A Call for More Social Networking

Craig Newmark, founder of Craig's List, wrote Dec. 29 on The Huffington Post Web site that the Federal Web Managers Council "itching for inauguration, but they're not waiting." He cites some points in a Dec. 23 Web council paper on what policies and strategies an Obama administration should ask agencies to do when it comes to social networking.

Among the points is this one:

The new administration's chief technology officer should require each agency to, within three months, develop their own social media/Web 2.0 communications strategy that describes how it will use their agency website and the larger Web to accomplish its mission, reach new audiences, and engage the public. The strategy should include resources needed to accomplish these goals.

The paper also calls for agencies to provide employees access to social media "unless the agency head justifies blocking certain employees or certain sites." And the paper takes on the thorny issue of government content appearing next to advertising. The paper also discusses privacy, procurement issues and calls for rescinding the policy forbidding government Web sites to use persistent cookies.

Generally, Newmark likes what he sees. "We have something real going on, change in the way government works from the line workers."