A juicy tidbit of info over at the Sunlight Blog and ABC News: Stimulus Bill to go Web 2.0?

They’re planning a Google-like search function to show every program funded by the stimulus package, whether it comes in under or over-budget, whether it is meeting its intended purpose, and how many jobs it is creating.

Sounds interesting! Let's hope they follow through.

Mark Drapeau, a fellow at the Center for Technology and National Security Policy, writing for PBS' MediaShift blog:

Behind every press release, web page, and social networking account is a person. But when people "hide" behind organizational brands, it reduces the authenticity and transparency that people -- citizens, customers, fans -- have become accustomed to seeing in the Web 2.0 world. New social tools and niche communications can empower people to connect with their audiences on a more personal level through what has been termed "ambient awareness" or ambient intimacy.

Read the whole post. Found via FCW Insider.

The current Middle East crisis has received wide publicity via web 2.0. It is certainly a new way of reaching out to the international audience. Recently, there was an article in CNN about Israel’s attempt to influence the global public opinion through YouTube and Twitter. The Israel Defense Forces Spokesperson’s Unit has uploaded several videos of the crisis on YouTube. Likewise, the Israel Consulate in New York held a “Citizen’s Press Conference” on Twitter on Dec. 30, 2008. While Israel is busy in engaging the international community’s attention, Al Jazeera also has been using Twitter to spread information about the Gaza conflict. For more details, take a look at boingboing.

If you have a question for President-Elect Obama on the subjects of transparency or government information, the next few days are your chance to ask him directly. Or support your favorite open-government organization.

Change.gov has opened Round Two of Open for Questions where registered users get to ask questions and/or rate the questions of others. The first round only lasted a few days and so might this round.

So get moving! And if you see good questions or ask some of your own on government information policy, please leave a comment so like-minded people can follow you.

I joined FriendFeed on Christmas Day and I've already started wondering how it could be used to promote government resources.

One of the things that FriendFeed lets you do is to create "rooms" where items of interest can be shared in various ways, including imported RSS feeds.

So I have built a room I called Talk Back to Uncle Sam. The room takes feeds from Regulations.gov and gov't blogs that accept comments from citizens.

Please have a look at the room at http://friendfeed.com/rooms/talk-back-to-uncle-sam and share items that you find interesting. If you are a FriendFeed subscriber, please consider telling others about the room.

And if you're a fellow documents geek, please consider joining me at FriendFeed. I'm using the handle alaskanlibrarian there.

If you like Twitter, I think you'll enjoy FriendFeed.

Freshmen Lawmakers Bring Wealth Of Tech, Telecom Experience, by Winter Casey, National Journal, Congress Daily, Dec. 8, 2008. [subscription required]

Freshmen lawmakers are not only eager to use the latest technologies to communicate with constituents -- many of them come from tech and telecom backgrounds. Most used some type of new media tool on their campaign pages, and nearly half provided links to online blogs, according to a National Journal analysis. Almost half also linked to YouTube videos, followed by Facebook, Flickr, MySpace, Twitter and Blip.tv sites. A spokesman for YouTube said the company did a lot of outreach to candidates early on.

Change.gov continues to change. Now they seem to be hosting citizen led discussions on selected topics.

They started a discussion on health care this week. The starting point was a video briefing from the health care team followed a few starter questions. As of this writing, there were 44 pages of comments.

Comments default to be sorted by user rating. It appears to be working. The comments I saw at the top of page seemed to be thoughtful posts engaging the questions asked. Posts may also be sorted by date or "last activity." In addition, for hard core policy wonks, there is an RSS feed for new comments.

There is what seems to me personally a reasonable comments policy. The discussion itself is hosted by a commercial third party called Intense Debate.

Browsing around the first few pages, I didn't see comments back from the policy team, but that likely isn't feasible given the amount of comments. But I really appreciate them trying to have a constructive conversation among constituents. Check it out and let us know what you think.

Now if only they'd adjust their copyright policy to make it worthy of a dot gov.

The U.S. Department of State has a channel on YouTube (youtube.com/statevideo and State Department spokesman Sean McCormack has announced a new service they are calling "Briefing 2.0" in which you can post a video to YouTube asking the State Department a question. McCormack says:

The idea is that you would be able to ask questions of me directly by posting video on YouTube.... This should be a lot of fun. I know it's going to be fun for me. I get to hear from the press corps every single day and give them answers. This is an opportunity for me to hear directly from you and for you to hear directly from me with answers to your questions, whatever happens to be on your mind. So give it a try.

