Blogging About Blogging In the Public Sector

You knew it would come to this -- blogging about blogging. But what is less known is that blogging has become a tool for public agencies to improve internal communications and speed the flow of information, at least according to a new report authored by David Wyld, Director of the Strategic e-Commerce/e-Government Initiative at Southeastern Louisiana University, and published by IBM.

Entitled The Blogging Revolution: Government in the Age of Web 2.0, the report details details blogging activities by members of Congress, governors, city mayors, and police and fire departments. In addition, the report assesses blogging in corporate America, with a survey of top executives who blog. For instance, General James Cartwright, commander of the U.S. Strategic Command (and recently nominated as the next Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff) has sponsored a real-time, secure blog to connect generals and warfighters. "The metric is what the person has to contribute, not the person's rank, age, or level of experience," says Cartwright. "If they have the answer, I want the answer. When I post a question on my blog, I expect the person with the answer to post back."

According to the report, blogging has moved from the purview of teens and college students to mainstream businesses and government. Every hour, more than 54,000 posts are made to blogs for a total of 1.3 million new blog posts each day. All in all, the blogosphere continues to double in size every six months.

"We hope this report both informs and inspires public managers across government to consider ways of engaging in the new world of Web 2.0 to improve citizen access to public services, as well as to enhance democracy in our society," says Todd Ramsey, General Manager, IBM Global Government Industry. "Blogging is no longer a fad. It is becoming a key tool in industry for communicating and collaborating both internally with employees as well as externally with customers. I anticipate that government agencies will continue to become rapid adopters as they see the power of Web 2.0 to help them address increasingly complex challenges that they face."

Actually, Wyld's examination of blogging is done in the context of Web 2.0 in general, although he focuses on interactivity. He sees blogging as a growing tool online citizen engagement with public officials. Wyld also points to other Web 2.0 technologies, such as wikis and 3-D immersive experiences like Second Life.

Posted by Jon Erickson at 09:30 AM  Permalink