Don't Forget Your Mission (or your /mission)

I'm a big fan of the Open Government Directive that recently came out of the Obama Administration. I've spent the past 10 years of my life trying to help government improve transparency, participation, and collaboration, and this Directive speaks to what I care about and what my company, GovDelivery, has been trying to facilitate.  We're launching a lot of resources in support of the Directive and have made embracing the Directive the theme of our first open Proactive Communication Roundtable of the year on February 9th in Washington, DC.

One of the components of the Directive I appreciate is an "after the slash" requirement for agencies to post their Open Government plans and progress at a specific URL-- in this case, "www.agency.gov/open."  It's a novel idea, but it's something that has been used well by the administration in other areas-- notably with Recovery (see: www.dol.gov/recovery) for an example.  Individual agencies use this concept now in other areas, but it's something that should be rolled out much more broadly.

Here are some ideas:
/data  Data feeds that an agency offers
/socialmedia  (Check out this example from the Navy)
/widgets (CDC example)
/emailupdates (FEMA example)
/metrics (Another CDC example)

However, the most important link should be /mission.  Every website should have the mission or purpose of the website with a link to the metrics being used to track success as well as the mission of the agency.  With all the "buzz" around new technologies and initiatives, I've been trying to go back to the importance of mission when we look at any agency's technology needs.  I put a longer (more GovDelivery-centric) blog entry about this up on our client blog here.

These high profile initiatives (Recovery and now Open Government) have introduced this easy way of organizing websites to be more consistent across government.  Let's institutionalize this concept across all levels of government and make sure mission is included.  I see clear benefits to search engines, consumers of information across many government agencies, anyone looking for best practices, and others. One current example of the benefit is that the Sunlight Foundation has put out an automated check of whether each agency has an "Open" page up and running.  These types of useful indexes of online activities and resources at agencies will be commonplace if "after the slash" standardization becomes widespread.

What do you think?  What key items would you include after the slash?

CDC and H1N1: A Case Study for Excellence in Communications

Remember the game "Telephone" in kindergarten where all the kids sit in a circle and the teacher whispers a message into the first child's ear, then he/she whispers it into the next child's ear until the passing of information comes full circle?  The message communicated by the teacher to the first student is completely different than the message that eventually made its way around the circle.

This same phenomenon has happened with the spread of information about the H1N1 virus.  Information available through traditional news media, Twitter and the blogosphere is pervasive, but not always entirely accurate.  This is understandable, because much like the kindergarten game of "Telephone," it is our human nature to distort information as we share it.

Fortunately, there are government agencies like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that cut through the abundance of misinformation, providing the public with official H1N1 information.  From the early stages of H1N1 becoming a major health issue through information on prevention and vaccination, the CDC has proactively reached over 190,000 citizens with H1N1-related information on topics such as flu prevention, H1N1 cases and vaccinations.  See CDC's comprehensive online site dedicated to H1N1 here.  To get up-to-date information on H1N1 from CDC, subscribe for alerts here.

From the first time we heard news about a new virus back in April 2009 to today, the CDC has kept us informed all along the way.  For this, we commend the agency's efforts and want to acknowledge its excellence in government-to-citizen communications.

Oakland County, Mich., Uses GovDelivery to Save Money and Keep Residents Up-to-Date

By Zach Stabenow, Executive Vice President & Co-Founder, GovDelivery

We like to highlight innovative agencies that are using creative ways to “Reach the Public.”  Today, we are showcasing how Oakland County, Mich., uses GovDelivery’s communication platform to enhance costs savings, as well as keep citizens informed during a challenging public health scare: the H1N1 flu epidemic.  When news of the epidemic was dominating the news cycle in late April and early May, many citizens clamored for information about the disease and its impact on their local communities.  Oakland County realized that posting information on a static website would not be a sufficient enough means for communicating urgent updates to concerned citizens.

As this Government Technology story highlights, Oakland County relied on the GovDelivery digital subscription service platform that allowed citizens to sign up for notifications via email, RSS feed or text message when it updated its website.  And, our platform allowed Oakland County to give citizens options as to how they wanted to receive the information. 

