Mashable - The Social Media Guide - Latest Comments in Government 2.0: An Insider’s Perspective

Re: Government 2.0: An Insider’s Perspective

Mark Drapeau — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 18:51:20 -0000

Hi David - Thanks for the link to your paper. The Army is doing a lot of work, including basic research, on "network science" and they would certainly agree that it takes a network to fight a network, as your colleague points out.

Their main question is - how do you understand, and therefore have the ability to manipulate networks? A secondary question is - what can studying one kind of network (eg, biological, traffic) teach you about another seemingly different kind (eg, terrorist, rural social).

Re: Government 2.0: An Insider’s Perspective

W. David Stephenson — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 14:22:16 -0000

Mark, because of your work at the Pentagon and your background as a biologist, you should know about the paper that I wrote in the NPS's Homeland Security journal with Dr. Eric Bonabeau, a leading expert on emergent behavior, on what I call "networked homeland security": how Web 2.0 apps. and mobile communications both empower the public and -- an aspect of Web 2.0 that I don't think gets enough attention -- increases the chance of emergent behavior (aka "the wisdom of crowds"). I believe the concept is equally applicable to fighting insurgents: as my friend John Arquilla, the father of "netwars" says, you need a network to fight a network!

Re: Government 2.0: An Insider’s Perspective

Mark Drapeau — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 13:09:40 -0000

Hi Ed, thanks for your feedback. Just a small misunderstanding. One, I'm not a reporter - I wrote, as many people do, an opinion column for a newspaper. I work with the government in Washington.

Two, I did write an article (http://www.washingtontimes.... about the power of non-hierarchical systems in both the business world and leaderless organizations like terrorist groups; but this is only indirectly related to Web 2.0 technologies.

Re: Government 2.0: An Insider’s Perspective

Ed — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 12:29:19 -0000

"in fact, I even wrote a newspaper opinion piece about how their business model related to terrorist networks. But, honestly, I really had no idea what was going on in the Web 2.0 space."

That phrase really frightens me. You, as a reporter, used scare tactics on something you now admit to knowing nothing about?

So much for journalistic integrity?

Re: Government 2.0: An Insider’s Perspective

Mark Drapeau — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 12:22:00 -0000

Hi David, thanks very much. I'd like to meet you. You can reach me best at the email address following the article. Your forum at the NPC also seems very interesting with a great panel! http://forumone.com/content... Thanks for reaching out - Social networking helping social networking!

Re: Government 2.0: An Insider’s Perspective

Mark Drapeau — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 12:15:08 -0000

Jessie - Thanks so much! I remember my "first real event" really well. You were one of the first people I talked to. That event at Ogilvy, followed by my trip to NYC for the Mashable event there, were very influential at the beginning.

Re: Government 2.0: An Insider’s Perspective

W. David Stephenson — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 14:23:46 -0000

Mark: enjoyed your articles. Hope you can attend the seminar I'll be speaking at 9/9 at National Press Club on syndication of data as a means to Gov. 2.0 transformation: http://tinyurl.com/6hoxhq If not, I'll be in DC for several days, & hope we can meet.

Re: Government 2.0: An Insider’s Perspective

JessieNewburn — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 20:20:07 -0000

Excellent post and ongoing conversation, Mark. I met you at your first social media event. It was my second. Your curiosity and openness impressed me. More so, your capacity to put a human face on the intelligence of our government gave me hope and struck a chord in me.

Though no one would have known it when Ms. Shana invited you to join her to that party back in March, I do believe you are becoming one of the more credible and enticing voices on the subject of Gubment 2.0. ;-)

Re: Government 2.0: An Insider’s Perspective

Mark Drapeau — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 19:48:13 -0000

Hi Shawna, thanks. I just got back from one of those "Cocktail Circuit" parties - SummerMash NYC at Touch! Yes, someone should do this in Canada, definitely!!

Regarding your work, I'd like to connect with you offline and discuss things more. You can reach me privately through the email at the end of my post. -Mark

Re: Government 2.0: An Insider’s Perspective

Shawna — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 07:19:05 -0000

I couldn't agree more! As a member of the Canadian Forces working in Public Affairs, I am continually telling my colleagues that we (the professional 'we') need to be embracing, using and learning how to use these tools of SM to our advantage.

