Govt 2.0: From Tools to Policy to Convergence

As I think back over the past two years, specifically with my involvement in the world of Government 2.0, I can't help but think its adoption has coalesced into three phases.  Nearly all of us have experienced some aspect of Phase I: Tools.  What is Government 2.0?  How does Twitter work? What good is Facebook? Phase I is very hands-on and experiential.  It consists of learning the technologies that provide a foundation for Govt2.0 adoption.  Many of the 2.0 movers and shakers might consider Phase I old news.  But the truth is that when you look at government organizations as whole, particularly those of us at the local level, most are still in this phase - conducting experiments, discussing with peers, working on buy-in from our organizations, etc.

A small percentage of us have taken the next big step to Phase II: Policy.  Phase II, which I highlighted in an entry a few months back, is focused on the larger, more extensive issue of the "how" of government 2.0.  The effective policies cover such delicate topics as ownership, legal responsibilities, message consistency, etc.  It answers sometimes difficult questions. Who will manage these tools?  What can we tolerate in terms of two-way communication and feedback?  Which tools will we deploy? The numbers of social media "policies" that address these issues continue to expand at a slow but steady rate.

This brings us to the relatively uncharted waters of Phase III: Convergence - a merger of these tools and concepts with our larger organizational strategy.  How do we keep the momentum going?  What's next for us if we want to truly institutionalize the use of not just the tools but more importantly the concepts and the potential they represent, such as collaboration, open government and knowledge management? How do we take that next step to integrate these tools into our organizations' larger communications or development strategy? These are all excellent questions.  And no, I don't know the answers...yet.

That's where you come in! Together with Ines Mergel, Assistant Professor of Public Administration at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, Syracuse University (and fellow MuniGover!), I'd like to request your participation in a very brief online survey to help us develop some empirical data on this very subject. Once we can get a snapshot of where we are today, we intend to develop some analysis on where the gaps are and how we can overcome them.

When completed, we plan to do a seminar to review and discuss the results with anyone interested.  I expect that we'll also be able to share some best practices and lessons learned from the experience that will likely also help you take your own organization to the next level of engagement and implementation.

So please, take a moment to answer these few simple questions - share your pain, share your success!

https://survey.maxwell.syr.edu/Survey.aspxs=4b8afaec1ec74d5dac1d6ebde704bd35