As Phil Bertolini, deputy county executive and CIO of Oakland County, noted in the article, Oakland County decided that allowing citizens to choose how they would receive the information was critical when dealing with these urgent H1N1 alerts.  The county’s website has 25,000 pages of content with 170 different content managers providing updates.  GovDelivery provided an automated process for sharing information that did not overburden these information managers. 

From an overall ROI perspective, by using GovDelivery’s platform, Oakland County has been able to save $268,000 in annual mailing and printing costs.  Also, check out this video interview of Mr. Bertolini discussing actual ROI from using GovDelivery.  Finally, if you are based in Michigan, we recommend you check out Bertolini’s presentation Mi-GMIS Fall Conference next week, where he will discuss how the county’s is improving service to the public through collaboration and innovation, and saving money during tough budget times.  

If it Matters, Measure It (and share the metrics!)

One of my first mentors who ran a region of what was then called Ameritech (a baby bell in the midwest), had a saying, "If you value it, measure it." 

The larger the organization, the more this holds true.  In government, tracking results and sharing results promotes transparency, accountability and understanding of the value of the work you're doing within your agency.

The CDC National Center for Health Marketing has taken impressive steps to get their Web metrics online. They've actually been doing this for years.  Here's an example of the kinds of reports they post.

They've recently been recognized in NextGov for their new http://www.cdc.gov/metrics page.

Here are just a handful of the benefits of getting the data out there for the world to see:

• Makes clear to internal and external stakeholders how you measure the impact of what you are doing
• Gives everyone something to celebrate and work towards
• Engages colleagues and helps them see and understand how they might be able to assist with your work.  For example, if getting people signed up for email alerts is one of your metrics as it is at CDC, your colleagues might see that and decide to promote the email alert option at a future conference
• Encourages continuous improvement mentality
• Gives everyone an opportunity to ask tough questions "Is activity A worth the investment?  Should we be using more of technology X if it's working so well?"
• Helps ensure continuity when personnel changes occur

With the plethora of new technologies out there, it is even more important to share your stats with all stakeholders to make clear that the work you're doing matters and that you know how to gauge whether it is successful.  Just like you track the number of page views, Web visits, and the number of people signining up for your email alerts, you should also track Web 2.0 / Social Media metrics. 

You can track your Twitter followership ( If you have a Twitter feed, use TwitterGrader to track followership overtime), number of comments on your blog, number of Facebook fans, and man other metrics without much effort.

There are even external free services that make some of the tracking easy such as Quantcast which I wrote about last year.  I can't vouch for their accuracy, but they provide additional data points that can be helpful.

I don't believe that hard metrics are all that matter.  In fact, I find it much more compelling when we can go further and tie these metrics directly to mission and to $ savings if cost reduction is a goal.

At GovDelivery, we love to track overall growth in the number of messages that government agencies send to the public through our platform.  However, we get most excited when clients can tie the hard metrics directly back to agency/city/county/transit authority mission. 

At the end of the day, metrics are not an end in and of themselves, but if you track them and share them, I'd be willing to bet that they will be a useful tool in gaining support and momentum for your efforts to support your organization's mission.

Massive Public Outreach on Swine Flu

Federal, state, and local health agencies are working overtime to inform the public about the recent Swine Flu outbreak that is currently affecting Mexico and small portions of the United States, but that poses a real international threat. 

Direct information from the government is an important primary source of information for the public, the media, and the public health community during an outbreak.

Because the majority of federal health agencies and a large number of state and local agencies use the GovDelivery platform for digital outreach, we see the broad range of critically important messages going out the public. Already, government agencies have sent hundreds of thousands of messages regarding Swine Flu.

