Also posted on GovLoop – the premier social network for government.

I just got off an emotional call with David Broadwell, who we are featuring as a special Member of the Week.

Steve posted a blog and sent an email around 1pm yesterday, asking the community to raise $2,500 that would help David build a home in Slovakia, where his wife who has a high grade cancer would like to spend her remaining time raising their 17-month old triplets near family in her native country.

Well, we are amazed and humbled to announce: Within 24 hours, YOU have given exactly $2,500. Adding the GovLoop match at $.50 per $1 from community members, our current, total contribution is $3,750!

I called David to tell him this news and before we got off the call, he got a bit choked up and said, “You guys don’t know how amazing this is. You are really helping someone. I just can’t wait to have a brick in my hand, building this house with her dad and brothers and the kids running around. You guys are helping me to fulfill Antonia’s dream…I can’t believe it’s really going to happen.”

On behalf of David, Antonia and their family…and on behalf of Steve, Megan and the GovLoop team, we are humbled and grateful for your generosity.

Below is a special message from Steve regarding next steps.

Wow!! I’m stunned! Totally blown away.

In less than 24 hours, you crushed our goal of raising $2,500 to help David Broadwell and his wife battle cancer and build a home in Slovakia where their triplets can grow up near family!

I always say that you are awesome and that you are rockstars. But this kind of giving is extraordinary proof! I feel so incredibly humbled and blessed to be part of this community.

In fact, we hit the goal so fast, I was left wondering what to do next! So here’s what I was thinking made sense at this point:

1 - Keep giving, if you’d like. The Broadwell family has a much larger goal ($50K), so you can keep giving if the story moves you to make a donation. We’ll be accepting donations until March 15 as we originally stated. Please use sressler@gmail.com as the email address for your PayPal donation.

2 - Let’s give them a card with your words of encouragement. In addition to presenting the family with a check in a couple weeks, I’d love to give them a virtual card that has your kind thoughts, inspirational quotes or stories of how you’ve battled cancer. You can share your thoughts on the original blog post:

http://www.govloop.com/profiles/blogs/govgives-help-a-govlooper

We can pull all of our encouraging words together in a little ebook (anybody up for helping to create it?) that we can present to the family along with our collective donations.

Ultimately, all I can really say is “Thank You!” You guys are truly awesome!

Humbled and grateful,

Steve (aka Mr. GovLoop)

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Here’s an excerpt:

Most communities have 90% of users who are lurkers – people who may consume things from the community, but who don’t contribute…While it is inevitable that larger communities will end up with 1% of their members being very active users who provide enough value for the 9% of somewhat active users, who together provide enough value for the 90% of lurkers, the largest form of participation in online communities happens to be active lurking, which according to an MIT research study can make up 40-50% of your community membership.

And it struck me that I hate the term “lurkers.”

The word makes it sound like you are engaging in some kind of criminal activity.

Like a flasher or a streaker or a “peeping Tom.”

That’s why I never use that term to describe members of the GovLoop community who choose to review content without commenting or contributing to the conversation.

I prefer the term “readers.”

Why? I think it offers a level of respect and appreciation.

More importantly, it’s not about extracting value FROM you.

It’s about bringing value TO you.<

Now I also believe that every member brings immense knowledge, and I’d love for more members of this community to share their insight and information.

That’s what makes a social network so extraordinary – the diversity of people and the varied perspectives. Toward that end, I heard Chris Dorobek of Federal News Radio once say: ”All of us are smarter than any one of us.”

And it’s true.

It’s also true that sometimes you just want to read what smart people are saying as it informs your opinions and, ultimately, accomplishes GovLoop’s mission of “connecting government to improve government.”

So what do you think? Do you like the term?

Maybe this question will even bring out the lurkers…um, I mean, readers.

————–

Originally published on GovLoop – Social Network for Government.

Because it’s about Twitter.

And you don’t have much space to say something important.

