—You’re in the cab and on your way to the airport when you realize that your ID is not in your wallet; is there any chance you’ll still be able to get on your flight? Travelers can get answers to these questions and more by simply directing their iPhones to the new My TSA mobile app, available for free on both on iTunes and in the USA.gov apps gallery. My TSA mobile gives travelers answers to frequently asked questions about what is permitted and not permitted in carry-on luggage, guidelines on TSA rules and regulations regarding identification and liquids, and also allows you to check general delays and conditions at your airport.

—More than 70% of people surveyed sited “improving search functionality” as a way that government websites could be useful and engaging, according to the recently released 2010 Open Government Research Report. Respondents also noted a strong interest in engaging more with government information and resources, with 52% indicating interest in agency-branded forums and communities and 34% suggesting an increased agency presence on social media sites like Facebook and Twitter.

—Mobile. Search. The Semantic Web. Virtualization. Cloud computing. According to Washington Technology author Carlos A. Soto, the five aforementioned technologies are the ones that are best positioned to have an impact on the market and the way that companies, government agencies and other organizations do business online. For example, Soto predicts that consolidation within mobile markets will increase in speed, and that improvements in bandwidth and data compression will boost the use of mobile video in our communications. If you work with your agency’s website or social media programs, it’s worth checking out Soto’s enlightening and thought-provoking article as an investment in preparing for your future.

—And just for a bit of fun on this warm Friday afternoon…When it’s 88 degrees outside and somewhat sticky, it may be hard for those of us in DC and the mid-Atlantic region to remember what it’s like to be cool….or even cold. Thankfully, NASA is providing us a visual reminder of why we shouldn’t wish for cooler weather just yet. Courtesy of the Goddard Earth Observing System Model Version 5 (GEOS-5), visitors can take a look at Snowpocalypse 2010, watching clouds form over the earth and remembering just how much snow was on the ground. Want to know why it happened? Columbia University just released a study that explains it all. Take a look at the video before your afternoon commute and it may just feel a bit cooler after all.

—Federal Computer Week‘s Alice Lipowicz has an interesting interview with the new CTO for Department of Health and Human Services, Todd Park. In the interview, Park shares his vision for the recently introduced Community Health Data Initiative, saying “CHDI is a public/private collaboration. There is no organization, no formal agreement, no official anything, just groups getting together. We are going to continue to supply data to people who want to build applications. We are not trying to choreograph or control it. We are just brainstorming.” Well said! The interview is a quick read and showcases the impact that an innovative thinker and change agent can have on government.

—“We hope it will exist as more than just a website advertising DoD’s latest Facebook posts or Twitter feed.” That’s how Department of Defense public affairs specialist Joelle Zarcone characterized DoD’s newly revamped Social Media Hub, released earlier this week. The revamped Social Media Hub provides a centralized location where DoD employees can access social media guidelines and training, register an official DoD social media page, or ask questions and get clarification on social media issues. The job that they did of revamping and streamlining this page is truly impressive and does an excellent job of making information accessible in an easy-to-understand yet attractive manner. Nice work!

—Expanding on their tradition of highlighting 10 great government websites, Washington Technology this week unveiled a new list—10 government apps that “get results.” Among those featured are the Twitter Earthquake Detector, developed by the US Geological Survey; the Environmental Protection Agency’s Puget Sound and watershed management wiki; and Pillbox, a creation of the National Institutes of Health’s National Library of Medicine. Although Washington Technology classifies the entries as “not a definitive list,” the featured apps provide great examples of innovation and creative thinking within government.

—It wasn’t that long ago that a “tweet” was simply a sound made by a bird, not a 140-character microblog entry. That’s why it seems so amazing that today, 22 of the nation’s 24 federal agencies are now using social media, according to the Government Accountability Office’s director of information security issues Gregory Wilshusen. But, Wilshusen warns, agencies still must develop ways to meet the challenges that social media brings, mainly in the areas of privacy and records management. It’s clear we have a way to go before all of the kinks are worked out, but we should still take time to applaud how far we’ve come—and 22 out of 24 is impressive no matter how you look at it!

—First Lady Michelle Obama hosted her first live web chat on Tuesday as part of the launch of a newly redesigned Let’s Move website. During the half-hour chat, Mrs. Obama answered 10 questions covering a range of issues, from “food deserts” to how budget cuts are affecting physical education in schools. If you didn’t get to watch live, you can watch the video on the Let’s Move blog.