Here is a sample of those messages:

• Centers for Disease Control (English)
• Centers for Disease Control (Spanish)
• U.S. Department of Health & Human Services
• USA.gov
• Texas Health & Human Services System (English)
• Texas Health & Human Services System (Spanish)
• Minnesota Department of Health
• San Diego County
  

When there is an emergency or potential emergency affecting your agency, you should follow the lead of these government communicators and get the word out as quickly as possible by using all key online and offline channels including your website, email, text message, and traditional media.  The key is to act quickly so that the citizens learn as much information as possible directly from their government.

See this story from the recent peanut recall to understand how every bit of communication makes a difference.

GovDelivery is currently working on a major information sharing project that allows government communicators and citizens to see updates coming out from across the government on a range of topics.  We are also encouraging more posting of information into social media to help spread the word when pressing issues arise.

You can learn more about this project, view a live prototype of information going out from different types of agencies in real time, and provide us with feedback by reading our blog entry on the topic.

Commuters save frustration through alerts

Like any other commuter, the last thing you want to encounter on your way to work is slow moving traffic or a delayed train.  Whatever the reason for the delay - an accident, the weather, or road construction - you simply don't want to deal with the frustration or hassle. 

Getting traffic alerts through email or text messaging helps commuters make informed decisions that allow them to save time, fuel and traffic congestion.  (and maybe a little frustration too...) Signing up for these types of alerts allows commuters to get up-to-date information that is relevant to their commute, allowing them to make informed decisions about alternate routes or transportation. 

With more than 68 million people using their mobile device to get information (according to comScore), getting route information on mobile devices is just another convenient use of technology.  Individuals can sign up to get alert emails or text messages sent directly to them, wherever they are.  Check out Santa Clara VTA for instance.  Here you can choose YOUR specific route information, whether it's by bus, light rail or shuttle service and get email updates.

This is an email that Santa Clara VTA sent out about an accident that affected the light rail trains.

If you have a "this is cool!" commuter alert story, please share it!

Where are the Social Media Opportunities?

As I've been working with our government clients to encourage use of social media channels for public communication, I am currently most enthusiastic about three areas of opportunity, but I would love to hear other opinions:

• Widgets that allow our clients to easily share information from others and encourage partners and other agencies to share their information (see www.cdc.gov/widgets or www.fbi.gov/widgets.htm).  The FDA Peanut recall widget saw massive uptake.
  
  
• Point sharing which allows me as a citizen/stakeholder to post valuable content seen in an email alert from my city or on a web page from the State Department to my Twitter feed or blog.  This type of sharing is easier than putting a widget on my Facebook page and allows me to really focus on sharing the content that I find most interesting.
  
  
• Blogging... this is already an established channel and is proving incredibly successful in engaging users online in ways that are already making government (and citizens) better.
  
  

Other channels (e.g., Twitter and Facebook groups) are important and useful for engaging certain groups, but have real limitations as official channels for mass communication. The actual usage of social media channels for government information / public outreach continues to trail email dramatically in the same way that users express a strong preference for email as a professional channel and social media (and in Europe and young groups in U.S., text messaging) as a personal channel.

Take USA.gov as an example.

They saw 13,628 citizens subscribe to updates by email last month with the average sitting selecting more than 15 topics of interest.  By contrast, they have 431 total fans on the USA.gov Facebook Group page that it launched early in 2008.

We pulled together some additional information on email alert interest from citizens vs. Twitter in an earlier entry and the stats are equally as compelling.

Our observations about the power of widgets, point sharing, and blogging have guided our focus for improvements of the digital communication platform we offer our government clients.  Government agencies use GovDelivery to send hundreds of thousands of emails monthly promoting blog content to email subscribers, and we released discuss this email blogging capability in 2008.  We also have an exciting information sharing project underway that you can see in prototype form at this time.  We expect production release of these new sharing capabilities in May.

Channel Surfing

Everyone likes a horse race.

A headline for an article on the popular Mashable.com blog yesterday read: Social Networking More Popular than Email. We wrote an article a few weeks back titled: Email Rules! Internet's Killer App Promotes Collaboration, Communication, and Content.The Mashable.com blog article reviews some recent Nielsen Online Research that says that the percentage of Internet users using social media has now reached 66.8% vs. 65.1% using email. We noted that Internet users in the U.S. spend over 80% of their time using email.

