Have you ever wondered why there’s no ocean.gov? This is a valuable and easy to remember URL that the government doesn’t currently use. And it should, for we all depend on the ocean for the very air we breathe.

When I was at NOAA, it was explained to me that there’s no web site at ocean.gov because no one agency or part of government “owns” the ocean. Lots of federal and state agencies have jurisdiction and interest in what goes on in the watery realm. Doing something with ocean.gov would require cooperation and agreement among the numerous governmental entities which all have a stake in the ocean. Creating ocean.gov would require a web manager with the patience of Job and the diplomatic skills of, well, I don’t know, to get all the various ocean-related partners on the same page. Which is why it’s never been done.

Creating a web site at ocean.gov is not inconceivable, however. It’s been done on a much smaller scale with the Gulf of Mexico Alliance, developed by my old friends at NOAA. The web site is a remarkable example of cooperation among state, federal and regional organizations in furtherance of a shared goal. Containing reports, publications, contact information, background materials and much more, the site demonstrates that it is possible to bring diverse partners together to build a web site around a common goal.

My modest proposal is to create a blog, in the style of EPA’s Greenversations, at ocean.gov

The ocean.gov blog would be like a daily email from a friend, letting them know what their government is doing to protect our ocean. And, like an email exchange with a friend, the public can interact with the blog by leaving comments and asking questions.

The objectives of the blog would be:

1. To communicate the importance of a safe, healthy and productive ocean.
2. To highlight interesting and relevant ways all levels of government are helping to protect the ocean.
3. To build conversational relationships with key influencers and the general public.
4. To test ocean-related messaging to discover what works.

Every day, across hundreds of governmental web sites, a wealth of information about the ocean is published online. This includes:

1. Press releases
2. Reports
3. Published data
4. Conference presentations
5. Articles
6. Photos
7. Video news releases
8. Statements
9. Email updates
10. Media stories

However, there is no one place to easily find this information – you would need to be an expert in government organization to even know all this information existed. What’s needed is a daily guide to the relevant information published by government every day, written by expert communicators who know the subject matter. Like with Greenversations, a variety of communicators could be asked to contribute, drawn from a wide range of federal, state and regional government.

A blog is a perfect solution to this problem. Blogs are easy ways to publish information online, without much technical knowledge. Custom editorial workflows and permissions are flexible and can easily be adapted to requirements. An editorial board could oversee the blog and develop editorial guidelines.

Ocean.gov would serve as a spot for the general public to find out what the government is doing to protect oceans and coasts. The main job of the ocean.gov bloggers would be to link to relevant and timely information and provide context for that information. For example, during hurricane season ocean.gov bloggers could link to reports on increased coastal populations and why more people than ever need to be hurricane aware. Or, if a state published a report on a particular stretch of coast, the blog could link to the report, provide an overview and supplement the report by linking to news coverage and including comments from readers.

Call me crazy, but if we can have a weather.gov, why not an ocean.gov?

Note: this also appeared on govloop.com.

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Like a lot of Web innovators, the Obama campaign did not invent anything completely new. Instead, by bolting together social networking applications under the banner of a movement, they created an unforeseen force to raise money, organize locally, fight smear campaigns and get out the vote that helped them topple the Clinton machine and then John McCain and the Republicans.

Obama’s use of Facebook, Twitter, Meetup and other tools is well-known.  By successfully using these tools, he’s created an online mass movement and a personal brand.  The challenge he faces now is to implement his ideas across a federal government frequently mired in outdated policies and procedures.  While both the McCain and Obama campaigns used every online tool available to them, the federal government is filled with restrictions on Web 2.0 technology, due to privacy regulations, Congressional intervention and IT security concerns.  For example:

1.  Cookies.  The use of persistent cookies on federal web sites is strictly limited by an eight-year old policy developed by the Office of Management and Budget.  Young Obama supporters may not remember the Cookie Controversy of the millenial era.  The policy lists a number of conditions which must be met before cookies can be used, including obtaining the permission of the agency head.  Due to the controversy over cookies, and the strict regulations regarding their use, cookies are very rarely used by government sites. 

Why do cookies matter?  You need cookies to accurately measure usage of your site with tools such as Google Analytics.  Cookies are also used for personalization.  Here’s a good explanation:

A “cookie” is a tiny text file that we store on your computer to customize your experience and support some necessary functions. We also use cookies to better understand how our visitors use our site. Our cookies contain no Personal Information and are neither shared nor revealed to other sites. We do not look for or at other sites’ cookies on your computer.