—Unifying online resources from across the Administration, RestoretheGulf.gov, the federal government’s official portal for oil spill information, launched last week. The site provides the public with information on the response, current operations, news and updates, how to file a claim and obtain other assistance, and links to federal, state, and local partners. Site visitors can also learn how they can volunteer to help. “RestoretheGulf.gov will provide even greater transparency and openness about the BP oil spill, our historic response, the tools available to assist Gulf Coast communities, and plans for the region’s long-term recovery and restoration,” said National Incident Commander Admiral Thad Allen in announcing the new website.

—State Department special adviser and former White House staffer Katie Jacobs Stanton is leaving government to work for Twitter. Her last day at the State Department was last Friday. Known to her Twitter followers as @KateAtState, Stanton announced her career switch via a tweet: “Today’s my last day in govt! Have enjoyed my experiences @whitehouse & @statedept. My next adventure will be @twitter in SF! #CAHereICome!” According to The Washington Post, she will work on international business strategy in Twitter’s San Francisco office. If you want to follow her adventures as a Twitter globetrotter, she’s now tweeting as @KatieS.

—Earlier this week, the White House published a Request for Information (PDF) and a corresponding blog post asking for public feedback and input on the 2010 Strategic Plan for the National Nanotechnology Initiative. Nanotechnology—a science dealing with matter that is roughly the size of a single atom—has been lauded as the next frontier of scientific innovation, and potential nanotechnology applications range from clean, efficient energy sources to medical devices and drugs. Got an idea? Check out the RFI and then submit your response by August 15.

—The White House also announced this week the winner of the first annual SAVE contest. Nancy Fitchner’s idea to save money by changing the way that the Veterans Administration uses prescriptions was selected from more than 38,000 ideas submitted by federal employees. The President also announced the kickoff of the second annual SAVE Award and urged federal workers to share their insights and ideas at SaveAward.gov.

—If your government agency or government contracting business isn’t using social media, you’re well on your way to becoming a minority. Twenty-nine percent of federal employees and 55% of government contractors report using social media, according to the recently released Market Connections 2010 Federal Community Social Media Study. The study also shows LinkedIn as the number one social network, with 36% of respondents using it versus 26% of respondents using Facebook. If you’ve been waiting for the right time to jump on the social media bandwagon, now is it.

—When you see fire trucks rushing down your street or move to the side of the road so the ambulance can more quickly respond to an incident, it’s natural to wonder what was going on. For residents in San Ramon Valley, California, all they need to do to find out about emergency situations and 911 dispatches is turn on their iPhone and navigate to the FireDepartment.org app. Believed to be the first of its kind, the app will allow residents to use an interactive map to find active incidents, as well as provide a log of recent incidents and a photo gallery of major emergency events.

Rock Creek is delighted to be collaborating with government new media consultancy and social innovation incubator FutureGov in the creation of Simpl, the Social Innovation MarketPlace. Scheduled to launch this fall, the site will aim to “connect people with good ideas for radical social change with people in the public sector who want to do things differently.”

Simpl will give innovators the opportunity to post their ideas and projects and to outline what they think it’ll take to bring those ideas to life. Similarly, it will allow those in the public sector to bid on those ideas with cash or other resources (like office space, mentoring, or even access to capital or talent) as well as to pinpoint problems that they are interested in solving. FutureGov has some additional info, including a SlideShare presentation with site screenshots we developed, available on their blog.

Initial reaction to the idea has been overwhelmingly positive. What do you think? Drop me a note directly, or even better, leave a comment on this post.

—For a decade, federal agencies have been barred from using cookies to help personalize visitor experiences on their websites. But thanks to a new policy from the White House, the ban on cookies has been lifted. While the policy (PDF) now allows federal agencies to use cookies, it still sets explicit guidelines that limit the amount of personally identifiable information that can be collected, as well as sharing their own data with another agency without the visitor’s consent. It will be interesting to see how federal agencies websites will take advantage of the new rules.

—There is no shortage of ways to collect user feedback on website design. You can host focus groups, conduct a survey, or even perform eye-tracking tests. Or, you can follow the lead of the state of Rhode Island and administer a memory test to website visitors, quizzing them on what elements of the website homepage they remember after viewing it for 5 seconds. Results of the the test, implemented on the RI.gov website last September, were used to help guide the site redevelopment process. The new site, which was launched in May, prominently features the government’s online services, something that the memory test showed had been largely ignored in the previous design.

