Giving Back The 2.0 Way: GovLoop & GovDelivery Announce New AwesomeGov Fund

It's been an exciting few months for GovDelivery, one of the highlights being the announcement of the GovLoop partnership back in September.  You can read what GovDelivery's CEO, Scott Burns has to say about the partnership on the Reach The Public blog or read the press release and associated news articles here. 

For those not yet familiar with GovLoop:  GovLoop is the premier social network connecting the government community.  It is a powerful space where those that work in and around government can collaborate, socialize and support one another in an effort to make government better.  GovLoop has over 20,000 members and 600 unique government groups. Not yet a GovLoop member?  Join Today!.

The combination of our two companies allows us to make an exponential impact on doing good for our clients, the people in government, and the public.  And today we're happy to announce an effort to do just that with the launch of the AwesomeGov Fund. 

This new fund reflects GovLoop’s mission of making government better (through providing a platform for collaborating and sharing ideas) by taking an innovative and community-driven approach to giving back... “philanthropy 2.0” if you will, with a government twist.  The AwesomeGov Fund will "honor and support government awesomeness by supporting and raising awareness about government-related individuals, groups and programs that are inspiring in their ability to create impact and make a difference by making government better."  Full details can be found here.

The "giving back" reaches even further, with a campaign coinciding with the AwesomeGov Fund announcement.  For each new government member between now and December 15th, GovLoop will donate $1.00.  The total amount will be donated to charity; a charity that will be chosen by the GovLoop community. 

Spread the word to colleagues and friends in the government sector who have not yet joined the GovLoop community.  Invite them to make a difference.  Not only will they get the benefit of being connected to nearly 22,000 like-minded government employees, but also they will help out the community. Everyone wins, which is, let’s face it, pretty darn awesome!

  

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.

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?

Email is the hub of social media

When someone follows me on Twitter, I get an email letting me know. I usually take a quick look at their profile and maybe an update or two to find out if I know the person and may want to follow them.

If someone wants to friend me on Facebook or leaves a comment on my "wall," I get an email from Facebook. I make a note to myself to respond later.

If someone signs up for a group on GovLoop, I get a note. Or, if someone makes a connection on LinkedIn, I get yet another email. If you comment on this blog entry... you guessed it, I'll get an email letting me know.

I think you get the idea.

There's no question that email is the hub of social media. Email is the No. 1 use of the Internet according to the Pew Internet and American Life Project, used daily by more than 60 percent of Americans.

Many Americans use social media applications, but they can't spend all day logged into those communities. So services like Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter understand that they need to use email to keep their audiences engaged in conversations. In many ways, my email inbox is the ultimate "mashup" of my entire online life across many social media applications.

I've recently interviewed Web Managers at several major federal agencies and cities to learn more about where they see the connection between email and social media in the public sector. There are some exciting ideas and some easy ways to make the email updates governments are sending to the public a key enabler and "hub" of the social media initiatives that different agencies are pursuing.

We'll be posting our specific ideas on this soon, but where do you see the opportunities?

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!

Public Sector Agencies Continue to Embrace Social Media

As Web 2.0 technologies become increasingly popular, government agencies can truly benefit from experimenting with existing social media tools and collaboration capabilities.

It is widely believed that government officials have been slow to take advantage of these technologies, but in actuality public sector agencies are adopting Web 2.0 tools quicker than you may think. In fact, some departments of the U.S. federal government, including the EPA and DOD (both GovDelivery clients), began adopting these tools as early as 2006.

Government officials have come to view such tools as blogs, wikis, and social networking as cost-effective alternatives to traditional communication channels. In many cases, Web 2.0 provides a direct line of communication to an audience that is otherwise difficult for government to reach. We've provided a number of examples before, but the State of Iowa serves as a great illustration of how agencies can be selective in utilizing Web 2.0 tools that will best help to accomplish agency goals.

How Iowa state agencies leverage Web 2.0 technologies:

Iowa Lottery

• Shares the excitement of winning through YouTube videos of lottery winners
• Reveals winning lottery numbers through text-messages and "Tweets" on its Twitter page

Iowa Department of Transportation

• Takes to its blog to communicate news releases and traffic incidents
• Reaches out to a younger audience through Facebook and YouTube to engage in a teen traffic safety contest

Iowa Department of Public Health

• Sends text messages to teens regarding the "Just Eliminate Lies" anti-tobacco program

Iowa Homeland Security

• Distributed podcasts of news conferences during floods earlier this year

Read more of the article, "Government officials embrace social media," by William Petroski at DesMoinesRegister.com. 

Thinking through your Content Management System Needs

You've been talking about it for a while, but now your organization has finally decided to get a new content management system (CMS).  This is the "BIG" project of the year.  All of your hopes and dreams for where your website is heading are wrapped up in your CMS project. 

In fact, if you're a typical organization, everyone has started to project their own goals onto the project.  "We'll have that fixed when we get our new CMS," they say, and, "That will all be addressed with our new CMS." 

