Rock Creek Roundup (December 4 Edition)

Posted by: Meagen Ryan, Director of Strategy Dec 04, 2009 0 Comments

Facebook visits the nation’s capital, Spacebook’s project manager shares secrets to social media success, NY reaches out to gamers with emergency messages, and a Harvard Business School prof shares his take on Web 2.0, all in this week’s Rock Creek Roundup:

- Want to learn more about developing a Facebook application for your government agency? If you do, and you’re based in Washington, DC, you’re in luck. On December 14, social networking juggernaut Facebook will host the Facebook Developer Garage from 1-5 PM at the DC Bar Conference Center. Facebook is bringing in some of their engineers from California for the event, which is getting people together in order to “explore, get gritty, tinker, experiment, and test out ideas for Facebook platform.” Sounds like a great opportunity for government developers to ask questions and get answers direct from the source.

- Emma Antunes, project manager for NASA’s much-admired Spacebook internal social networking application, shares lessons learned in this article from Federal Computer World. According to Antunes, one of the most important elements when it comes to achieving social media success is to truly know your business. Understanding your core business and “getting people from diverse backgrounds and experiences to talk with one another and share information is one of the best ways to promote innovation and discovery…when everyone can participate and we have the tools for teams to do their work, we’re more likely to find the solutions we need to be successful.” Antunes’ other two tips are equally simple yet powerful, and the article is definitely worth a read.

-Imagine this—there’s a public emergency and you need to take immediate action, but you’re unaware of it because you’re in the middle of a killer tennis match on your Wii. If only you could somehow receive pertinent info while knee-deep in your gaming system—and now you can. In what we think is a true example of “thinking outside of the box,” the state of New York is actually testing an emergency broadcast system capable of disseminating disaster alerts and information through the Wii, via Xbox Live, and also PSN. The initiative is currently being tested only in New York, and based on feedback from citizens there, may be tested elsewhere within the nation.

- “Put people front and center, and foster collaboration.” That’s what Web 2.0 and Enterprise 2.0 really have to offer, according to Harvard Business School associate professor Andrew McAfee. In an interview with Federal News Radio, McAfee also discusses some of the psychological aspects of social media adoption. “When you have incumbent technology, like email, and you evaluate a prospect technology, like some of these new 2.0 tools, we are wired as people to overweigh the advantages of our incumbent . . . and underweigh the the advantages of the prospect out there. That makes getting people to give up email and collaborate using a different tool kit a real uphill battle, which is why a lot of companies find that their enterprise 2.0 efforts are slow going, at least initially.” This is a great interview to take note of if you’re finding yourself facing issues with social media initiatives in your own agency.

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Meagen Ryan

Director of Strategy

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