FedSpace Feedback

The General Services Administration this week announced that it plans to launch a new social networking site for government employees. FedSpace, which will be available in the fall, will enable interagency collaboration, communication and information sharing, according to agency officials.

FedSpace joins other several single-agency Facebook-like sites, like NASA's Spacebook, the State Department's Statebook and the intelligence community's A-Space. Federal employees also can connect through GovLoop or traditional external sites like Facebook and MySpace, but these are public and informal and therefore not conducive to sharing sensitive information.

GSA has a great opportunity to draw wisdom from agencies and existing sites in developing FedSpace. But what are some lessons learned or best practices for a governmentwide social network? Steve Ressler over at GovLoop has five:

• Share agency employee skills and directories in one place. The site could be a quick-and-easy way to locate feds across government.
• Solve the family problems behind closed doors. FedSpace offers the chance to talk about issues like procurement and national security in a safe and closed space.
• Find a key business problem to solve. Don't try to be everything to everyone.
• Invest in community management/marketing. It's hard to get the word out, but this is a critical piece of a new site's success.
• Experiment and iterate over time. FedSpace won't launch in its final form, and developers and users need to be comfortable with that and ready to help it evolve.

What do you see as the primary use for FedSpace? What are your collaboration needs, and how might this new platform address them?