Comments on on dot-gov: Innovation Causes Failure

@joe, thanks and also for the cite on your blog. I...

2009-04-24T00:04:00.301-04:00

@joe, thanks and also for the cite on your blog. I think that government wide tools are the trend to push--especially looking at the tons of tools/software we use that are just commodities. I mean, l look at the tons of implementations of Wordpress or Blogger. Proves that one (flexible) size CAN fit all.

@dan and @jed how come we can all identify, embrace (and even have success!) focusing on strategy and others brush right by. Must be a personality thing-- I am ENTP. :-)

Voices are needed to sing this song, and especially the aria about the dirty little secret that there is no magical field of dreams that will be delivered by the newest, coolest thing. I LOVE the fads, but I love MORE to make them work.

Thanks all for your great discussion. Do re mi...

Excellent work, Gwynne! Of course, it always makes...

2009-04-23T11:13:10.713-04:00

Excellent work, Gwynne! Of course, it always makes me happy to hear people advocate for strategy, and I think this piece touches on a core aspect of strategy development that often goes overlooked which is: "what are we doing?" Sarah's answer that we should seek "to foster civic engagement, to put citizens back into the decisions and activities of government" is good, but I'm sure she'd agree that this isn't always the case.

What are we doing? is a deceptively simple question, and it needs to be answered before we start experimenting with new technologies. For instance: what was the core objective of the town hall? Was it to root out the most pressing issues on America's mind? Was it to be able to provide more satisfactory answers to citizens? Was it to get citizens to inform policy? These are three very different collaborative objectives, which could be satisfied simultaneously, but, as Kozba pointed out, the technology employed wasn't quite up to task—and I agree, there's no reason that the government should settle for anything less than the best.

Thanks again for this. Inspiring!

Thanks for the insightful post, Gwynne. I'd like ...

2009-04-22T11:30:02.384-04:00

Thanks for the insightful post, Gwynne. I'd like to amplify upon Candi's comment, particularly her statement, "it's all about strategy." If govt is to truly get it right it has to do that with uniformity of process. S

o I would add its also about structure, standards, attribution, moderation, and reporting. Get those aligned in your solution and strategy, incorporate it in the process across the enterprise, and we will be having some very serious, productive, and meaningful online discussions and collaboration.

Hand coding... Seems like madness in this day and...

2009-04-20T11:39:21.707-04:00

Hand coding... Seems like madness in this day and age but that's the reality for many government sites. It's like going back to 1998. The adoption of an easy to use content management system would make the publishing of government information so much easier. It would spur more and better communication with the public. I think the biggest change Obama could make would be to provide a CMS to federal agencies.

@candi thanks alot! You are the standard bearer fo...

2009-04-19T12:30:31.101-04:00

@candi thanks alot! You are the standard bearer for strategy and priorities. Look forward to the discussion.

@sarah, thanks for the link to the USNI discussion...

2009-04-19T12:26:07.148-04:00

@sarah, thanks for the link to the USNI discussion. I think that the objectives that you identify are the important ones--but is that really what we are doing? Do we really want to hear from citizens if our approach is ad hoc? and when engagement projects do not have budgets and staffing is a collateral duty? You are so right that we risk increasing cynicism in the long run by short run "experiments."

Not to say that we don't learn alot from experimentation. You have been in IT long enough to know that bringing an application live always results in surprises. And I am NOT suggesting that we stop experimenting--just that we need to be more strategic. Is this a priority or not?

I think that Kundra's approach in DC is very promising. Don't know how that will scale to the fed space. Your thoughts?

Great comment, Sarah. Thx.

Gwynne - this is a terrific, insightful, and coura...

2009-04-19T10:22:34.493-04:00

Gwynne - this is a terrific, insightful, and courageous post that deserves serious consideration and discussion among the government web manager community. You are spot on in the questions you pose. It's all about strategy (and I know you share this view). This is my favorite of your posts so far. Well done!

Gynne, have you seen "Can Ideas Equal Products?" o...

2009-04-18T20:49:39.301-04:00

Gynne, have you seen "Can Ideas Equal Products?" on the US Naval Institute Blog? (http://blog.usni.org/?p=2251) People in USNI are also struggling with how to truly make use of input and suggestions, and touches on some of the same issues Kim noted.

Government use of "2.0" features is different than commercial sites. We're not trying to make friends or encouraging people to drop by often to increase ad revenue. Our objective is to foster civic engagement, to put citizens back into the decisions and activities of government. You are correct to note that the freebie sites and services we are working with - because we can do things faster - in the long run are not going to be able to meet our needs.

One of the biggest challenges we face is to convince people that we really do want to hear from them. The frisson generated by participating online is quickly quelled when you realize that your (brilliant!) idea is lost in a sea of other ideas

This is not a game, and we need something better than toys, or we risk losing more than we gain.