Uncle Sam Is So Anti-Social

Social networking sites have become powerful tools for connecting people. Whether it's a party, political event, or a business deal, people are increasingly getting it done through FaceBook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Some workplace technologies, like SharePoint, have social tools to enhance collaboration. Status updates are replacing group emails, and it's starting to be difficult to know what's going on without logging on.

The federal government, however, is adopting social networking and Web 2.0 at a snail's pace. A few agencies, like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), are at the forefront of government use of social networking. Many other agencies, however, severely limit or even forbid their people from using these new tools in any official capacity. Instead, government workers are posting commentary and information unofficially and creating the same kinds of information conflicts the outright ban was levied to avoid.

Certainly, the government has a duty to protect some information like internal operations, personally identifiable data, and classified material. I'm pretty sure they have laws, rules, and policies to cover this stuff already. Does the medium really matter? Isn't distributing classified material already illegal?

These bans are a lot like the bans some states enacted on using a cellphone while driving. Distraced driving laws are already on the books; we don't have to cover every single distractive act a driver can commit. In fact, the more that laws against activities like text messaging get passed, the weaker the general distracted driving law gets. It's a vicious circle; as the overarching law weakens, legislatures feel compelled to pass dozens of mini-laws to cover it. By the same token, singling out a particular technology to ban implies that the others are somehow OK to abuse.

Web 2.0, including social networking, is simply a different way to communicate. It should be governed by the same information policies that regulate email, phone calls, and dinner party conversation. If the answer is not banning or policy changes, what is it? Training. How about allowing official use of Web 2.0 technology to communicate with the public after a review of established guidelines and practical training in their application? In other words, why not teach government workers about appropriate use of Web 2.0 instead of pushing it underground? Then discipline or dismiss the offenders without shutting out everyone else.