This nice explanation on why cookies are used comes from… the Barack Obama web site and their privacy policy.

2.  Arbitrary Bans on Operating Systems.  The trend in many workplaces is to let the employees have the tools they need to do their jobs.  This is not always the case in government.  Some IT shops in government think Macs aren’t secure.  Some don’t like Vista.  Nearly all IT departments want to implement a common system configuration.  Everyone gets the same machine with the same software, no matter if you’re a writer or a web developer.  To be fair, this is true in most large organizations.  IT departments want to make their jobs easier by standardizing on the same equipment. Yet, the rest of the world is moving toward an ecosystem of operating systems rather than one to rule them all.

In contrast, the Obama campaign was described as being “open-source.”  They used the tools they needed to get things done, whatever they were.  Case in point – this photo of Joe Biden with a MacBook Air, captured on election night, a picture which I bet is hanging in the cube of many a beleaguered Mac fan in government.

3.  Bans on PHP.  PHP is essential to Web 2.0.  Without PHP, you cannot use WordPress, the best blogging tool out there.  Yet, PHP, is banned in some (but not all) government agencies due to security concerns.  This concerns are not without merit, for government sites and the Obama and McCain sites were subject to cyberattacks originating out of China.  

However, I want to say “yes we can” to making WordPress secure for government.  After all, http://www.barackobama.com/index.php obviously uses PHP.

4. Firewalls.  In this day and age, the concept of firewalls limiting what employees can see on the Internet seems outdated and silly, like attempts to ban books.  Yet, firewalls prevent many federal employees from using Web 2.0 tools to communicate with the public.  For example, the Departments of Interior, Energy, Homeland Security, and Veterans Affairs all block access to YouTube, MySpace and other tools.  So, if I’m an evil-doer, I can organize my group on MySpace and no one from Homeland Security will know?

Often, these firewalls prevent officially-sponsored government Web 2.0 efforts.  For example, an agency may have an island in Second Life, designed to educate the public.  Yet, a demonstration of the features of the island requires a visit to a coffee shop with wifi, a free and open place outside the agency firewall.

This is just a fraction of the internal barriers within government that have blocked many Web 2.0 efforts.  Despite this, government is filled with committed folks trying to get things done, despite the hindrances.

What will happen when Obama campaign staffers move into political positions within the federal government?  They will have come from an open, risk-taking environment free of the types of restrictions listed above.  As political appointees, they will want to put Obama’s stamp on government and change agency priorities and objectives.  

What’s coming is a generational and technological clash, as members of the Obama online movement collide with government managers bound by rules and regulations.  The best result of this conflict would be that outdated restrictions are thrown out and that government would fully adopt the principles of Web 2.0. Millions of supporters used online tools to participate in the Obama campaign.  They will expect to use these same tools to be part of an Obama administration.

Note: this article was republished with permission on epolitics.com.

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Here’s what interested me this week:

How to Shoot Events
I was an event photographer last night for Art-O-Sound at Artomatic.  (Pictures coming soon.)  This post had some good advice about taking photos without being a jerk.

Just a Govy
Getting government to adopt the social media tools that the rest of the world uses is really painful and difficult.  Allies from other agencies are needed.  Hence, I was thrilled to add Just a Govy to my blogroll.

.Gov Sites Should Focus on RSS, XML
The controversial ArsTechnica article that states that government web sites should ditch design and context and just serve up raw data in open formats. 

The Butterfly Pavillion
Go see this if you’re in DC!  Beautifully delicate butterflies fly all around, landing on shoulders, heads, everywhere.  You’re even checked on the way out to see if any errant butterflies are clinging to your clothes. 

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I’ve been a judge for the DC Shorts Film Festival.  Am I more of an expert than you are on short film? Possibly.  Am I more knowledgeable and astute than a vast crowd of film buffs?  No, of course not. When it comes to judging short films, festivals are limited by the number of judges that can be recruited who will actually show up to watch and review films on cold weeknights when you’d much rather stay at home and watch American Idol than sit through some 17-minute long experimental work on the depressing urban landscapes of Flint, Michigan.

So, I say, the more the merrier. I think people who will bother to go to a site, watch the films and then judge them will be pretty fair. They’ll also be motivated to go to the festival. After all, they helped program it! This is a great way of getting more attendees by making people feel a sense of ownership for their local festival.

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