Our focus is on how to interpret these trends in determining how government organizations should communicate with the public. Luckily, this is not the kind of race where there needs to be a winner. What these statistics really point to is that communicators have more ways than ever to reach the public.

There are several interesting comments on the Mashable.com article including:

I wonder if you took away either social networking or email, which would have a more devastating effect on society. Popularity does not equate to importance.

Social networking is the best way to remain connected

Did Nielsen release any frequency numbers on email versus community usage? Seems like that might be a more compelling argument if people are using Facebook everyday versus their email once a week. I have my doubts though.

Social Media is not a monolithic channel that is threatening email for dominance of the world. Social media and email are actually highly complementary with each filling different roles in how we engage citizens.

In general, new channels serve needs that are not met effectively by other channels. While email has many strengths and works well for official communication, long documents, and asynchronous communication, it is very poor at connecting disparate stakeholders together on issues of common interest and also falls short as a public content archive and group discussion mechanism. For example, everyone has been part of an email discussion "group" or "List Serve"that became unwieldy. Appropriately, we are seeing all of those types of discussions migrate to blogs, wikis, Twitter, and Facebook.

All government communicators whether in government or in support organizations like us here at GovDelivery are working hard on engaging in new channels.

What is really exciting for me is to see organizations ranging from Ramsey County, Minnesota to the CDC embrace the opportunity to learn how best to use new channels. Overall, we've seen citizen interest in receiving email updates from government grow exponentially even as other channels have emerged.

The most effective government organizations are engaging in all channels. That allows you to cross-promote channels (e.g., promote your Twitter feed in your email alerts and vice-versa) and focus different messaging on different mediums. For example, I love how CDC has made one of its 300+ email subscription options "Social Media Tools" and has built a base of over 15,000 subscribers in just a couple of months.

We see many mayors, governors, and other public officials engaging in social media as well. If you are trying to build a sense of community around your local government, agency, or campaign, it only makes sense that you want more communication between your stakeholders and more ability to comment and repurpose content.

I have written about how email is a key hub of social media. GovDelivery has also just launched a massive information sharing project that will make it easier for government agencies to create widgets, mash together content from different agencies, and encouraging reposting of content into social media.

So, I don't have a horse in this race.

I think that when new channels emerge they compete with old channels creating new opportunities for reaching the public and, in some cases, replacing existing channels but only where those channels were functioning poorly. Where do you think things are heading?

10 New Year's Resolutions for Web Managers

Government agencies at all levels recognize that 2009 will be a big year for digital communication.

The recent election demonstrated the power of digital communication for fundraising, network building, and organizing. At all levels of government, new appointees and elected officials are coming in to government from private sector and political environments where digital communication was a key to their success (and in many cases, to their election).

Within government, 2008 was a critical year at all levels as organizations embraced new communication tools at a rapid rate. Having previously shied away from new or "fad" approaches to communication methods like blogging, Faceboook and Twitter, hundreds of government organizations have now integrated these tools into a comprehensive communications strategy, with more coming on board everyday.

Now, if you are a government Web manager or communicator, in all likelihood, you are currently or will soon be asked to take maximum advantage of all of these opportunities with similar resources to what you've had in the past. You need a plan to improve communication at your agency/office/department, and you're wondering where to focus. As always, budgets are probably tight and everyone has an opinion.

Here are my ideas for government Web manager and communicator goals for the New Year:

1. Focus on adapting (not just copying) best practice from outside government. Adapt but don't transfer best practice from political campaigns and e-commerce. At a typical government organization, the focus is on communication not target marketing, selling, fundraising, or electing a particular candidate. Explain to the new people coming in that you are open to their ideas, but while they bring useful experience from outside government, you can help them put it to use inside government.
2. Map digital communications to your mission. If you are at a local or state government, focus on improving communication while using more cost-effective approaches (ROI is the ticket in these tough budget times). We're seeing GovDelivery clients increasingly focus on ROI in state and local government by thinking outside of the box about how processes need to be changed to leverage digital communication. If you are at a federal agency, explain how better communication will help you catch criminals (FBI), improve public health (CDC), or support more efficient regulation (SEC).
3. Prioritize communication channels. There is no need to reinvent the wheel - focus your energy on what has already been proven. When clients ask us where to focus their energy, we point out key statistics. The average citizen spends over 80% of online time using email, according to Jupiter. Our clients use the GovDelivery platform for email, wireless (text) alerts, and in some cases, to manage RSS feeds to best reach their audience. But, if they ask us where to focus first, we're going to say email because it is the most far-reaching channel. If you're optimizing search results, focus on Google as they have the most market share. If you want to post video, focus on YouTube, not a site that no one uses. This is not government picking winners. This is about government knowing where the public looks for information and going there.
4. Build your subscriber base and connect all channels. If you're using social media, promote your new media content in your emails to the public and on your website. By the same token, promote your website, digital communication channels, and subscription options wherever you have a social media presence. You will build your social media community on an ongoing basis and increase your overall website and subscriber audience (people who have provided at least their email address and registered for updates from your organization).
5. Set goals and track metrics. Include Web traffic (site visits, length of visits and sources of visitors) as well as the number of people signing up for email and/or wireless updates, the number of topics chosen by each subscriber, and, if you're using social media, the size of your communities in Facebook, Twitter, and elsewhere. Share your goals and engage other staff and your stakeholders to help your organization improve against its digital communication performance metrics.
6. Engage stakeholders. Post video on your websites if not already doing so and look for ways to use YouTube, provided your office/agency allows it. Post comments on blogs of interest and engage in conversations through Twitter and other tools.
7. Collaborate. Find other government organizations serving a similar audience to you and work with them to build your audience. One amazing benefit of online government communication is that governments don't generally compete with one another. We've seen cities work with counties to build their subscriber base by "cross-promoting" subscription options to residents signing up for updates. We've also seen state and federal agencies collaborate and many different federal agencies work together. You can read more about the work GovDelivery is doing in this area at http://tinyurl.com/gdcollaborate. Our collaboration tools are free for any of our clients and the results achieved to date provide a good example of what can be accomplished through collaboration with minimal effort.
8. Be a leader. Promote your Web communication efforts internally. Talk to your colleagues about how every office in your organization can leverage the tools you have in place to improve communication and, where possible, shift spending from old media (mailings, print publications, etc.) to more efficient electronic approaches. Your internal audience is as important to your long-term success as your external audience. At the state and local level, get creative in how you help elected officials become more seamless and visible to the electorate. Challenge yourself to help your elected officials embrace Twitter, blogs, Facebook, and other tools that make them more available to the public.
9. Be active. Become active in Government Web Manager. Most importantly, monitor and join www.WebContent.gov as it is the premier resources for government Web managers and brings together some incredibly passionate and talented public sector Web managers
10. See the opportunity. At all levels of government, social media, citizen engagement, transparency, and efficiency are priorities. Effective digital communication fits in with these priorities, but you have to waive the flag to make sure that new efforts build on the momentum you already have in place and that the leadership at your organization understands how more attention and investment in digital communication supports traditional and new objectives. The Obama election and the new White House agenda to press for better use of Web 2.0 will bring exciting attention to these opportunities. Strike while the iron is hot!

Please share your thoughts.

A Fresh Look at Cloud Computing in Government

Anyone reading technology blogs or trade publications in 2008 has heard of Cloud Computing as the current/next big thing.  I wrote a blog entry on cloud computing in August and sent a request out over Twitter today seeking examples of cloud computing being used in government to see if I could pull together any new, useful, information.  I referenced this article where Google touted the potential of cloud computing in government back in June to see if there were any fresh examples of government using cloud computing.  I'll get back to the examples later.

What is Cloud Computing? 

Gartner recently listed Cloud Computing as one of the top 10 technologies to watch.