So here’s a quick tip that I believe is the foundation for re-tweetification:

Structure tweets in such a way that you leave at least 10-15 characters for an RT, HT or “via” plus your Twitter handle.

————————

Originally published on GovLoop – Social Network for Government.

You come to GovLoop expecting an answer.

And you get it.

Here’s one example from the last 24 hours:

Brandon asks a question:

Jaime responds within an hour:

I.J. chimes in the next day:

I keep saying that this is like a Google search with a human on the other end…or like Aardvark, but more direct. I’d love for GovLoop to more and more become this kind of go-to resource. You’re on the job and know that you can turn to one another to get help in real time.

If you ever don’t get an answer, be sure to contact me or Steve. We’re spending a lot of time around the site and can probably find people or previous conversations that can get your question answered quickly.

Here’s to helping one another make our jobs easier!

Originally posted on GovLoop – the premiere social network for people in and around government.

If you’re wondering why the Census is not incorporating more technology into its activities, the interview will respond to your questions and concerns. In particular, I had been curious to understand why we aren’t completing our Census forms via an Internet-based portal. Check out this excerpt from the interview to find out:

————————————

FCW: The 2010 Census will be performed with paper forms. Why haven’t you moved to electronic forms yet?

McGrath: The decision to not use an Internet-based capability was made several years ago. Interestingly enough, we are already engaged in Internet-based survey activities. We have 16 surveys that we currently conduct online. About a third of those are leading economic indicators such as manufacturing numbers. So we are in that market. We have 23 additional surveys we are going to deploy online in the next 12 to 18 months.

FCW: But still not for the decennial count? Are there specific challenges to moving from paper to the Web?

McGrath: The big challenge is how do we reach everyone. There will still be some component of a paper-based notification to each household. What we want to move to — and what we’re doing with these other surveys — is some are available exclusively online and others have an option to use paper.

Clearly, there are benefits to being able to ingest the data directly. We can edit the data in a more efficient way through online versus sending out a paper form, so that we can help the participants provide us with more accurate data.

FCW: If it has benefits, when will it happen?

McGrath: Clearly, when we move to 2020, there will be a significant Internet-based component.

FCW: Why is notification such a big hurdle to getting Web-based forms?

McGrath: You live at a particular address. I don’t have a means of getting to you electronically because I may know your e-mail address, but I don’t know that you live at particular address.

So there still will still be some sense of a paper component potentially. I’ve got to send you a document, I’ve got to contact you at your particular address and encourage you to reply online.

In 2020, we may have this massive database where we know where everybody lives and we have an e-mail address where we can send an e-mail, but that doesn’t exist today. That is why today, there is still a paper component.

————————–

What do you think about the current status of the Census and its use of technology?

What are your recommendations for improvement?

How do we overcome the hurdle of reaching everyone – especially people with limited technology access?

Originally posted on GovLoop – Social Network for Government.

“Thank you for your service.”

Some of them seem surprised, or maybe even a bit confused. Others just say “Thank YOU!” in return. I’m sure their normal day includes a significant number of impatient and irate travelers that express a completely different sentiment.

Often we thank our men and women who serve in the military for their heroic activities – and we should!

But I think we should also make it a point to thank everyone who decides to serve their country through public sector employment.

Do you ever get thanked by citizens?

Do you thank your colleagues in other agencies?

I’d love to start a simple movement that begins in airport lines, but burgeons to become a national renewal of public service appreciation that extends to park service rangers and public works employees.

Will you join me in saying this one simple phrase?

Originally published on GovLoop – Social Network for Government

You may also be interested in the OpenGov21 Group as well as these blogs and discussions:

Blog Posts

Open Gov Directive Hits the Streets (in an oh so ironic way)

Open Government is Change Management…On Steroids

Open Government Data and The Great Expectation Gap

Searching Open Government Data in Four Dimensions

How to Create a Rockstar Open Government Leadership Team

Discussion Forums

How Ready Is Your Agency for Open Gov?

How do you define “government transparency?”

You can find all links related to #OpenGov on GovLoop here.