Comments on: High Profile Government Social Network Gets Acquired: What Is GovLoop’s Future?

By: A Year in Review: Top Ten for Government 2.0 in 2009

A Year in Review: Top Ten for Government 2.0 in 2009 — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 18:49:35 +0000

[...] in a post I said that the acquisition may cast some shadows on GovLoop’s future, in the few months after [...]

By: Andrea Di Maio

Andrea Di Maio — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 05:59:53 +0000

@kpk – Thanks for your comments.I do like Steve personally and have great respect for what he accomplished. My observation is that as government professionals are allowed to use mainstream social media that they also use for personal purposes, they are likley to be enticed to use te same also for professional purposes.
The whole point of web 2.0 in government is that it blurs all sorts of boundaries. We are already seeing this in cases where government professionals leverage their personal connections while performing their jobs (plenty of examples in procurement, social services, unemployment). So while the franchise is strong today, the value of a relatively fenced community may soon decrease, as intertwined groups on mainstream social media start supporting the same conversation with more flexible boundaries.
This being said, I wish Steve great success. I’d just caution him not to sit on his laurels but relentelessly ask himself tough questions about how to remain relevant.

By: Kim Patrick Kobza

Kim Patrick Kobza — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 01:56:23 +0000

I would bet on Steve. The comparison to Facebook and apps.gov is not particularly relevant to the future of govloop- one advertising subsidized platform versus another. The fact of government endorsement misses the point of govloop which largely disintermediates government sponsorship in a friendly, non-threatening way.

Everyone gets that networks have to deliver value. Usually, though not always, the value that networks generate have little to do with the particular technology platform. I think that what Steve has managed to do is to create a fair amount of valued exchange. Govloop also has a high degree of currency – that develops and builds social attention. But equally compelling are the offline activities that support the online network.

The key is that all of the above lead to connections and exchange across a wide range of government professionals, and those generally concerned about government whether at a state, local or federal level and bridging into private industry.

The key is to look at govloop as a franchise rather than as a place to go and hopefully over time, it offers additional network experience online and offline. Imagine connecting governmental professionals across global geographies and educational systems.

I would bet on Steve over Mark Z on this one. .

By: Steve Ressler

Steve Ressler — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 12:15:03 +0000

Good post Andrea and you are dead on. Social networks are only as good as its value proposition and my first focus is on how to make the site more useful to the members.

I see the future of GovLoop as a “knowledge network” for government – a place where government people can go to get their questions answered to do their job better. That can be asking a question on their government career, on a niche topic like how to implement a wiki, or a broad scope like talking about the future of cloud in government.

One example of the value-added conversations I hope to stage is the New School/New Gov Dialogue where we are having students tell gov’t HR officials what they look for in a gov’t career (a big HR question). And current govies are telling MPA/MPP students their advice on getting and succeeding in their gov’t career.

More to come and always love reading this blog.

-Steve