Gov2.0 Expo, Part 3: Government as a Protector

Updates: oldest first | newest first

• 12:59 p.m. #

  Ben Strong from the Coast Guard is up first:

  The United States Coast Guard Amver (Automated Mutual Assistance Vessel Rescue) system has made the job of search and rescue easier for the entire world. Rescue coordination centers can quickly contact the United States Coast Guard via a Web based application, and obtain a surface picture of Amver participating commercial vessels that are available to come to the aid of mariners in distress.

• 12:59 p.m. #

  Ben Strong from the Coast Guard is up first:

  The United States Coast Guard Amver (Automated Mutual Assistance Vessel Rescue) system has made the job of search and rescue easier for the entire world. Rescue coordination centers can quickly contact the United States Coast Guard via a Web based application, and obtain a surface picture of Amver participating commercial vessels that are available to come to the aid of mariners in distress.

• 1:06 p.m. #

  Amver pulls in ships already at sea and sends out rescue information when and where needed to coordinate aid.

• 1:07 p.m. #

  In reality, Amver is a very simple application of a web-based form to share data.

• 1:09 p.m. #

  Next up, Noel Dickover (Department of Defense Chief Information Officer (DoD CIO), Commercial Technologies & Systems Directorate (contractor)):

  By bringing experts and expertise together both internally within DoD, and externally with industry by both wiki-based collaboration and crowdsourced requirements development & contracting approaches, the DoDTechipedia Family of Services is making information transparency a reality in finding technology innovations that rapidly address DoD’s technology & capability needs.

• 1:10 p.m. #

  DoD's acquisition process, from the outside, looks very much like a black hole. It can take up to 15 years to get products fielded.

• 1:11 p.m. #

  "I think everyone can agree: We're not keep pace with innovation."

• 1:11 p.m. #

  A lot of innovative companies aren't working with DoD anymore, in part because they don't want to deal with the process, says Noel Dickover.

• 1:12 p.m. #

  Big early question: Have we solved this problem before? "Often we'll end up duplicating the capability we already have, just because we can't find the information."

• 1:13 p.m. #

  "We're realizing that a lot of these big important problems are best solved through social software," Noel Dickover says.

• 1:14 p.m. #

  DefenseSolutions.gov is a start toward fixing the procurement process.

  DefenseSolutions.gov is a portal through which innovative companies, entrepreneurs, and research organizations can offer potential solutions to the Department of Defense. This portal, and the team behind it, are designed to encourage companies that have never considered doing business with DoD to participate.

  Our process depends on direct communication with you when you submit an idea that is attractive in an area where we need a solution. The review process is continuous to avoid internal delays in decisions and review.

• 1:16 p.m. #

  Now, Donald Jones (Booz Allen Hamilton):

  In order to move toward a more transparent, collaborative and participatory Military Health System, the MHS uses a variety of social media tools to engage both internal and external stakeholders in dialogue about military health issues. This session discusses the successes, challenges and considerations required to innovate in social media outreach within a military health environment.

• 1:17 p.m. #

  "Our stakeholders are 18-24 year olds. They're digital natives. We need to go where they are," says Donald Jones.

• 1:17 p.m. #

  The MHS is massively social. It's in just about every network and makes a big effort to connect people.

• 1:21 p.m. #

  Moving to a local level now, Jeff Nigbur (Utah Department of Public Safety):

  The Utah Department of Public Safety (DPS) Media Portal communicates current news, real time information, and safety alerts to media outlets statewide. The portal improves communication and collaboration with media outlets to enhance DPS’s ability to protect the public.

• 1:21 p.m. #

  "I want everyone to relax. All my guns are back in Utah." There's an icebreaker.

• 1:22 p.m. #

  The old way: Answer hundreds of media phone calls and answer the same questions over and over again, especially after a big incident.

• 1:23 p.m. #

  Now: Push standard updates to Twitter and SMS, with more info and media online.

• 1:24 p.m. #

  Information goes from dispatcher to respondents to PIO to social media automatically.

• 1:26 p.m. #

  "Rather than take my service pistol and commit injury to myself," Nigbur now gets to respond to unmet needs and communicate better with the public and media.

• 1:27 p.m. #

  This last speaker on Government as a Protector is fascinating: Dan Luxenberg of the FDA:

  How the FDA, in partnership with CDC, leveraged Web 2.0 technologies in the communications efforts surrounding the peanut product recall. The talk will illustrate how a variety of Web 2.0 tools were used to inform the public about the recalled peanut products.

• 1:28 p.m. #

  Part of the problem of the peanut recall was that contaminated foods didn't obviously contain peanuts.

• 1:29 p.m. #

  "We realized that a lot of people just weren't going to come to the FDA's website." Again, reach people where they are. That's another big lesson today.

• 1:29 p.m. #

  The FDA opened up the database of contaminated foods as XML and let people do what they wanted with it.

• 1:30 p.m. #

  Other products: a Twitter feed, a widget, an iPhone app (made by someone else).

• 1:30 p.m. #

  At the time, FDA didn't have a blog, so it set up a webinar with other prominent bloggers, including mommy bloggers.

• 1:31 p.m. #

  Feedback from the public was overwhelmingly positive, and helpful.

• 1:32 p.m. #

  Lessons learned: Start somewhere, build incrementally. Start low-risk. Don't reinvent the wheel (FDA partnered with CDC). Learn from your mistakes.

• 1:33 p.m. #

  As the panel discussion starts up on government as a protector, it's worth noting that every moderator starts by checking twitter for questions. So ask if you're out there.

• 1:35 p.m. #

  John Bordeaux, our moderator here, challenges panelists to go beyond pointing out obstacles and figure out what can be done, now.

• 1:36 p.m. #

  Dan Luxenberg: Show people what works.

• 1:36 p.m. #

  DoD is in a challenging space because it hasn't entirely decided what it's doing. One week, PA will ban MySpace. The next, defense.mil will feature "social media in the military."

  "Managing social media is not an IT problem. It's a human resources management problem."

• 1:38 p.m. #

  "The propellerheads need to come out of the basement of the science building ... and be part of the communications process," says Ben Strong.

• 1:41 p.m. #

  Q: Is there a path to work with non-DoD agencies?

  A: We're talking about it. "It could easily turn into a 'techopedia.gov' or something."

• 1:43 p.m. #

  "The idea is to make it as easy as possible for small, innovative companies to get their ideas in front of us," says Noel Dickover.

• 1:44 p.m. #

  Q: Would government improve if it had competitors?

  A, from Ben Strong: We have competition, but now we work with them. Coast Guard acts as a hub, coordinating between private information providers.

• 1:47 p.m. #

  Dan Luxenberg of the FDA: "We don't see it as competition, per se. We want to get the information out there."

• 1:49 p.m. #

  Ah, I like this question: Does the US, or agencies, need a social media ombudsman? Or maybe a czar?