Facilitating the development of a Web 2.0 strategy

Facilitating the development of a Web 2.0 strategy

The recent announcement by the Treasury Board Minister regarding the release of Guideline for External Use of Web 2.0 has likely left many departments and agencies of the federal government scratching heads at trying to figure out what it all means. On one hand, the Minister appears to be giving the go-ahead to public servants in making use of web 2.0. On the other hand, the government’s tightly controlled communication practice gives public servants a very different message. The guidelines clearly state that “Web 2.0 initiative is congruent with Government of Canada themes and messages, as well as departmental communications' and consultations' objectives and requirements”.

How fast departments can ride the web 2.0 wagon remains to be seen. In addition to these mixed messages, many departments and agencies remain fixated over fears that opening up the web and social media in particular will see a crash in employee productivity. Perhaps. But I doubt it. The application of good supervisory practices on the part of PS managers would minimize loss of productivity. Now, back to the TBS Web 2.0 guidelines. The guidelines make a good case for Department’s needs to develop web 2.0 strategy. As my good colleague Erik Hagbord puts it: organizations must not only be concerned with their web sites but also with the web presence. Simply said, organizations can control what goes on their websites, and with a comprehensive web strategy, they can go a step further and construct a web presence and go beyond their sites, interact and transact business with citizens, listen to citizens and in some circumstances actually engage with citizens in developing public policy.