Goals for almost every CMS project:

• Keep content more up to date
• Allow individual "content managers" easier access to update their areas of the website
• Create a more consistent look and feel for the organization
• Make search indexing and search within the site easier
• Improve navigation
  

More advanced goals for your CMS project:

• Improve content structure: Produce content in multiple standard formats so it can be reused by other websites and systems
• Support improved navigation: Publish content with appropriate tags and categorizations so that new content appears in all appropriate locations rather than just in one place.  For example, if you publish three safety publications on water, fire, and snow, the publication on "fire" should appear in the fire safety area of the website as well as the "safety publications" area without much extra effort
• Works well with other technologies (Web 2.0 widgets, other systems you buy, etc.):  Your CMS needs to "play well with others."  If you are looking at CMS vendors and the vendor says, "we do that" in response to all of your questions, that is red flag.  CMS are not best in class at everything.  You may want to use YouTube for video, Google for search, GovDelivery for email communication, and Wordpress for blogging.  Find out how the CMS will work with these systems rather than hoping the CMS will do everything you want.
  

5 outcomes you should expect from your content management project:

1. New content can be posted within 15 minutes by any approved individual in the organization. 
   
   I know that some content has to be approved, but if your project is more focused on "workflow" and approvals rather than efficiency, you may want to rethink things.  The fact is that in order to be current, Web content cannot be bottle-necked by cumbersome approval processes.  Set policies and guidelines for content and let people publish without too many extra steps.  As long as you're not publishing the new interest rates, you can make edits later without major consequence.
   
   
2. Any web page can be published as an XML / RSS Feed at the same time as it is published in HTML.
   
   This ensures that other Web managers, bloggers, and even other systems (including GovDelivery) can read and interpret your page in an automated way.  In the Web 2.0 world, this type of openness and sharing is important and will ensure that your content "has legs" and gets reposted and repurposed across the Internet.
   
   
3. All web pages are easily indexed by major search engines.  I'm not an expert on this, but it's an easy topic to research online.  Google has all kinds of tools for this at www.google.com/webmasters
   
   
4. Content can be published to multiple locations at the same time without too much extra effort.
   
   
5. Your system supports a user-centric design. 
   
   Oops, you thought your CMS project was going to give you a "usable website."  If that's the case, you should stop right now and focus a bunch of time on the design and usability of your website.  A CMS is for managing the content on your website.  If you have a poor design and a good CMS, you will just have very up to date, but unusable content.  

Finally, you need to have a way of capturing information from people who are interested in your content so you can reach out to them when updates occur.  My company, GovDelivery, works with government websites on this and has found the following best practices to support the rollout of new content management systems.

• Have a proactive communication system in place before you launch your CMS. Why? You want to know what people are interested in on your current site so you can focus more effort on that content and make sure people know how to find it when the new website is up and running.  Even the best redesigned websites often annoy their most regular users.  You can help prevent this frustration by allowing regular users to signup for updates before you rollover to the new CMS when links/designs/navigation will typically change dramatically.
  
  
• Make sure that your new CMS will work with whatever proactive communication solution you are using or plan to use to allow you to automatically send updates when you publish Web content.  You don't want to publish Web content and then have to login separately to send email.  In GovDelivery's case, if you publish information in RSS or can connect to a Web Services API, you'll be able to automate your outbound email communication.
  

This is a complex topic that I will return to if there is any interest.  When I mentioned I was writing this blog entry, I got some great links to other resources on vendor websites and regarding open sources CMS.  If the topic is of interest, I will write another article on vendor selection.

Top 10 Technologies to Watch and Thoughts on "Cloud Computing" in Government

This post from Chris Dorobek at the DorobekInsider.com and Federal News Radio is an interesting look at Gartner's 10 Technologies to watch.

Find the post here

Here are the technologies listed:

• Virtualization
• Cloud computing
• Servers -- Beyond Blades
• Web-Oriented Architectures
• EnterpriseMashups
• Specialized Systems
• Social Software and Social Networking
• Unified Communications
• Business Intelligence
• Green IT

We've talked about the Web 2.0 concepts (Social Networking, Enterprise Mashups, and Web-Oriented Architectures) in this blog.

Chris points out that Cloud Computing is a challenge in government.  I think this is true, but I believe that government can find certain areas where Cloud Computing provides real benefit for minimal risk.

We have been working with a government agency on allowing them to tap into our email delivery infrastructure for messages they need to send out regarding new rulings.  Rather than force them to manage all of the data on our servers, we simply accept the email address(es) of the recipients and the message content when it is ready for distribution.  This information has to go out over the Internet anyway, and by using our email delivery infrastructure, our client has better assurance that the information will get to the inbox of the intended recipient in a timely manner.  If the email bounces, we take care of it.  If the client needs to send a lot of emails, they leverage our scale.

Cloud computing is just as powerful for government as it is for others, but we need to work hard to find the right opportunities to make it work well without risking secure data.

There is a lot of interest in this topic.  Yesterday, we had 80+ people on a webinar discussing the work we are doing in cloud computing through our On-Demand Mailer which allows any government agency to use GovDelivery as its mail sender for any important email (we used to just offer our service for mass email communication.  The interest and the fact that no one dropped off during the whole presentation or the case study by www.nlrb.gov was a good sign to me.  You can signup to get a recording of the Webinar and our presentation here if you're interested.

One of the challenges for us with Cloud Computing is figuring out how to explain it to our clients.  In our webinar, everyone kept asking us to "explain again how this is different from what we already do."  I am hopeful that as people get more used to the concept the explaining will get easier.