The Washington Post covers the story and the first few questions here: What's the Opposite of 'Mainstream'?, By Al Kamen, Washington Post, October 31, 2008; A17.

Thanks and a tip of the hat to Kevin Taglang!

Your opinions are needed! Head on over to USA.gov's Gov Gab Blog and read their latest post on Government and Social Media. They want you to take this survey and let them know what you like in regards to social media (web 2.0) and the government. USA.gov is working on a "strategy to use social media tools to better engage in conversation with the public and to deliver information and services the way you want to get it". So give them feedback and spread the word!

I've caught the widget bug, thanks to Daniel Cornwall, who mentioned on Twitter that he found some nifty EPA Widgets.

So, out of curiosity, I did a search for other Government Agency widgets and widgets that use government information (such as those found on Govtrack.us or the Sunlight Foundation website). I found quite a few but I know there must be more out there.

I've compiled a "government widget guide" at my Gov Docs 2.0 wiki page. Please feel free to suggest others by commenting here or on the wiki page.

I thought it would be nice to have a guide so you can quickly browse widgets that you may want to add to your blog or library webpages. For example, see my Environmental Law guide (a work in progress, mind you) for ideas!

The Sunlight Foundation has a new widget called Capitol Tweets, which updates you every 10 minutes with the latest tweets from members of Congress. It uses Congresspedia’s list of members of Congress who use Twitter.

See also: 'Capitol Tweet' widget follows Congress on Twitter, by Stephanie Condon, CNet, October 6, 2008; and Where is that official government information?, and Government Tweets.

A tip of the FGI hat to GovGab blogger Jacob. He reminded me that this coming week the GovGab blog celebrates its first birthday.

The GovGab blog is brought to you by the same agency that brings us usa.gov, which I find as staggeringly useful as others find the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

To celebrate this first birthday, each of the GovGab bloggers will blog about what the U.S. was like when they turned 1 year old. This sounds like fun. Since I'm subscribed to their RSS feed, I'll get to see every entry. How about you?

Did you know that a number of government agencies offer free ringtones for your cell phone? Here are the ones we know about

• US Federal Agencies
  • Army
    • GoArmy.com Games and Downloads
      http://www.goarmy.com/downloads/ringtones.jsp - Here you *could* get a ringtone of a DI telling you to "drop and give me 20!", but I'd go for the Army Strong theme. I can so see it in many bold action movies.
• US States and Localities
  • Arizona
    • Arizona Fish and Game Department - http://www.azgfd.gov/downloads/ringtones.shtml - Includes ringtones for eagles, elk, wild turkeys, coyotes, rattlesnakes and more
  • Kentucky
    • Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources - http://fw.ky.gov/ringtonedownloads.asp - Want an angry bear to announce you've got a call? This is the place to go! Or perhaps you'd prefer a barred owl or gray tree frog

Need more ringtones? Go to usa.gov and search on "ringtones." One caution, some of the pages, especially from schools, appear to have been spammed. Look for site excerpt featuring complete sentences and a meaningful page title.

Do you have a gov't agency ringtone you'd like to share? Let us know in comments. Ringtones can come from any level of government from around the world, but must be identifiable as an official government agency page!

Did you know that the first announcement of the discovery of ice on Mars was by NASA on Twitter.com? Did you know that the Joint Forces Command and the Office on Women's Health in the Health and Human Services Department are using twitter to announce speaking engagements and deliver medical news and advice?

Did you know that you can receive Twitter messages on your cell phone, or your instant messaging client, or by e-mail, or via other Web 2.0 applications, such as Facebook?

Welcome to the new world of government communication.

• Psst! Are you Twittering yet?, By Heather B. Hayes, FCW, August 25, 2008.

See also Government Agencies Tweet @ Twitter, and Twitter Fan Wiki USGovernment, and Members of Congress who Twitter.

EPA upgrades to Web 2.0, By Kathleen Hickey, GCN, 09/09/08.

The Environmental Protection Agency launched a redesigned Web site today that features Web 2.0 tools. EPA officials said they made the new site more interactive and task-oriented to fulfill the needs of the public and federal, state and local agencies.

The new site features a blog, social bookmarking tools, Really Simple Syndication feeds, videos and podcasts about EPA activities. The site also includes links to information about protecting the environment and improving energy efficiency, recycling and pollution prevention.