It is truly fascinating to watch how fast and how broad the Government 2.0 revolution is spreading globally.
Australia has recently launched it's Declaration of Open Government. The United States launched its Opengov movement earlier this year at the federal level and the White House is already showing the highlights from around the U.S. government.
Japan, Russia, India, Britain, Singapore are all starting to jump into the movement. The Kremlin even has its own Twitter feed. Twitter now has a list of "official accounts" devoted just to leaders of governments.
But Gov 2.0 is not just Twitter; or Facebook or Google. It is a deep understanding that change is happening, and happening because, in part, the people are demanding it. It is an awareness that this change might be unsettling for the very people implementing it. It is something else too. The United States is being given a clear warning shot: this industry is not one to be taken for granted as if it is "ours." These other countries have teams of people and lots of start-ups and Non-Government Organizations (NGO) that are well funded and hungry to capitalize on this good revolution. The growth brings competition. The competition now has the same ability as U.S. start-ups to penetrate these markets. It is the very nature of this industry to be ubiquitous. That is to say, that Web 2.0 in general, and Gov 2.0 specifically, rely in part on the openness and sharing we all use every day.
Entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and others in the United States, take warning now: price matters. So do well funded operations sourced by National governments. The competition may not just be one State away or across the country. It may be staring you down already in a foreign language and you don't even know it yet.