GSA Hits Social Media Road
The General Services Administration is heading full force into the Web 2.0 space, a move to increase collaboration among federal agencies, officials said at the Web and New Media Conference.
The agency wants to share data and use social media tools to allow the pubic to join the dialogue, but the real challenge is learning to collaborate, said GSA Administrator Martha Johnson, who joined the conference via Skype. The government can "get enamored with its toys but needs to pay attention to what its customers need," she added. To that end, GSA officials highlighted several initiatives to expand the government's presence in the Web 2.0 world. For example, the agency recently launched go.usa.gov, a link shortener similar to bit.ly but available only to individuals with a .gov or .mil email address. The site helps maintain the authenticity of the .gov brand, ensures permanent access for users and allows the government to gather data, said Bev Godwin, head of GSA's Center for New Media and Citizen Engagement.