A Short Route to Gov 2.0

My story on Thursday about the creation of go.usa.gov, the official government link shortener, is probably not going to dominate the headlines on the day when Recovery.gov is rolling out the first wave of recipient-reported data. But it's a small example of the type of innovation that can only help the government increase its ability to serve the American public online.

While some have questioned the necessity of an official government counterpart to commercial link-shortening services like bit.ly, GSA's Bev Godwin pointed out that several commercial services have folded recently, resulting in broken links and incomplete archives on government social media accounts.

Additionally, because the new URLs can only be created by government employees and direct users to government domains, any go.usa.gov link can be assumed to be safe. A less obvious but equally intriguing benefit is the data that will be collected; the ability to quantify the government's reach through social media tools should provide a compelling argument for additional investments in that arena.

Surprisingly, the headline of TechCrunch's blog on the topic questions the use of taxpayer dollars to create the tool. But according to Godwin, GSA was able to develop the application in-house using open source software and personnel on loan from the Veterans Affairs Department, negating the need for a costly software development process. The entire project stands in stark contrast to Recovery.gov, which has been criticized for its high price tag and inability to deliver on high expectations.

While I expect the tech blogosphere to give the government a hard time, this really does seem like one of those times when the feds were well ahead of the curve and deserve some credit. Then again, it's a lot easier to repeat tired criticisms than it is to pick up the phone and find out what's really going on.