NASA | Socialfeds

Potomac Forum Gov 2.0 Roundup

Last week (Aug. 26-27,2009) the Potomac Forum held a symposium on social networking tools and new media in the government. Many great Gov 2.0 project were showcased here including many projects on the White House’s Open Government Innovations Gallery. Highlights include presentations on OMB’s Max Wiki, Diplopedia from the Dept. of State, NASA’s Spacebook, and the TSA Idea Factory.

Unfortunately, I was unable to attend. Luckily, there was some great coverage around the web on this event (including video!). I’ve pulled together some great resources here for anyone else who was unable to attend or just wants a recap.

Full agenda
Video from C-SPAN (Aug. 26)
Liveblogging - Done by Robin Paoli on Govloop
Tweets - Archive of #pfgov tweets on Twapper Keeper, courtesy of @sjsanford

Posted
September 1st, 2009

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Starting your own Facebook- Lessons Learned from NASA’s Spacebook Project

NASA is building a social network for Goddard Space Flight Center, codenamed “Spacebook”.

Spacebook Prototype

Spacebook is an enhanced Intranet designed around user profiles, forums, groups, and social tagging. The goal of the project is to use social media to help NASA be more competitive and innovative, encourage collaboration and information sharing, and take better advantage of the information & resources they already have. Emma Antunes (@eantunes), Project Manager for Spacebook, recently gave a great webinar to share how she approached this project, got the buy-in from users, contractors, and management, and other invaluable lessons she learned in getting this implemented.

I’ve capture my takeaways from her presentation on implementing an internal social network and listed them below.

Get buy-in from the suits. You need a champion in a senior management office to sponsor the project. Get them excited about what you’re doing. This allows you to engage them to remove any roadblocks and they can give the bossy stink eye when needed.
Approach it like any other technical project; Design first, technology second. Focus on solving a business problem. Don’t just jump into new media because it’s what the cool kids are doing.
Be proactive. Get your legal support, privacy office, security group, and accessibility team involved at the jump off. Miss the boat on one of these areas and your project could get shut down faster than the revised Facebook Terms of Service.
Use exisiting resources where you can. This increases management buy-in because you’re not asking for additional funding right of the bat. Try to re-prioritize existing developer staff and take advantage of internal hosting, existing contracts, and open-source software.
Take the perspective of the employee to really understand what user needs are. What’s going on? What’s in it for me? How can I participate? How do I get answers to my questions?
Don’t expect people to change their processes unless you give them a big incentive. If you build it they won’t come, if you make their job easier, they will. The new process must be easier than the old one.
Get web developers out of the content game. They don’t want to do it and you don’t want to have to ask them for updates. And honestly, they cost too much money anyway. Let the people in charge of the material manage it.
No content should exist without an owner. Integrate and complement content that you already have. Don’t just replicate it in a new forum that requires additional maintenance.
Don’t give someone another inbox they won’t check, a new username and password to enter, make them request a new account, or fill-in information that you already know.
Engage early adopters and group owners and get commitment from them to post content regularly.
Even if your audience is a bunch of twenty-somethings, you still need to train them. We may like technology but, we hate extra work. Show me how I can use your product to make my job easier.

The Facebook Phenomenon - How Government is Getting Into The Act

Let’s face it, Facebook is huge. More than 150 million people around the world are now actively using Facebook and almost half of them are using Facebook every day. This includes people in every continent—even Antarctica. Now many government agencies are deploying their own version of this popular social networking site to share information and connect with niche communities.

ExchangesConnect is a social network administered by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, US Department of State. The site is geared toward people interested or participating in international exchange and learning more about other cultures. Have you participated in a study abroad or student exchange program? Or know someone who has? Imagine being able to connect to those people after returning home. ExchangesConnect aims to help you do that and much more. Recently launched in October 2008, ExchangesConnect already has more than 7600 members and over 60 active groups.

This spring NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center will debut an internal social network for its employees. The site will mimic Facebook and feature individuals’ profiles, expertise and personal interests, said Linda Cureton, chief information officer at Goddard. Spacebook seems to be NASA’s latest foray into social networking after their massive success with the @MarsPhoenix account on Twitter.

A-Space (A is for analyst), dubbed the “social network for spies”, was reportedly launched in September of 2008 as a social network for the intelligence community. The effort is spearheaded by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, or DNI, a post created in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, to coordinate foreign and domestic security. A-Space was developed specifically for prominent intelligence organizations such as the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the National Security Agency (NSA) with a total of 16 intelligence agencies participating. The site aims to give spies a chance to interact with their peers and share data like they never have been able to before. A-Space even made Time Magazines list of Best Inventions of 2008. Naturally, the A-Space network will not be open to members of the public and only intelligence employees with the prerequisite level of security clearance will be granted official access.

And of course, you can’t talk about government social networking without mentioning Govloop. It may not be federal agency run but is aimed at federal employees. Govloop was launched by federal employee Steve Ressler in his spare time with the goal of connecting the government community. It’s proving to be a great way for government employees at the local, state, and federal levels to collaborate, share ideas, and ask for advice and assistance. Govloop now boasts more than 6000 members, 800 blogs, 300 groups, 250 discussions, 2000 photos. Are you on Govloop? I am.

The US isn’t the only place government is getting in to the social networking game. In late 2008 Transport For London (TfL) - the government owned company running the public transportation system in London - launched a social networking site called Together For London. The purpose is to gather ideas from customers about how to make London a better place. Registered users can create an avatar (called “Little Londoner”), start and participate in discussions, and even set up a campaign.

P.S. I wonder if the Dept. of State employees can even access ExchangesConnect since it is built using Ning, which is blocked by many government agencies. Hmmm…..

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