GovLoop – A Nest For Public Sector Workers

GovLoop (www.govloop.com), also popularly known as the “Facebook for government”, is the premium social network for more than 22,000 people in and around government across the world. Federal, state, local and international public sector personnel connect and collaborate through blogs, forums, groups and many more web-based tools.

Launched in June 2008, GovLoop.com is becoming the place where over 8,500 federal, state and local government employees connect to share best practices and ideas to improve government. There is tons of great information on the site. Members range from city managers, county CIOs and municipal public affairs officials to federal senior executives, public policy professors and brilliant new government innovators.
A few of the groups on the site are: Acquisitions 2.0, Human Resources, Open Source Software and Communications Best Practices. Additionally, members post openings at their work so it is a great place to find new opportunities and recruit new staff. Furthermore, GovLoop has expanded into other additional mediums with a Twitter feed (@govloop) and a Gov 2.0 Podcast (gov2radio.com) with guests including Tim O’Reilly and TweetCongress.
The site was started by Steve Ressler, an information technology specialist at Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and co-founder of Young Government Leaders. Socially relevant topics find most popularity in this site and their updates are sent to the members subscribing to them; the topics ranging from local parks and road closures to info on major national health issues such as the H1N1 outbreak. With more than 22,000 members, GovLoop has become the most powerful space for people working in and around government to collaborate, socialize and support each other in an effort to make government better.

Because GovLoop’s membership is limited to public sector employees, new users are required to enter their current title and government agency or organization during the sign up process. That information is then added to your GovLoop profile page, where you can update your current status, upload photos, and add extra text boxes. Like other social networking sites, GovLoop lets you browse members, add friends, and join groups related to common interests or geographic location.

The site is best suited to:

• Make connections with other politicians in your local area
• Search through public sector jobs openings
• Get ideas you can use at work
• Find out about an upcoming conference or workshop event

Users who are interested in attending conferences and workshops can find extensive listings of upcoming events on GovLoop, while anyone with wisdom to share can post a blog entry for other members to see. While GovLoop may not be the largest social networking site around, its targeted membership makes it a worthwhile and valuable tool for anyone interesting in working for a government agency.

Related articles:

• Local authorities should embrace social networking (computing.co.uk)
• Delivering the Loop of Government (ariwriter.com)
• GovDelivery Acquires GovLoop (centernetworks.com)