Frank DiGiammarino, vice president of strategic initiatives and business development, and Lena Trudeau, program area director of strategic initiatives, at the National Academy of Public Administration.
Anthony Williams, vice president at nGenera Insight, a think tank that investigates new business models. He is co-author of the book “Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything” and is currently leading a multimillion-dollar investigation named “Government 2.0: Wikinomics, Government and Democracy.”
Molly O’Neill, assistant administrator and chief information officer of the Office of Environmental Information at the Environmental Protection Agency.
Bev Godwin, director of USA.gov and Web best practices at the General Services Administration.
Federal Computer Week recently reported on various concerns that federal officials had expressed about the government’s use of social-networking technology. When we asked readers for their thoughts — is Web 2.0 worth the risk? — we heard similar apprehensions. So we pulled together a virtual panel of Web 2.0 experts, within and outside the government (see box), and asked them to address the most common concerns and comments. Here is a roundup of the panel’s responses (edited for length).
COMMENT:Web 2.0 threats are for real, and bad guys are using Web 2.0 vulnerabilities to penetrate government networks. Just as with any other technology, it should be used by agencies only after a thorough assessment of the security risk to information and systems.
DiGiammarino/Trudeau: It’s important to acknowledge the security difference between public data/information and issues of national security. There will always be tension between security of information and availability of information. Tension and/or risks should not be reasons to reject the technology but rather motivators to understand the vulnerabilities and adapt proper security measures to address them.
O’Neill: Security is not limiting Web 2.0. As with any new technology, government needs to consider appropriate security controls to ensure that the effort can be relied on in terms of maintaining appropriate data confidentiality, data integrity and availability.
Williams: It’s true that companies are increasingly using Web 2.0 applications, although they too have encountered security problems in the early stages and the business managers who want to deploy these technologies often face resistance from [information technology] leaders. The solution has been for IT leadership teams to bring Web 2.0 apps behind the firewall where they can properly maintain, secure and support them.
Governments can use Web 2.0 securely and a growing number of agencies in the United States and around the world are doing so successfully. Organizations need to realize their workforces already use these tools extensively in their personal lives and will increasingly expect to use them at work.
DiGiammarino/Trudeau: We completely agree. In fact during a recent discussion forum with a group of Young Government Leaders, YGL representatives said that young people will use collaborative tools no matter what. They have grown up with these technologies, and collaborative tools are the best and fastest way young people know to gather and share information.
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