GovLoop: The "Facebook for Government"

Launched in June 2008, GovLoop.com is becoming the "Facebook for Government" where over 8,500 federal, state and local government employees connect to share best practices and ideas to improve government. There is a ton of great information on the site with over 1,300 blogs, 1,000 discussions, 200 videos, 3,000 photos and 400 events. Members range from city managers, county CIOs and municipal public affairs officials to federal senior executives, public policy professors and brilliant new government innovators.

Especially of interest on GovLoop is the number of groups on the site ranging from Acquisitions 2.0, Human Resources, Open Source Software and Communications Best Practices. Additionally, members post openings at their work so it is a great place to find new opportunities and recruit new staff. Furthermore, GovLoop has expanded into other additional mediums with a Twitter feed (@govloop) and a Gov 2.0 Podcast (gov2radio.com) with guests including Tim O'Reilly and TweetCongress.

The site was started by Steve Ressler, a federal government employee and co-founder of Young Government Leaders. Steve explained the background of GovLoop in his blog post, "Top 10 Reasons I Created GovLoop." Here's five of them:

Meet New People
While Facebook and LinkedIn are great, they are mainly about staying connected with people you already know. I wanted to meet and connect innovative people in the government community that I don't already know. (GovLoop does has privacy controls if you don't want to do this). Personally, I've already met a ton of innovative people and found a number of great blogs through GovLoop.

Break Down Silos
Government can easily be siloed. You can be stuck in your agency (HR, IT, Policy, etc); or only talk to one sector of government (federal, state, local). But I noticed in my participation in conferences, there were a lot of great ideas and action going on in a wide range of places. However, they often did not know about each other, but would always be excited when they could make new connections and learn from one another other. Hopefully, GovLoop will break down some silos and increase sharing across all levels.

Outlet for Ideas
Most people who work in the government community are passionate about public service. Additionally, they have a lot of ideas on improving government. However, these ideas may not always have a voice at your agency. This could be due to your organization’s structure, budget constraints, or management. GovLoop offers an outlet for people to share their ideas from the inside on how to improve government.

Central Hub
It is hard to keep track of all the good stuff happening in government. There are tons of great trade magazines, professional organizations and professional development events that are excellent for government employees to get ideas and improve their career. However, it’s hard to keep track of what is going on as these discussions are stuck in their silos. For example, rather than just web managers talking about social media, wouldn't it be cool to open up the dialogue to academics/students who may be innovating, digital natives who use social media daily, as well as state/local innovator? I hope GovLoop can serve as a central hub for these great conversations.

Open Up the Community
Great ideas come from everywhere. However, a lot of the places where the government community connects and discusses ways to improve government have geographical and time constraints. As I attended more of these events, I thought more about the government employee who couldn't attend events after work; or all the govies who don’t have the funding to attend these great conferences; or the just retired fed who lives in NC but would still like to share his/her ideas; or the academic/student living in Madison or Lawrence. GovLoop opens up the community and eliminates these restrictions (you just need Internet)

*Side Note
I want to thank Steve Ressler taking the time to submit this article. GovLoop is truly an excellent resource for government professionals to make new connections and share ideas; especially for IT professionals and web managers. With groups ranging from MuniGov 2.0 to Web Metrics, you are guaranteed to learn something new while connecting with the best and brightest in the government community.