FCW Insider: Welcome to the first CIO blogger... maybe

Please welcome , the Navy Department CIO, as the newest person to join the ranks of bloggers... kind of.The has recently launched its and, I think it is one of the better agency Web sites I've seen. It is definitely one of the better Web sites for CIO organization.As DON folks say in , content on the site gets tagged with key words so users can find related information easily, something like . (If you don't know what social bookmarking, like delicious, is... go .)The Navy's Web site highlights the most requested information right on the opening page, and it has a tab for popular policies, which is great. The introduction says that they will be adding RSS feeds and podcasts, which will be great. (And I couldn't get the podcast to work, but... I'll try again later.)There is also a item called "CIO Blog" in which from Jan. 17:I asked him why the DON CIO is going to blog.I really love the idea. My only recommendation is that if it is actually going to be a blog, it should be a blog. Blogs are unique. (And, to be honest, the formatting we use for theFCW Insider isn't quite right either.) A blog should be something that clearly runs over time with the most recent posts on the top and older ones down below. It looks like Carey's first "post" isn't so much a post as much as it is a message -- and they are very different. The implication with a blog, as Carey said, is that this is an open format. As Sun's Jonathan Schwartz, , said, the blog is the -- they are all on the same platform. And that is what makes it Web 2.0 -- the believe that all of us are smarter then each of us individually.(Without getting into too much detail, the 1105 Government Information Group blogs actually treat posts essentially as stories, just like they are any other story, and that's not the point of a blog. In this case, the medium and the message are very closely linked.)I'd also note that the Navy doesn't have a way for people to comment in a public way, and I think that is also an important component of blogs.All of that being said, I give the Navy Department and Carey huge kudos for doing this. This may just be a introduction and that a true blog format will be posted later.Regardless, I think Carey may very well be the first CIO to have a public blog. ( has a blog, but it is only available internally. Come on GSA -- tear down that wall!)This Web 2.0 stuff can be very... well, scary. I mean, public comments!?! I already hear the pulse of many readers rising. But I think, in general, it's OK.So... go Navy go!And a bit of a spoiler... Carey is a 2008 Fed 100 winner. (Shhhh! Don't tell him! I haven't even told him yet! And he didn't win for his blog. Perhaps that could be a nomination for next year, depending on how the blog goes. We're not announcing the full list quite yet. We're still doing a few checks, but... Carey will definitely be there. He was a winner in 2006, so he definitely is one of the star CIOs. Anyway, there is a bit of a spoiler for you. We're hoping to post the full list early next month.)