—Want to know if the Milwaukee neighborhood you’re getting ready to walk through is safe? Need the schedule for San Francisco’s BART train, want to test the speed of your mobile data connection, or need to figure out your Body Mass Index? There’s an app for that…or to be more specific, there are 111 apps for that. Earlier this week, USA.gov published a ‘Comprehensive List of Government Apps’ Microsoft Excel list that gives detailed information on federal, state, and local agency mobile applications, including links where the apps can be downloaded.

—Gov 2.0 luminaries Steve Ressler and Mark Drapeau are among the experts quoted in a recent Washington Post article chronicling the top ten mistakes that business, organizations and government agencies make when it comes to social media. Ressler suggests that agencies start with a small social media presence and use it well before expanding your scope, while Drapeau urged agencies to think in terms of engaging citizens on issues rather than asking them to ‘fan’ the agency itself. Be sure to check out the article to learn about the other mistakes, including one about the dangers of delegating social media responsibilities to the intern.

—In late 2009, the Office of Management and Budget released a report noting that federal agencies had made an estimated $98 billion dollars in “improper” payments—payments that were the result of fraud, payments to vendors who are ineligible for government contracting work, or simple clerical mistakes. In an effort to decrease improper payments while increasing agency accountability, OMB this week launched PaymentAccuracy.gov, a website set up to highlight how well agencies are performing by detailing the number and amount of improper payments an agency has issued. Visitors to the website can track the overall rate of payment accuracy across federal agencies as well as submit their own concerns about waste, fraud, or abuse.

—Imagine this: You’re sitting in traffic on the 101 in California, and a few seconds after the car in front of you stops again, you see something odd: the car’s license plate is displaying what appears to be an advertisement. It’s not as far-fetched as you might think. Earlier this week, the state Senate approved a bill that gives the California DMV the green light to explore digital license plate technology as a way to help generate additional revenue for the state. In addition to advertising, proponents also point out that the digital plates could be used to broadcast important information like safety warnings or even Amber Alerts. The bill is currently before the Legislature.

—What was going on last night when you heard all of those sirens racing through your neighborhood? Citizens in one Florida county need go no further than their web browser to get the inside scoop on crimes that occurred in their area. This month, officials in Florida’s Pinellas County unveiled Crime Viewer, a GIS database-powered site that lets citizens map crime occurring in their community. Updated every 24 hours, the website is intended to give citizens a “snapshot of what types of crime are happening in a community around the clock.” Officials anticipate allowing citizens to receive alerts and notifications via e-mail and text message in the near future.

—If you’ve every shopped around online for health insurance, you know it’s an overwhelming and frustrating task trying to find insurance providers that cover people in your state and separating legitimate insurance offers from insurance scams. But thanks to a website set to launch July 1, insurance seekers will have one-stop access to insurance information for individuals and small businesses in their state. The Department of Health and Human Services’ new website Healthcare.gov will initially provide a simple list of company names and web links for all private and government health plans available within a specific state, but as soon as October will begin providing additional information like health plan cost and benefits information.

If you’re not shocked by this situation, it’s likely because excluding employees from branding is unfortunately the norm these days. Branding frequently occurs behind closed doors by company leaders and any number of external consultants. If employees are involved at all, it’s usually through internal branding practices, such as brand education and rewards for “on-brand behavior” that take place after a brand has been decided.

Communicating a new brand to employees before promoting it to external audiences helps employees feel connected to the company and has been shown to improve work performance. Taking it one step further, involving employees in the branding process from the beginning tends to yield even stronger, more authentic, and more profitable brands.

By seeking input from employees during the branding process, executives can:
1) Gain a more comprehensive understanding of the company. Employees provide insight into how customers experience the company at every single touchpoint.
2) Benefit from a workforce that is more loyal to and motivated to express the brand. Even if employees do not see their ideas fully manifested in the brand that is ultimately developed, they are more likely to adopt that brand because someone asked their opinion in the first place.

Zappos is a great example of how employee involvement in the branding process can build better brands. In the beginning stages of the company, Zappos’ CEO Tony Hsieh asked each employee to write a few paragraphs about what Zappos meant to them. Employees’ submissions offered unique insight into the value Zappos provides. In line with his belief that “your culture is your brand,” Hsieh used these submissions to help shape the Zappos brand. Today, Zappos not only boasts a “fiercely loyal” workforce, it has also been ranked as one of the world’s best global brands.

