Social Media is going places and today as we speak, your government is probably thinking about incorporating Social Media into its governance policies and execution. When I first heard this topic, it sounded a bit awkward to me. Because Social Media always resonated with fun, while Government as obviously, quite the opposite. So, the question was, would Social Media and Government turn about to be a Oil in Water exercise ? Looks like its not.

Alex Howard, of O’Reilly Media did a talk recently on “Open Government”, and has shared some interesting facts & analysis about it on his blog.

He says that “Open Government” is a mindset. And cites examples of how the Federal Government of USA have successfully employed the top-down approach with social media services in their campaigns.

According to Wikipedia,

Open government is the governing doctrine which holds that the business of government and state administration should be opened at all levels to effective public scrutiny and oversight. In its broadest construction it opposes reason of state and national security considerations, which have tended to legitimize extensive state secrecy.

The US Government have had several projects opened in the Open Government initiative, meanwhile and is adopting more initiatives as we speak.

Alex, through his presentation goes through the history of Social Media and how things have evolved from the 90′s to the present, which is interesting to see (nice pics there). Also, he talks about how the recent Gulf Oil spill and such examples have been discussed on social media by members of the Government. I wish there were more insights on the risks involved, the potential and possibilities of open-government however, the 49 slides in itself are very informative on a birds eye perspective, with examples of open-government and notable quotes.

Check out presentation here.