GSA Hits Social Media Road

The General Services Administration is heading full force into the Web 2.0 space, a move to increase collaboration among federal agencies, officials said Monday at the Web and New Media Conference.

The agency wants to share data and use social media tools to allow the public to join the dialogue, but the real challenge is learning to collaborate, said GSA Administrator Martha Johnson, who joined the conference via Skype. The government can "get enamoured with its toys but needs to pay attention to what its customers need," she added.

To that end, GSA officials highlighted several initiatives to expand the government's presence in the Web 2.0 world. For example, the agency recently launched go.usa.gov, a link shortener similar to bit.ly but available only to individuals with a .gov or .mil email address. The site helps maintain the authenticity of the .gov brand, ensures permanent access for users and allows the government to gather data, said Bev Godwin, head of GSA's Center for New Media and Citizen Engagement.

The GSA team also announced a new social networking site, dubbed FedSpace, to be launched in the fall. As a collaborative tool, the site will allow personnel to talk to each other across the federal enterprise. Federal employees and the general public can track the office's activities via its new Twitter account, @govnewmedia.