Steve Lunceford

Celebrating International Women’s Day with 100+ women in government technology

Posted on by Sarah Granger
Secretary Clinton Launches the “100 Women Initiative: Empowering Women and Girls through International Exchanges"

Secretary Clinton Launches the “100 Women Initiative: Empowering Women and Girls through International Exchanges"

Today is International Women’s Day. Women’s organizations around the world will be celebrating and talking about all kinds of women’s issues, including our Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who launched a bold new initiative. People might tweet about it and the fact that it’s the 100th anniversary. One of the many positive things that come from the day is acknowledgment of many achievements made by great women over time.

We have some amazing women doing great work in government innovation, and GovTwit’s Steve Lunceford reminded me that it’s been nearly a year since we highlighted these women on GovFresh, so this seemed like a good time to update the list. If you know of women who aren’t on it and should be, please note their names in the comments. And if you have Twitter IDs for them, even better. I’m maintaining a gov20women Twitter list where they can all be found and contacted easily.

Secretary Clinton may be the most prominent American voice on behalf of women around the world, but she is not the only one, and it’s important that we continue highlighting the work done by these women around the country and around the world every day to promote not only equality and human rights, but also innovation and openness in government.

Secretary Clinton’s International Women’s Day video message:

Gov 2.0 guide to Gov 2.0 Radio

Posted on by Luke Fretwell

Gov 2.0 Radio is a weekly podcast that “captures the thoughts of public and private sector leaders using Web 2.0 to make government more effective, collaborative and transparent.” The show is held every Sunday at 9 p.m. Eastern Time on BlogTalkRadio.

Gov 2.0 Radio is hosted by Adriel Hampton and co-hosts GovTwit founder Steve Lunceford and GovLoop founder Steve Ressler.

GovFreshTV interview with Gov 2.0 Radio host Adriel Hampton:

Tweeters Twitter should consider for its new government gig

Posted on by Luke Fretwell

TwitterThe Beltway is buzzing about Twitter’s new Government Liaison gig, and the excitement is shaking DC like a California earthquake. The aftershock has produced a smart post by Andrew Wilson (Top 10 Requests for the New Government Liaison at Twitter) that offers great ideas for Twitter as they comb through a stack of resumes bigger than a GPO print job.

Here’s the gist of the job description:

Twitter is looking for an experienced, entreprenurial person to make Twitter better for policymakers, political organizations and government officials and agencies. You’ll be our first D.C. -based employee and the closest point of contact with a variety of important people and organizations looking to get the most out of Twitter on both strategic and highly tactical levels. You’ll help Twitter understand what we can do to better serve candidates and policymakers across party and geographical lines. You’ll support policymakers use of Twitter to help them communicate and interact with their constituents and the world. You’ll work with nearly every group at the company and at every level to pursue your vision for how Twitter ought to be. You’ll help set the culture and approach of a fledgling public policy department and be an important part of our very small company.

There are a number of well-qualified people for this position, and by no means am I endorsing or know whether the following are interested, but as personal campaigns pop up and resumes fly, here’s a few folks Twitter might want to consider:

Adriel HamptonAdriel Hampton (@adrielhampton) is an avid Twitter contributor and influential Gov 2.0 tweeter, both in the context of his role as host of Gov 2.0 Radio, but also as a public servant for the City of San Francisco. He knows how to use Twitter both in a hands-on government capacity at the local level as well as in a political campaign (see his recent GovFresh post Can Twitter reimagine democracy?). While he currently resides in the San Francisco Bay Area, I’m sure he’d be more than willing to do so for Twitter.

Steve Lunceford (@dslunceford) is the founder of GovTwit, the world’s largest government Twitter directory. He’s enthusiastically built GovTwit over the past few years into a central tool for cataloging government Twitter accounts, both at the state and local level. Lunceford is well-regarded and well-connected within DC. See also his recent critical but constructive post, A verified disappointment: how Twitter handles government accounts.

Wayne Moses BurkeWayne Moses Burke (@wmburke) is the founder of Open Forum Foundation and GovLuv, the Twitter app that helps citizens connect with government. Burke is one of the few, perhaps only, people in DC who has helped build a real (and valuable) government Twitter application. He’s well-regarded within DC and passionate about changing the way government connects with citizens.

Peter SlutskyPeter Slutsky (@pslutsky) is currently Ning‘s Strategic Relationships Manager and based in DC. Working in DC for a Silicon Valley-based tech company, Slutsky will most likely be able to manage the cultural divide and leverage his already established connections with key people within government. With Ning going through growing pains, this might be a nice transition for him.

Thoughts on who else might be the right person for the job?

Video: ‘New Media Risks and Rewards: People First, Mission Always’

Posted on by Luke Fretwell

Deloitte has put out a video, New Media Risks and Rewards: People First, Mission Always, featuring Steve Lunceford Deloitte Senior Manager (also founder of GovTwit and co-host of Gov 2.0 Radio). Video highlights social media tips for agencies, including start small, have an executive champion, get key contacts collaborating early and focus on the mission first.

