According to SmartBrief “The US State Department unveiled a new look website yesterday as it embraces social networking and other Web 2.0 tools in an exercise it called ’21st Century statecraft. “Smart power meets smart design,” Katie Dowd, the State Department’s New Media Director, said in a post outlining the changes to State.gov on the State Department blog “DipNote,” which is also undergoing a facelift.

The new website provides front-page links to the State Department’s official YouTube channel, Twitter feed, Facebook page and Flickr photo account. The State Department said in a statement that the revamped State.gov incorporates improved “functionality and an updated design” and aims to “present the Department of State more transparently.” It is intended to “engage audiences in an ongoing dialogue with Secretary Clinton and others in the department on the foreign policy issues facing the country,” it said.”

http://blogs.rnw.nl/medianetwork/us-state-department-revamps-website-in-web-20-push — US State Department revamps website in Web 2.0 push

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

This is a great article on why governments need to rethink their use of technology.  Some of my favourite points in this article are:

1. Government employees are being asked to work with one half of their brain behind their back (due to their lack of access to social media sites)

2. The resistance of the DG level because they are concerned about giving power to the “people”

There is also a reference to our favourite Government of Canada site GCPedia  (Please insert applause here….) ;-]

http://www.itworldcanada.com/news/why-canada-should-open-source-government/139761

CNN reporter, Pete Cashmore writes this interesting and thought provoking article on how social media is being used to support the relief efforts in Haiti. He notes that everyone from aid organizations to politicians to celebrities are tapping into their social media followers to ask for them for donations and help.  According to Cashmore, this is one of the first times in history that social media is overcoming “Slacktivism“. Followers are actually doing more than just observing or “following”;  they are actually doing something to make a difference.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/01/14/cashmore.haiti.earthquake.relief.technology/index.html

WebDrive client, Pierre Belvedere Inc, is launching their first-ever social media-based consumer opinion survey (thanks to a little help from WebDrive).  The goal is to learn more about the stationary, pen and academic agenda preferences of the student market (high school to university age groups).  

Students will be communicated with through a number of social mediums including Facebook, MySpace, LinkeIn, YouTube and Twitter.  The goal is to create a viral effect where by students will refer other students to the survey using social networking sites.  The company’s ROI is anticipated to be impressive because this approach lowers their communication costs while attracting a larger number of respondents.

If you know someone in this age group, you can refer them to the survey through this link.

http://pierrebelvedere.webdrive.ca

Had a great day at the social media for government conference.  The presenation went really well and all of the speakers were top quality.  I particularly liked the thinking coming from HRSDC’s Canada Student Load Program. In a nut shell, they suggested that positioning blog campaigns similarly to media requests helps upper management rap their heads around this new medium.  They also suggested to start small and brief, brief, brief!

Here are the presentations that we gave.  If anyone needs any further information, please let me know.

ali-conf-sept30-Jen - Jennifer Savage of WebDrive Canada 

ALI-conference-sept30-chantal – Chantal Wolfe of DFAIT