23 October 2008

MuniGov 2.0 is a coalition of local and municipal governments focused on exploring the use and principles of Web 2.0 in an effort to improve citizen services and communication via technology. The site is currently looking to expand its base of local leaders applying Web 2.0 strategies and leaders interested in learning more about Web 2.0.

MuniGov2.0 has also established a presence in the popular online world SecondLife. They also have an in-world office and meet on a weekly basis to hold live discussions on the practical application of 2.0 tools, such as SecondLife. They are also establishing a multi-purpose venue and office space for other localities interested in exploring the potential that virtual worlds have to offer.

MuniGov2.0 is modeled after the basic tenet of Web2.0 - the more who participate in the evolution of the product, the more effective and valuable it will become. Pam Broviak, Director of Public Works for LaSalle, Illinois and Bill Greeves, Director of IT for Roanoke County, VA, founded the site and its accompanying documents as resources and best practices and as the start of a community of like-minded peers who have a common interest in the concepts of 2.0 as they could and do apply to local government. The site is designed to put local leaders in touch directly with the theories and practice of 2.0 in government and the people who are pushing the envelope in each sub-category or technology.

What is Web2.0?
According to Wikipedia, "Web 2.0 is a term describing the trend in the use of World Wide Web technology and web design that aims to enhance creativity, information sharing, and, most notably, collaboration among users. These concepts have led to the development and evolution of web-based communities and hosted services, such as social-networking sites, wikis, blogs, and folksonomies". Web 2.0 is still a very new field, particularly in local government. However, all signs indicate that this will at some point become a mandate of constituents for interacting and communicating in a bi-directional fashion with their government.

The inherent value in the technologies that make up Web2.0 reside on a transformation of the way a government interacts with its stakeholders. Web2.0 moves beyond the traditional one-way release of services and information and instead establishes a framework of collaborative government in which stakeholders have not only the ability to become informed about governmental decisions but rather have at their disposal more and easily facilitated participation in such decisions. Web2.0 also strives to provide a richer and interactive experience in conducting transactions with government based on a user’s preferences (i.e. the next level of e-government).

So What Does it Mean to Government?
Today Web 2.0 is new, fragile and barely utilized in government. Federal and state governments are beginning to explore the potential of this technology. Yet local governments, with only a few notable exceptions, are still well behind the curve of evolution in this field. For years local government was slow to catch on to the true value and flexibility of the traditional World Wide Web. If cities do not act now to make a leap ahead, they will continue to be behind the curve as 2.0 takes hold as well. As the population make-up shifts and the millennials become the driving percentage of our workforce and our population, demand for 2.0 technology will increase. Universities and colleges across the globe are incorporating these 2.0 technologies and concepts into the curriculum as a core of the learning experience. The students of today are the citizens of tomorrow.

"We should try to raise our heads above the issues of the day and make a planned leap forward, leapfrogging the general population so as to position ourselves for the demand before it becomes one," says Bill Greeves, Director of IT for Roanoke County, Virginia and one of the group's founders. "Let’s institutionalize the concepts in our workforce, in our organizations, before it becomes a public mandate."

For more information, visit the GooglePages website at https://sites.google.com/site/munigov20/. You can also contact Bill Graves via phone at (540) 777-8551, or via email at bgreeves@roanokecountyva.gov. His skype name is bill.greeves, or you can see his twitter at twitter.com/bgreeves.