Welcome to America 2.0…

With the inauguration of Barack Obama today in Washington, Web 2.0 has really come of age.  From the very first moment the campaign started for President, the use of Social Networking stood out from campaigning methods of old – and it delivered.

There is no going back now, Governments around the world have sat up and taken note.  No election is going to be fought without the use of Web 2.0 to help herd the populous into the voting booth. 

However, not meaning to dampen the Gov 2.0 fire but we also need to understand why the Obama campaign was such a Web 2.0 success, and where it can be used elsewhere successfully.  The main reason was that people wanted to engage, they wanted to feel a part of the campaign, they felt proud to be part of it.

Elections are one thing, but they are a once in a 4 year event – nothing like the day-to-day running of Government.  That is going to take more thought to get Web 2.0 working effectively.  The underlying problem is that people do not generally like talking to Governments, depending on the statistics the average times a citizen communicates with their Government is about 1.3-1.5 a year.

Gov 2.0 gives a huge advantage to people who want to interact to Government.  A number of UK politicians now tweet as does 10 Downing Street which is great for people who want to know what is going on.  As for engaging with a population… sorry, I don't think most people care that much about the day-to-day working of Governments; compared to elections it is really dull.

Take for example https://www.togetherforlondon.org/, a Social Networking site created by Transport for London so that people can create an account, choose an avatar, discuss and feedback on issues with transport in London.  The press is already starting to smell failure as the site has been running for a few months and has only had 113 discussions and 176 campaigns.  But lets be honest, a social networking site to discuss transport issues…

Facebook, MySpace and Twitter have all taken off because they are social, people like to interact with their friends and they can benefit professionally as well.  The Obama campaign was so successful because people wanted to engage with it.  Other sites like LinkedIn work not because people want to interact with their colleagues but because it provides a service.  Governments need to understand that Social Networking will only work for them when people want to interact, or because it offers a services that people can benefit from.