Web 2.0 and Government

A couple of weeks ago, I gave a presentation to the California State Webmasters' User Group on how governments around the world are incorporating Web 2.0 tools into their official (and not so official) sites. It seems to have sparked quite an interest among the state's webmasters. Yes!

One thing I did learn from the presentation is that librarians are some of the most technologically savvy people around. (Don't ask how I learned that...) We keep it pretty quiet. Perhaps it is our desire to get people the information they need in the most efficient manner or to deliver the information to the customer in his or her desired manner. Whatever it is, it certainly prompts us to explore the ways in which technology can be used to do what we do best -- bring people and information together.

Back to government 2.0. It is great to see blogs, rss feeds, tag clouds, video, and podcasts showing up on government sites. I've seen a number of local and federal government agencies on Twitter. And some on Facebook. I wish the Facebook folks would set up a network for those of us who work the state in CA.

It intrigues me that government is also showing up in Second Life -- I had a wonderful time visiting NOAA's Island there. Interestingly, libraries of all sorts have really taken an active role in using virtual worlds to provide services.

Joomla in Libraries

A friend of mine and I were discussing the use of Web 2.0 tools in state government. She mentioned an open source content management system that sounded wonderful -- Joomla. I visited the Joomla website, but wanted to see if any libraries were using Joomla. So I did a Google search and found Joomla in Libraries. On that site, I found a list of libraries using Joomla, including at least on State Library and a National Libraries. Time to spend time on the Joomla in Libraries page to find out more!