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IT security staff and social media staff have very different - and typically conflicting - approaches to the web. It is important that they work together. At the CDC the security and social media teams meet monthly to work out any issues, and (importantly) to describe what is on the horizon in order to identify potential challenges.
Many government policies were written before social media (or even the internet). They now can create obstacles. For example, as part of the "Paperwork Reduction Act", the OMB is required to approve any program that asks questions of the public. (Does that include, for example, voting up an idea on a social media site?). This law, as well as laws and policies dealing with terms of service, tracking technologies, privacy issues, and others topics are being updated.
It is important to evaluate social media efforts, and particularly to understand which channels are best for reaching which audiences with which messages. Performance reporting will improve efforts. That said, it is necessary to be realistic about how precise communications evaluations can be (e.g. nobody ever asks "how effective was that brochure?". They ask "how effective was our campaign?").
New media are new. We all are experimenting to some extent. This means accepting some risk in social media efforts, and also tolerating some degree of failure. Senior management and staff need to understand the risk profile of social media efforts. (As a related note, Amazon reportedly includes "risk-taking" in their performance reviews.)
“Ten questions in ten minutes.” That’s the mantra of the current U.S. Census Bureau’s 2010 survey. After receiving a mailed noticed that the form was on its way; the form package itself; and a post card reminder about the form; I filled it out and mailed it back via USPS. Let this be the last decennial census done this way. Proposed: In the ensuing time period between now and 2020, a system be developed where the Census can be taken, securely, online, with social media marketing used to get the word out to all. For those constituents without Internet access ten years from now, local polling places, libraries and motor vehicle offices among other public facilities would be made available.
Every politician promises to listen to his/her constituency, only to rely upon weighing the public’s sentiment by the volume of mail received on a given issue. The problem is, not many people engage in letter writing anymore, given more towards sending emails or voting in online polls. While some politicians have latched onto the new media wave many more choose to do things the way they’ve always been done, afraid to rock the boat. Proposed: All functions in every Senator’s, Representative’s, Governor’s and State Legislator’s offices be required to provide easily accessible online equivalents for all interaction with the public. It’s time to bring our government into the 21st century.
Transparency. Everywhere. It builds credibility and trust.

Let's start with our government (schedules, contributors, bills, riders, etc), but then to opaque markets (like that for the CDOs and CDSes that brought about the global near-meltdown).

Finally, let's give more business to businesses that are highly transparent. Let's reward them, the way CarrotMob rewards merchants for being green.
Low cost data collection + powerful analysis tools = an impressive new service in developing countries. Review of election monitoring with SMS by MobileActive.org http://bit.ly/d4Fxec
Every town in the US (the world?) will have problems budgeting for years to come. But figuring out what to do about budgets is tricky. An infrastructure that would support collaborative decision-making could improve both decision-making & buy-in. The infrastructure will provide historical data about the town budget as well as comparative data across towns. It will help facilitate contributions to data collection, data analysis, and preference identification. All we need is someone to build it.
Private philanthropy can bring ideas, government can bring funds, in public-private partnerships. Wall Street Journal review: http://bit.ly/8dYW91
Many foundations have distinct programs for funding risky ideas (Gates "Grand Challenges", RWJF "Pioneer Portfolio). The Energy Department has established a new office - Arpa-e - to fund "long shot bets". http://bit.ly/2dYhVO
The government should have a good reason before it invests in closed software, content or database development. In general, information products funded by the public sector should be public products.
Service pooling Congressional Research Service reports online, a "itunes for policy wonks". http://opencrs.com/