Our soldiers are certainly using them - and if we want to be in a position to communicate with our internal audience - we need to be exploring them ourselves.

At a recent presentation to the RTNDA in Calgary I was asked to speak about how Facebook has changed the way we conduct our business. Media are using it more and more to locate families of our fallen soldiers after a tragedy. When a name is released into the media stream, the first thing they do is check out Facebook to see if a member has an account. For us in the military, I am normally one step ahead of them - checking for an account and asking family members to consider taking it off line so that they can grieve in private.

Interesting tool with a variety of applications - I am learning as we go but wish we had the same Cocktail Circuit of learning you experienced here in Canada!

Thanks for a great post - I am forwarding this to our own DND web professionals for discussion.

Shawna

Re: Government 2.0: An Insider’s Perspective

Mark Drapeau — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 07:03:01 -0000

Thanks for the input, Scott. Security of Web 2.0 tools is a major topic of discussion at DoD and elsewhere, but people are definitely working it out. INTELINK is a good example of that, as I mention in my post.

In my second post on Thu, I will also highlight what I term "less secure" uses of Web 2.0 tools for the government, including empowering people in other countries in post-disaster or post-war efforts.

Re: Government 2.0: An Insider’s Perspective

Mark Drapeau — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 22:22:18 -0000

Hi Chris, thanks for the comments.

1. You're wrong. While the military will always be hierarchical, like in any organization there are informal social networks, web 2.0 or not. Social media enhances these. Also, among young warfighters, there is prevalent at least personal use of new media, to keep in touch with loved ones, etc. West Point (USMA) is explicitly studying this issue (formal vs. informal social networks) among their students, as are other people.

2. He's wrong. There are many people who embrace change, there are other people who would embrace it if they knew about it, and still others who are opposed to it. Sounds like every large organization I'm familiar with. The government certainly has unique issues, but also has unique opportunities.

Re: Government 2.0: An Insider’s Perspective

Mark Drapeau — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 22:17:28 -0000

While I won't provide any details in this forum, suffice it to say that there is a large terrorist posture online. Often, digital videos of events are used as propaganda. There are also many chat sites and other information exchange opportunities online. Finally, a good deal of banking is done through the internet.

Re: Government 2.0: An Insider’s Perspective

Mark Drapeau — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 22:15:30 -0000

Thanks very much, Desarae!

Re: Government 2.0: An Insider’s Perspective

EJRaven — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 17:23:44 -0000

So what's the link for the Terrorist Social Network or JihadSpace?

Lol.

Re: Government 2.0: An Insider’s Perspective

Chris Parente — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 15:06:57 -0000

Fascinating discussion. Looking forward to part two tomorrow.

Two immediate thoughts, offered to spur conversation:

1. The military cannot/will not ever enthusiastically embrace social networking b/c to do so would risk destabilizing an extremely hierarchical organization.

2. One of the best explanations of why government doesn't have more people who embrace change is in this recent column by Steve Kelman in Federal Computer Week. It's a review of John Donahue's new book "The Warping of Government Work:" http://www.fcw.com/print/22...

Thanks again, looking forward to more!

Re: Government 2.0: An Insider’s Perspective

Mark Drapeau — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 08:43:01 -0000

Thanks so much for the comments, Bob. I really like your ideas. I don't think that I mention that specifically in tomorrow's Mashable post (2/2) but I do significantly broaden the discussion as to, What can Web 2.0 be used for in the government?

Tomorrow's post will also highlight a project out of NDU that is a global social network based around disaster relief called STAR-TIDES, and how they are using social tools to work better together. It is effectively headed up by Linton Wells II, who at one point acted as DoD CIO.

Today in the way of re-tweeting Bob's post on Twitter, this is a great link about the uniqueness of a government CIO's job, with some emphasis on the Intelligence Community's efforts in Web 2.0, as I mentioned in my Mashable post:

http://www.ctovision.com/20...

Re: Government 2.0: An Insider’s Perspective

Mark Drapeau — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 16:50:12 -0000

Hi Martin - That sounds very interesting. I think that the Government 2.0 meme is catching on in small pockets all over the place. My idea is that we need to

(1) reach out to the web 2.0 community
(2) network with each other
(3) have an overall govt 2.0 strategy

That's my plan! But despite a few people here and there who are using it, there are so many who need it and don't know it.

