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President Obama’s use of new media to gain support and raise funds while on the campaign trail, leveraging social media meccas such as Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter, earned him big points with Web 2.0 advocates, but since his presidency began, bringing similar technologies to the federal government has produced a age-old set of challenges. While social media and collaborative technology initiatives are making headway, legal and policy issues currently in place are creating speed-bumps on the road to Whitehouse 2.0.

 

1. Privacy issues such as the use of persistent cookies on federal websites.

 

2. Access for the disabled including usability for the visually and hearing impaired is required by Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act for all federal websites; many Web 2.0 applications are not compliant.

 

3. Commercial endorsements and advertising are prohibited on government websites. Using one social media service over another may be seen as an endorsement, especially if a logo is present. Also the possibility of ad-spam with anything Web 2.0 is a concern.

 

4. Terms of service agreements would have to be modified to meet federal regulations. Most website TOS agreements use state law, rather then federal, to regulate legal disputes. Federal employees and agencies are prohibited from agreeing to such terms.

 

5. The Paperwork Reduction Act requires federal agencies to formally request permission through the Office of Management and Budget to collect information from the public. Also agencies are mandated to comply with public record requirements such as the Presidential Records Act.

 

6. Security concerns and Internet use restrictions block federal staff from accessing social media websites and chat services, which is obviously a problem when trying to implement Web 2.0 into government.

 

Source: Center for American Progress

Here are some of the latest enterprise collaboration product releases…

 

FatWire TeamUp 3.1 launches, streamlining collaboration for the web. TeamUp 3.1 enables team members to work together and share content through social computer features such as wikis, blogs, tags, comments, and more. New features give wikis third party application mashup support, a custom dashboard with a personalized news feed, profiles, and gadgets, along with enhanced rich media management, new admin tools, multi-lingual support, and more.

 

At the 2009 CommunityOne West conference TeamDrive demos a collaboration application for the SunCloud with enhanced security features for enterprise and private customers. The seal of privacy for IT-products and privacy protection audit for public authorities was awarded to TeamDrive by the ULD – Independent Center for Privacy Protection. “Security is a primary concern for companies looking to deploy their critical data to the cloud,” says Juan Carlos Soto, VP of Marketing at TeamDrive.

 

Atlassian releases Confluence 3.0, a simple yet powerful wiki tool that allows teams to create and share documents and rich content. New features include creation of the Plug-In Exchange which gives developers a marketplace for their Confluence plug-ins, along with the Macro Browser which allows plug-ins to be easily embedded into your page. New profile enhancements include on-hover profile summaries when you mouse-over a user’s name, additional options for adding details to your profile, and more control over how you view content within the Profile Panel. Other new additions, commonly found in Enterprise 2.0 offerings, include Activity Streams, Status Updates, and Twitter like user networks where you can follow and be followed.