The Lectern: Civil servant access to Web 2.0 sites?

A commenter on an earlier blog post asked: "I'd like to know more about the access government employees have to Facebook and other Web 2.0 sites. Some agencies block such access…how effectively can they be used to foster relationships between the government contracting community and government buyers?"

Blog readers may not have seen this question -- it was posted to one of my blog entries from about 10 days ago -- so let me put this into a post. There is a new 1102 (contracting officer) Facebook group, now as large as 21 members. The site is beginning to generate some nice dialogue.

I also know more and more government employees and managers are getting on Facebook, as well as more specifically "professional" networking sites such as LinkedIn.

I understand the worry of some agencies about "abuses" of these sites. I'm wondering not only what agencies do, but what do companies do. Do they prevent employees from getting access to these sites?

Post a comment on this blog (registration required) or send an e-mail to letters@fcw.com and we will post it for you.