Connecting the government community
GovLoop.com attempts to connect the government community. It was founded by Steve Ressier, co-founder of a professional organization known as Young Government Leaders. His hopes are that GovtLoop.com will grow into a hub for publis-sctor community- a place where government workers exchange ideas and explore new opportunities.
One of the most common statements made by government officials is that they don’t know what is done in other departments. It’s only through physical networking, events, conferences and the like that they get a chance to connect and share ideas.
When it first launched on Memorial Day 2008, there were 20 friends on the site. It is gaining popularity and is working very well in getting people in different deapartments to talk to each other.
They are on twitter. It’ got all the standard web 2.0 features of rankings, blogs, groups, fourms, events, videos, Jobs and resources. It’s a walled garden so hard to say what’ doing on in there unless you sign up.
It’s built on the Ning platform which uses the Ning ID, pretty cool, so what is this. Ning ID is an authentication system that lets you choose an email address and password once. You can then use this to sign into any social networ that uses the Ning ID. Asides from password and id you can also popolate your profile that you would like to be used on any Ning network.
Based on the look and feel it appears to be for U.S. government however if you or your organization does need to interact with U.S. govt. officials I suggest signing up.
As always privacy is a concers so do take time to read the Privacy Policy. It goes through the general guidelines for this social network that is based on the Ning Platform. The Terms of Service also goes into further details.
Happy connecting.
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