do we give people what they want or let them tell us who they are so we can give them what we think they need?

I've been talking with a number of agencies and cities recently about this challenge.

In the email world (where GovDelivery's work is focused), I see two major categories of content.   The problem is that I have a hard time categorizing them.  I'm hoping this blog entry forces me to come up with some labels.

Here it goes:

1) "Give me what I want" content is content that the user finds on your website and determines is of value.  The user says to you that she wants to know when a certain type or category of information is updated.  Examples of this might include: "Diabetes Publications"  "Updates to Park Hours"  "City Council Minutes" "Federal Reserve Board Rulings" or "Tax-related Press Releases"

2) "Give me what you think I need" content is content where the user self identifies as being interested in a certain issue or as having certain characteristics.  The user says to the content creator, "Please send me whatever you think will be useful to me."

The best example of this type of information is an e-newsletter.  (A recent favorite for me that is this one targeted at e-government professionals:  http://www.usa.gov/dotgovbuzz.html).  The IRS e-newsletter for Tax Professionals is another good example.

Another example would be where a local government, like San Bernardino County, CA gathers zip code or neighborhood from subscribers and then sends messages to those subscribers on any topic affecting that zip code.   We see this type of approach used for emergencies where it's hard for users to know ahead of time what the issue will be.  The user wants to say to the content creator, "Look, I live in this particular area.  If you ever think I need to know about something, please use your judgment about what to send me."

Both of these types of content play an important role.  We recommend to clients that they offer as many "Give me what I want" options as possible and limit "Give me what you think I need" content to where there is a clear stakeholder group that you think will trust you to create targeted content of interest.  The "Give me what you think I need" content takes more effort and requires that your audience trust your judgment (a diabetic might want to read the "top ten health tips" from the NIH, but not from a pharmaceutical company).  This type of content allows you to help the user filter through the vast amount of content on your website to see what you as the content creator or manager thinks matters most.

If you use the proper cross-promotional techniques, offering both types of content has another benefit: You will actually get more people signed up to all of your updates.  Why?  Because just like shoppers on e-commerce sites are open to buying related products when cross-promotion occurs at the right time, citizens looking for content are open to signing up for different types of content during the initial subscription process. 

A user who signs up for the "Monthly City Newsletter" might also sign up for updates on Park Hours and City Budget Announcements.  A user who signs up for Mens Health Publications from the CDC might also sign-up for the Obesity Prevention Newsletter.

I've spent nearly 10 years working with public sector organizations and one question comes up over and over again particularly at the more senior levels of government: 

How can we be more _________  (fill in the blank with agile, results-oriented, customer-driven, efficient, or any other adjective out of the MBA vocabulary) like the private sector?

The reason this question makes a lot of sense to anyone coming out of the private sector was best explained by former Secretary of Treasury, Robert Rubin who arrived at the Treasury directly from his leadership role at Goldman Sachs:

"Most people I've known in the private sector are just much too accustomed to linear processes where they're clear decision makers and they make a decision and things more or less then happen.  In government, the decisions you make very often are much less direct in their effect."  - Robert Rubin

Source: Leadership in Government: An Interview with Robert E. Rubin from the McKinsey Quarterly, July 2007

Understanding the difference between public and private sector decision making is fundamental to allowing the tension between public sector best practice and private sector best practice to drive good public sector decisions.

For example, my focus at GovDelivery is on working with our city, county, state, and federal government clients to help adapt best practice communication practices from the private sector into the public sector environment.  In the private sector, communication has a linear and measurable objective which is typically summarized by two words: Get sales. 

We have seen more than 20 innovative companies gain prominence in the private sector by offering different kinds of electronic communication products/platforms.  Where these products excel is in allowing marketers to target distinct groups of customers and potential customers based on demographics, buying behavior, and previous online actions.  In the public sector, this kind of targeting is too time consuming and presents real concerns about discrimination and privacy.  However, by helping our clients understand the benefits of a personalized message, we've worked with them to devise ways to offer the public much more choice in what they receive. 

This doesn't lead to more sales (because our clients generally don't sell anything), but it leads to outstanding and measurable results in other areas such as dramatically more citizens signing up for content updates (what we refer to as "more subscribers") due to higher level of personalization.

There are many more examples of this phenomenon.  What I enjoy about working in the public sector is that there are so many constituencies and considerations that the work we do is complex and often non-linear.  We have to be creative in how we learn from our colleagues operating in the private sector and adapt what they do well (drive towards clear goals) to our more complex environment. 

If you work in government now and this is frustrating to you, you might be one of the people Secretary Rubin was referring to who would be better off in the private sector.  Don't worry though, if you make that leap, we'll be watching what you do and adapting it, as best we can, where we think it can help do the public good.