There is a good definition at Wikipedia.  To borrow from that definition, cloud computing is the act of accessing technology-enabled services over the Internet.  Cloud computing is a general concept that incorporates software as a service (SaaS), Web 2.0 and other recent, well-known technology trends, in which the common theme is reliance on the Internet for satisfying the computing needs of the users.

By this broad definition, virtually all Web 2.0 applications (Facebook, Twitter, MySpace) qualify as cloud computing applications as do SaaS systems like Salesforce.com.

Again, sticking to the broad definition, cloud computing is used widely in government.  Government has not yet adopted software as a service applications quite as broadly a the private sector, but there is still very broad use of software as a service particularly for inbound and outbound digital communication.  Of course, my favorite example is our company, GovDelivery. 250+ governmental organizations across 25 states and 13 of 15 federal departments send mass email and wireless notices to the public using our platform.  We used to focus on functionality and downplay the "in the cloud" nature of our system, but with all the benefits of being centrally hosted (easy collaboration between clients, better functionality, more scale, faster deployment) we now use it as a selling point.

If you want a non-GovDelivery perspective on the benefits of SaaS, here's an article offered via @appirio_kirk on Twitter today describing how DC govt. is now using Google as its corporate email client. 

As I noted in my last entry, I don't completely buy the broad definition of cloud computing.  I think that SaaS / hosted services that ask you to use an application in pre-determined "wrapping" are very powerful, but true cloud computing is about leveraging application capabilities  and storage  "in the cloud"  without using a prescribed user interface.  So, logging into Facebook wouldn't qualify as cloud computing, but using a Facebook application that automatically stored pictures on Facebook when you saved them to your home computer would qualify.

Why does one definition matter over another?

Because, particularly in government, there is broad embrace of SaaS services and platforms  such as Facebook, GovDelivery, Comcate (local government CRM), and various Google applications, but government is in only the early stages of tapping into the powerful capabilities offered by these vendors as well as by Amazon and many startups that would enable government to more rapidly deploy custom applications by tapping into storage, processing, and messaging services on an "as needed" basis.

I think I understand why.   We launched an "On-Demand Mailer" capability earlier this year.  Our beta client, the National Labor Relations Board is using this cloud-based service as its email sending engine for a custom-built application that notifies lawyers of new rulings.  NLRB is a highly-sophisticated client with some uniquely talented staff.  We have many clients like this, but you have to catch the right people at the right time when they are building applications that need this type of service.  In addition, much of the application development in government is done by integrators that have not yet embraced the power of cloud computing (and in some cases may see it as a threat to their current business model).

In other words, our "fully-wrapped" service is much easier to sell.  It's easy to understand and the benefits are clear.  Successful use of cloud computing within a custom application requires a motivated developer / architect that is actively seeking shortcuts that will allow him or her to deliver a better solution with less time and cost.  It's a paradigm shift that can't be encouraged by a vendor quite as easily.

To get you thinking of what's really possible with cloud computing, I want to point out some additional examples that came up on Twitter today.

One is this amazing public data service from Amazon that allows you to tap into Census and Human Genome project data stored on Amazon servers:  http://aws.amazon.com/publicdatasets/   (Thanks to @Rchards).

Another example that requires a little more technical understanding to digest is GoGrid which offers storage and more advanced server infrastructure in the cloud.  HighTechDad is their technology evangelist and indicates that they do work with government today, but that governments don't always like to admit they are using the cloud (something I think is less true everyday as many governments are trying to demonstrate their ability to use technology to save money these days).  HighTechDad also maintains a blog here where he has an absolutely superb explanation of cloud computing that is better organized and better thought through than this entry (though hopefully I've brought in some extra perspective on the government angle).

If you find this useful or have your own examples of governments using cloud computing, I welcome your comments and feedback.  From a selfish GovDelivery perspective, I'm also looking for creative ways to better expose this type of service to anyone building applications within government (particularly within those government bodies that are already using our platform in it's "fully-wrapped" state). 

We had terrific attendance at our recent webinar, but we need to continue reaching out to agencies that might want to take the leap to embracing the power of the cloud when building custom applications.

Happy New Year!