There are intelligence and defense uses for the technology, but it goes far beyond that, as I will outline in my next post on Thursday.

Re: Government 2.0: An Insider’s Perspective

Martin Edic — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 16:29:04 -0000

This is a little strange- I just heard the phrase 'government 2.0' in a meeting with a public policy firm this morning. They were looking at our social media monitoring application. And we had two Pentagon sign-ups for our free test version today. A meme emerging perhaps?
I've always thought there were obvious intelligence uses for what we do given that social media is a global communications medium. The obvious big brother aspects aside (i hope you all know that your public activity in social media is public and can be discovered- you don't have protections if you're public), there are undoubtedly nefarious things going on. So I hope, in your Gov 2.0 research you take a look at what we're doing.

Re: Government 2.0: An Insider’s Perspective

Mark Drapeau — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 15:50:10 -0000

Hi Qui - Thanks very much for the positive feedback! Yes, I believe I am signed up for the SMG planning meeting. I hope that writing like this in such a great forum (Mashable) can be a part of networking interested people together across the vast government and partner space to really get some great ideas implemented, and do some public service! Mark

Re: Government 2.0: An Insider’s Perspective

Qui Diaz — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 15:44:26 -0000

Mark - great insights. You're blazing a trail for a lot of intrigued & invested minds across the Federal space. Hope you'll be contributing thoughts to the upcoming Social Media for Government Conference.

Re: Government 2.0: An Insider’s Perspective

digitalfemme — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 15:20:51 -0000

Great comments since I've been away.

I too want to let you and everyone know that I do not "....think that "they" (2% of the US workforce) are some congealed, omnipresent force monitoring and knowing everything in real time...". Absolutely not.

I DO believe that 99.9% of the 2% of the US workforce are very much in the dark about what the .1 % are really doing.

It's clear that even the 2% don't really have a handle on "everything in real time" because if they did, then more people would ask the .1 % what they are going to do about education, healthcare, government spending priorities etc..but the .1% are the untouchables :o)

I'm not here to put you down Mark, I'm like Aronado. I'm just not settling for less than the truth.

Re: Government 2.0: An Insider’s Perspective

Mark Drapeau — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 14:54:19 -0000

The government workforce is very diverse and filled with many different kinds of people with different modivations. In many cases, there are internal movements or opinios for or against some idea; how it sorts out is very complicated.

The applications of social tools for the government are also diverse. From military operations to engaging with citizens to humanitarian and disaster relief, there are all kinds of things going on. I think that my second post, hopefully Thursday, will widen the discussion.

Re: Government 2.0: An Insider’s Perspective

Mark Drapeau — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 14:51:55 -0000

Hi HJ - Thanks for the feedback, I appreciate it. I think that while companies are experimenting with Web 2.0 and not necessarily knowing what to do about it, government is a step behind and should be experimenting with it for a variety of missions.

Public Affairs is certainly one of the missions that could benefit from social tools. There are people in that area and others who are starting to try things, educate people, and network together. I'd be happy to get you in the loop if you contact me at my email, above.

I will have a follow-up post, I believe on Thursday, which should widen the discussion a bit about what the gov can use Web 2.0 tools for - turns out, a wide variety of things.

Re: Government 2.0: An Insider’s Perspective

HJArmstrong — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 14:17:02 -0000

Great article, Mark. As an intern in Public Affairs for a federal org, I question on a daily basis why the government isn't using SM as much as they could and how it can be implemented safely. I get the feeling that the idea of change, and thus implementation of new communications tools, make people hesitant to adopt anything new that they may have to learn when they feel that the old way of communicating has served them just fine for many years. So, I feel that SM education will be the best way to foster understanding and eventually (hopefully) acceptance and adoption. I am currently trying to gather information for this purpose to present to our executives and Admiral so that they can view SM as something that will better unite employees internally and allow them to do their work more efficiently and will create better relationships with our various external communities. I am excited about your project and look forward to reading more. I would love to get involved on some level, too, if at all possible.