UPDATE: govloop's reach is broader than I thought, updated title.
Hey, the folks at GovLoop.com are working together to provide better services for the American people.
The Obama administration has freed and inspired a lot of people who want to do a better job, and part of that involves getting organized via the Net.
Steve Ressler explains in 10 Reasons I created GovLoop what the deal is. Here's a few of them:
4 - Break Down Silos - Government can easily be siloed. You can be stuck in your agency. Your community (HR, IT, Policy, etc). Or only talk to only one sector of government (federal, state, local). But I noticed in my participation in conferences, there were a lot of great ideas and action going on in a wide range of places. However, they often did not know about each other but would always be excited when they could make the connections and learn from each other. Hopefully, GovLoop will break down some silos and increase sharing across all levels.3 - Outlet for Ideas - Most people who work in the gov't community are passionate about public service. Additionally, they have a lot of ideas on improving government. However, these ideas may not always have a voice at your agency. This could be due to your organization structure, budget constraints, or. GovLoop offers an outlet for people to share their ideas from the inside on how to improve government. I think Kriste stated this perfectly in the comments here.
1 - Open Up the Community - Great ideas come from everywhere. However, a lot of the places where the gov't community connects and discusses ways to improve government have geographical and time constraints. As I attended more of these events, I thought more about the gov't employee who couldn't attend events after work activities as they had to pick up their kids. Or all the govies outside of D.C. who couldn't attend these events. Or have funding to attend these great conferences elsewhere. Or the just retired fed who lives in NC but would still like to share his/her ideas. Or the academic/student living in Madison or Lawrence. GovLoop opens up the community and eliminates these restrictions (you just need Internet).
Note the last theme, which another way of saying "a culture of participation."
This is one more movement where people in government, immersed in Net culture, are working to make things better.