Quotable:

“Agencies shouldn’t get enamored with one particular channel, one particular tool. They need to look at what their mission is, what their objectives are, how they’re going to be able to measure success in using these tools, and then approach it from a really strategic perspective. So I think building a strategy up front is very important.”

‘Open Gov the Movie’

Posted on by Luke Fretwell

Open Gov the Movie is a 14-minute compilation of interviews with prominent open gov advocates, including U.S. Deputy CTO Beth Noveck, Sunlight Foundation’s Jake Brewer, City of Manor’s Dustin Haisler, Tim O’Reilly, EPA’s Jeffrey Levy, Deloitte’s Steve Lunceford and National Academy of Public Administration’s Lena Trudeau. The film was created by Delib.

Punk Rock Gov 2.0 Radio

Posted on by Luke Fretwell

I’m a big fan of Gov 2.0 Radio.

What I appreciate most is host Adriel Hampton‘s iterative approach to improving it. Each episode is a subtle experiment in something new. It’s not pretentious, over-produced or trendy chatter. It’s quality niche content and every episode is a solid course on what’s happening in the Gov 2.0, open government movement. Adriel and his co-hosts, Steve Lunceford and Steve Ressler, do a great job of connecting listeners to leaders and create a true sense of community.

Last week, Adriel and I met to discuss an upcoming San Francisco Gov 2.0 event we’re working on (stay tuned). We talked about Gov 2.0 Radio, and I offered to brand, design and develop the new site, working from the GovFresh Gov 2.0 WordPress Theme. We didn’t deliberate on quality (though I must say, it looks pretty sharp). We took an iterative approach to the new site. Like the show, it’ll get better over time.

Meet the new Gov 2.0 Radio.

Gov 2.0 Hero: Steve Lunceford

Posted on by Luke Fretwell

Steve Lunceford

What was your path to Gov 2.0?

I’m a communications guy by trade, working in media relations and strategic communications for nearly two decades. Over the last 10 years or so I’ve worked in and around the public sector for organizations like Sprint, BearingPoint and now with Deloitte. Around 24 months ago, it became obvious to me that new technologies and tools were fundamentally changing the way communicators worked — the way reporters interacted with sources, the way organizations disseminated information, the way citizens expected to interact with their government. While I was familiar with eGov initiatives and the web 1.0 services that federal, state and local governments were providing (ordering birth certificates or publishing reports on line and such), it was less apparent to me how new channels like Twitter, YouTube, FaceBook, MySpace and the like could be applied to the public sector. After all, these were “social” tools and seemed more fitting for lighter discussions and interactions, or maybe more relevant for the technology sector, not the business of government.

But as I started experimenting with the tools myself I was shocked to find many government clients, prospects, reporters and more all using tools like Twitter and GovLoop to start meaningful conversations, share relevant information and connect in ways that email and other tools had simply not allowed. As an info junkie, Twitter became an extremely powerful channel for me personally, especially when paired with tools like Tweetdeck or other search sites to find/funnel relevant information. But as enamored as I was with Twitter, 12 months ago it was hard to ferret out who was talking about the business of government or which agencies and individuals to connect with. That’s why I started GovTwit, because I wanted to provide what appeared to be a rapidly-growing community with a one-stop-shop to find others from government using this tool to share information, form relationships and communicate.

What area of government offers the biggest opportunity for improvement via Web 2.0 tools?

I think the citizen interaction piece is still largely untapped to date. Many agencies at both federal and state levels have launched programs that use channels like Facebook, Twitter and the like to push information out to where citizens are now “gathering” online. This is fantastic, especially so if you have a mission that partly centers around dissemination of critical information quickly — like the CDC dealing with H1N1. But there have been far fewer instances of government directly soliciting input and having back and forth conversations with citizens about issues that matter to them. There are, of course, many reasons for this, including how do you staff such a model, how do you comply with privacy issues or other regulatory requirements as you interact in a more direct, one-to-one manner, etc. But those are surmountable challenges and tools allowing a way to recreate the town hall experience where everyone gets a voice is an incredibly powerful concept.

What’s the killer app that will make Gov 2.0 the norm instead of the exception?

I don’t think there’s one killer application or tool that will make Gov 2.0 the norm, and I actually don’t think it’s about apps at all. To a much larger extent it’s about embracing a change in culture and a change in processes to look at new ways to accomplish goals. If you approach Gov 2.0 as “I need a Twitter feed” or “I need to blog” you’ve already failed. You first need to focus on your mission objectives, then work from that to determine the right tools to help you meet that mission. Gov 2.0 isn’t something that the PAO/PIO shop should own or something that only recruiting works with. You could use it for internal process improvement like TSA’s Idea Factory, or use it to solicit cross-agency feedback on government-wide issues like BetterBuyProject.com. It’s about *your* mission and how new tools, technologies and applications can help you meet your goals.

What part of Gov 2.0 most excites you?

I think its the promise of what government could like like 10 years from now as the use of these tools and technologies become more prevalent. As collaboration increases, as knowledge-sharing grows, as best-practices break free from whatever stove-pipe they were previously trapped within, there’s opportunity for a much more rapid pace of change to take place for the betterment of all.