There’s been a great, well-documented explosion in social media from blogs to new networks, yet there’s one great domain that’s never taken off: The federal arena. Some developments in the federal marketplace make me believe new media is close to taking off.

Most blogging and new media efforts in the public sector have revolved around elections or third parties commenting on the government’s policy from their living rooms. These so-called “citizen journalists� have fractured in scope from popular commentary about mainstream policies to social issues as specific as eco-friendly conservatives. But Inside The Beltway, I think most of us look at these efforts as societal and outside of the establishment.

Inside the Beltway, for the most part it’s still hush-hush. But that’s starting to change. There have been several pioneers who have started blazing the trail, and though their efforts have seemed like faint lights in the dark night, they may be joined in the future by bloggers throughout the government, as well as in the contracting establishment that serves the constituency.

Barriers to Entry

There are several reasons why the public sector marketplace has not been quick to establish a social media culture. Some may seem obvious, others are not. Here are my thoughts:

1) The government’s conservative culture makes it slower to adapt to technical innovation anyway, a normal two year lag seems to occur. For example, right now IPV6 is a very big deal in government.

2) Media disasters like AT&T’s NSA record scandal and bad implementations such as the FBI’s Trilogy project have made the establishment absolutely close-mouthed. And no, it’s not because the government’s “doing wrong.� We have a culture Inside the Beltway that’s afraid to have any errors highlighted because they almost always seem to erupt into a scandal of national proportions. Google Earth CTO Michael Jones really hit the nail on the head on this topic during a very controversial speech at the Management of Change Conference in Richmond on Monday night.

This has stifled innovation, and further public disclosures via blogging are a nightmare in most administrators’ eyes. How can they, when almost anything they say can be misconstrued and blown out of proportion into a scandal? Then consider all of the outside-of-the-beltway, anti-“Big Brotherâ€? bloggers who would feed this fire. This has muzzled would-be blogs.

3) The war has installed a culture of fear throughout the sector. Consider, the Army’s decision to shut down milbloggers and their families. This was a PR mistake, as milbloggers were a great source of public sympathy for the war. Stifling their voices hurt the army. Nevertheless, there’s swift punishment in Washington for those that buck the Bush yoke. A job is more valuable than a blog.

4) Lastly, the association of scandal with blogging. This goes beyond projects outlined in #2. Consider that one of the government’s first blogging experiences was soon-to-be Playmate Jessica Cutler’s expose of intern love on Capitol Hill via the blog Washingtonienne. Do I need to say anything else? By the way, did anyone else note that Ms. Cutler filed for bankruptcy this week?

What’s Changing

But now the federal market’s starting to change. There are several drivers that have helped make new media a more reasonable option.

1) There have been several pioneers that have shown blogging and new media represent reasonable platforms for discussion. None of these people have fallen into a dark chasm or have lost their sources of income, either. They are:

• Steve Field’s D-Ring, written a former Pentagon spokesperson, looks at new media and its impact on the Pentagon, its four services and their supporting agencies. Critical at times? Yes. Fair? As fair as a blog can be, but it still has a voice, and that’s why it works.
• Chris Dorobek’s FCW Insider goes as far into blogging as a journalist can. Chris says what he thinks a lot, and this has earned respect. I am sure Chris’s blogging could explore a little more, but he is editor of the leading federal tech. book, and journalist blogs tend not to be able to go as far into opinion as they may like, in large part due to the masthead. In general, the FCW/1105 family of blogs have helped socialize blogging to the contracting community and the federal establishment.
• Matt Raymond, director of Communications at the Library of Congress has probably the first agency specific public information blog. He does a nice job, blogs regularly every week, inspires comments, and yes, he still has a job.
• Alice Marshall’s Presto Vivace, a PR and marketing blog, has also done nice job highlighting events and occurrences in the federal space. She really understands her market and shows it.

2) In addition to pioneers, one of government’s primary missions remains collaboration internally to better serve citizens. This lends itself to adapting Wikis, blogs and social media to better serve the country. As a result, several agencies are inquiring about and looking at blogs as information sharing resources to facilitate best practices and dialog. Transparency to the outside world may not occur (yet), but expect to see significant progress internally over the next 12 months. Several government contractors have already established similar inside-the-company blogs and wikis.

3) Public Information is another core function of the government. I recently consulted with one agency that was looking at a blog to disseminate information to the general public, in a similar fashion to the Library of Congress blog. As they election progresses and more and more successes occur online, look to public information officers to move towards “official� agency blogs. If the Democrats win, acceleration will occur as they are by far more progressive with new media.

4) Lastly, an establishment insider is likely to start a blog that will really cover the marketplace. Look for at least one of the journalists spurned in the recent market-specific media shake-ups to start a blog that will cover the market in a serious fashion. An unrestrained journalist seems ideal to do this, and I’ve talked to two who are considering it.

With all of this momentum, it’s hard to imagine the sector staying quiet on the blogging front much longer.

Hear more of Geoff’s thoughts this Friday at 2pm on WFED 1050 AM in Washington - simulcast on www.FederalNewsRadio.com on Amtower’s Off-Center Observations . The topic this week is Big Bang for Small Bucks: Blogging in the Government Market. Other guests include Alice Marshall and Debbie Weil.