Companies of all sizes and with all levels of resources can benefit from employee involvement in the branding process. Surveys, interviews, and focus groups are all examples of ways our team gathers input from our clients’ employees for branding initiatives. Regardless of the specific methods used, employee involvement should occur early in the branding process, and be viewed as an asset rather than as an afterthought.

—As news about the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico continues to dominate the headlines, and citizens continue to clamor for information about how the government is responding, a new website aims to shed light on the subject. Developed by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA) and using data gathered from its own sources and those of the Coast Guard, the U.S. Geological Survey, the EPA, DHS, NASA, and state governments, the newly launched GeoPlatform website includes constantly updated information on response efforts, closed fishery areas, the trajectory of the oil spill, and more. The site, which features an interactive map offering visitors both big-picture and detailed information on recovery efforts, was originally developed for federal, state, and local officials and has been adapted for use by the public.

—The FTC, in conjunction with a variety of government, nonprofit, and private organizations including PayPal, Microsoft, and the American Bankers Association, announced this week the launch of a new program designed to combat the growing problem of Internet fraud. The Internet Fraud Alert will create a “single channel for sharing information among academic researchers, consumer advocates, financial institutions, government agencies, retailers, service providers, and technology companies.”

—For those in the science and technology world, the fields of information technology, biotechnololgy, and nanotechnology represent the three pillars in the “golden triangle” of research areas that are having the biggest impact on the technology of today and the future. And earlier this week, the President’s Innovation and Technology Advisory Committee reached out to citizens to solicit ideas for the best ways that critical federal infrastructures can offer support to these fields. Citizens are urged to share their ideas about how the government can best support the golden triangle in a way that leads to new jobs and a higher Gross Domestic Product at the OpenPCAST Ideas website, and organizers will hold a live webcast on the topic next Tuesday at 10 a.m.

—No matter whether you’re a patient or a health care provider, a new website launched by the FDA this week should help you make more informed health decisions. The Postmarketing Drug Safety Evaluations site will provide safety information on recently approved drugs after the drug has been available for 18 months or has been used by 10,000 patients, whichever comes later. The database is expected to provide a “real world” view of drug safety outside of the highly regulated clinical trials process, leading to better overall information regarding a new drug’s safety and effectiveness.

—What do you do if you’re a web technology analyst for a state government organization and you’re constantly getting calls and questions about how to get started with social media? If you’re April Edmonds, you develop an entire IT toolkit designed to give your peers the tips and information they need to launch and maintain their own efforts. Edmonds, who works for Florida’s Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, recently launched FLSocMedia, which gives details on everything from writing a descriptive tweet to approaching accessibility concerns when working with video. It’s really impressive—with some time, a free Google-hosted website, and her own experiences and expertise, Edmonds has created a resource that will help government employees in Florida and beyond.

—Need a job? Microblogging service Twitter is hiring, but you’ve got to be willing to give up your Silicon Valley address if you get the gig. Earlier this week, Twitter published a job announcement for a Government Liaison. The company’s first employee who will live and work in the Washington, DC area, the liaison will be responsible for supporting “policymakers’ use of Twitter to help them communicate and interact with their constituents and the world.”

—Speaking of politicians and social media, the election board officials in the state of Maryland are backing a measure that would require political candidates to identify their social media campaigns. Similar to the way that broadcast and print ads spell out, “Paid for by the Committee to Elect John Smith,” elections officials are suggesting that official political social media sites also note the committee or person responsible for the account on the site’s homepage or within the profile. They also recommend that messages distributed through social media should be archived in the same way that other methods of campaign communication are. Officials believe that identifying “official” social network profiles will help voters discern between official communications and those that may be created by people or groups unassociated with the candidate.

—40,000 social media fans in six weeks. That’s the end result of the recent “House Republican New Media Challenge,” a six-week competition that challenged GOP representatives to try and expand their new media presence and gain more followers, fans, and subscribers. Nearly 60 representatives participated in the contest, but Louisiana’s Rep. John Fleming (LA-04) took home the top prize, an iPhone. Contest organizers admit, however, that the real winner was the House Republican Conference itself. No matter what your political leaning, you have to admit—numbers like those in that amount of time are quite impressive.