Who Will "Free the Nerds" in DC?

Today I attended a panel discussion called “Wiki White House:
Can Obama Use Technology to Transform Government?” organized by the New America Foundation and held in Google’s downtown DC office. (You can watch the video replay here and catch up on the live-blog tweets here.)

It was an all-star showing (at least in terms of inside-the-Beltway geek wonkdom). Craigslist founder Craig Newmark was on the panel, and Bev Godwin (director of usa.gov) took to the mike during Q&A. The other panelists were Ellen Miller, Executive Director of the Sunlight Foundation; Sascha Meinrath, Research Director at the New America Foundation; and Mindy Finn, who served as Director of E-Strategy for the Mitt Romney campaign. (Though not mentioned in the official panel bio lines, it looks like Ms. Finn has teamed up with former RNC eCampaign Director Patrick Ruffini to form a strategic communication group called Engage.) Nicholas Thompson from Wired moderated the discussion.

Ms. Godwin's appearance during Q&A was especially timely since the panel and room had been very much abuzz about a document making the rounds among Government 2.0 followers. (Ellen Miller was even waving a copy of it on stage today.)

The document, called "Social Media and the Federal Government: Perceived and Real Barriers and Potential Solutions", is dated December 23, 2008, and was prepared by the Federal Web Managers Council. You can find a copy of the original pdf file on usa.gov, and a forum for soliciting comments has been set up on TechPresident.

A point that emerges from this document, and a theme frequently echoed by the panelists, is the fact that government officials today face a bureaucratic nightmare with regard to using social media applications: there is no single, coherent set of policies governing these activities, and in many cases agencies have created an inconsistent and ad-hoc set of limitations that at best leave the waters murky, and at worst outright prohibit the use of social media tools.

There are scores of new media success stories inside the federal government. But a lack of high-level (i.e., White House) guidance for cabinet agencies has meant a patchwork approach. A few are sprinting forward, some are dipping toes, while others are simply staying on the sidelines.

Today's panel seemed to agree (and indeed, the paper mentioned above explicitly recommends) that there is the opportunity for a huge win if the Obama administration issues clear guidance to provide both the top-cover and the impetus necessary to start transforming the way government uses social media technologies.

I'm willing to bet that the new administration will speak loud and clear on this point. Among Craig Newmark's many quotable moments today, his exhortation that best resonated with the crowd was the call to "free the nerds!"

But as anyone who has ever worked for or with government can attest, there is no monolithic Government. Each agency, and each agency's myriad departments, operate rather autonomously, which can surprise outsiders. An approach that requires every agency and every department to adhere to a single standard or platform will be extremely difficult to implement in practice.

Rather, if the new administration defines bright boundaries and unambiguous ground rules that enable a diversity of approaches to blossom, we might see Government 2.0 can be just that.