Here’s a great article on why there is so much pressure on governments to recognize that government evolution is necessary.  I particularly like how the author links the growing adoption of mobile devices to the growing demand for information and greater government services.

http://radar.oreilly.com/2009/12/government-20-five-predictions.html

This article from ITWorld Canada speculates on the impact of the cabinet shuffle on Canadian IT providers. The author ponders if technology efficiency will be one of the initiatives that Mr. Day will take on as the new Treasury Board Minister. He points out that the aging legacy systems will need replacing and new efficiency-focuses applications will be preferred. He also points out that close to 40% of the public sector will be retiring in the coming years which will put pressure on the government to automate more of its services. Is this a driver for Government 2.0? I hope so. A greater focus on multi-departmental and multi-jurisdictional e-collaboration could only help achieve the levels of efficiencies sought. And wider implementation of open source web 2.0 applications will allow for better platform integration and less data lock-in by closed vendor-based applications.

http://www.itworldcanada.com/news/why-cabinet-shake-up-isnt-bad-news-for-it-industry/139797-pg1

Kudos to N.Y. City Mayor Michael Bloomberg!  He has raised the bar for transparency and openness within government by introducing an online tracking program which allows New Yorkers to view the administration’s performance and the expenditure of the $5billion in federal stimulus money that New York received.   This surely will put pressure on other government organizations to be more forthcoming with information on how effectively they are running departments and agencies on our behalf.

http://www.nyc.gov/cpr

The governance of social media applications is such a critical component of implementing an initiative within government. However the governance structure or parameters are not clear to all that are responsible  for this area of operations.  The following report looks at 100 social media governance structures and gives the following recommendations:

http://socialmediagovernance.com/policies.php?f=5

1.  Create at least two policies, as follows:

a. One policy that sets expectations and boundaries for all employees, including any relevant limitations or suggestions for the personal use of social media.

 b. Operational guidelines for employees working in social media as part of their job.

 2.  Determine valuable opportunities to leverage your employees as ambassadors in your markets, then provide guidance that helps your employees to achieve greater impact and value in their social media interactions.

 3.  Support your employees and let them know where your boundaries lie. For example, tell them whether they are permitted to use your organizational trademarks, such as logos, in their personal content. Don’t leave them guessing.

 4.  Provide the right information to the right people at the right times. Create distinct documents with specific purposes that your employees are likely to consume.

a. Help employees understand the benefits of the document, then post the document where employees can easily find it as needed.

b. If you want to create a positive impression of your brand, post it publicly, and consider posting the policy at:

http://SocialMediaGovernance.com/policies.php

 5. Provide hyperlinks in your social media policy to all relevant policies. Make it easy for your employees to find additional information as required.

• Also provide a link to relevant contacts, such as email addresses of key personnel or URLs of internal web pages that provide relevant information.

1. Relevance

·         The wiki must meet a tangible business need.  There are too many technology solutions that were created out of love for the technology rather than to address a critical need.  However, a truly successful wiki strategy is built around a clear understanding of the intended user-base and the needs that the wiki will address.

·         The wiki clearly communicates the benefits it offers to its users.  People are busy, particularly within government.  It is faster and easier to stick with current technology solutions, even if they aren’t perfect, rather than learn how to use a new technology. Therefore a successful wiki needs to clearly communicate the value it offers users to entice them to use it. This value must be communicated directly from the main page of the wiki and in subsequent pages.

2. Technology

·         The wiki must operate at a reasonable speed. This is particularly critical for departments that operate in countries or regions with lower bandwidths.  Slow response time is one of the fastest ways to lose a user base, so know your audience’s usage environment and test, test, test.

·         The wiki technology must be reliable.  Like anything in this world, if a technology doesn’t work consistently, users will develop mistrust and move on to something more reliable. Therefore a successful wiki strategy identified the technology support structure (both equipment and people) required to keep the wiki working reliably.

3. Content

·         The wiki must have meaningful content.  As previously mentioned, users are busy people.  If the information housed on the wiki isn’t useful to them, they will turn elsewhere.  One of the easiest ways to ensure the usefulness of content is to encourage users to create their own.

·         Wiki content should come predominately from the users themselves.  The main value of wiki technology is that anyone can add or edit content without being a web programmer.  Therefore a valuable wiki can be tested based on the amount of user-generated content that has been uploaded to the wiki.  Resist the urge to turn the wiki into a fancy single-source publishing tool. Rather encourage users to create value by creating their own content.

4. Usability

·         Things on the wiki should be easy to find. Nothing is more frustrating than wasting time trying to find information.  All wiki strategies should employ a clearly defined navigation strategy.  It is recommended that the wiki use robust search technology and use a multidimensional navigation system.

·         The wiki should be easy to use. Attracting users to a new type of technology is normally only successful if the technology is easy to use.  Before selecting a wiki platform, wiki management should ensure that adding, editing, moving and deleting content is straight forward. Any additional features such as tagging, categorizing, mash-ups, blogging, discussion boards and instant messaging should be uncomplicated and intuitive.