Government Technology featured “The Top 10 Government Facebook Pages” on October 14. Govtech’s lists the top Facebook fan pages based on number of people who “liked” them. The top spot surprised me.

Mashable’s Aliza Sherman wrote “4 U.S. Government Agencies Getting Social on YouTube” on October 13. This article reveals how four government agencies are using YouTube.

Code for America lists the cities they will be helping in 2012 in their blog post, “Meet Code for America 2012” by Jennifer Pahlka from October 13. Eight cities are listed, but none from Ohio. Maybe next year…

According to the CSG website: “The Intergovernmental Affairs Committee is the primary policy body for CSG and the primary body setting the federal-state relations agenda for CSG. It is particularly concerned about federalism issues and other issues impacting states’ rights … The mission of the Intergovernmental Affairs Committee is to serve as CSG’s monitoring and advisory arm on major federal issues before Congress and the Administration.”

Congratulations to you, Elizabeth!

The National Archives and Records Administration has a great website for learning about the presidential libraries. Since 1939, the National Archives have been setting up libraries in order to preserve documents and historical materials of each president since Herbert Hoover.

There are 13 libraries in the NARA system, and other libraries that have been established under foundations or state governments. The National Archives site supplies information for visiting the presidential libraries and opportunities to research the presidential documents. You can even listen to the voices of the presidents in these podcasts.

Wikipedia offers the following list of links to the websites of the presidential libraries:

• Presidential Libraries at the National Archives & Records Administration site
• Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library & Museum
• Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Center
• McKinley Presidential Library & Museum
• Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library
• Calvin Coolidge Presidential Library and Museum
• Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum
• Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum
• Harry S. Truman Presidential Library and Museum
• The Eisenhower Presidential Library & Museum
• John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum
• Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library and Museum
• Nixon Presidential Library
• Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library and Museum
• Gerald Ford Library at the University of Michigan
• Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum
• Ronald Reagan Library and Museum
• George Bush Presidential Library and Museum
• Clinton Presidential Center
• George W. Bush Presidential Center and Library

I would be remiss if I did not mention the National Archives’ social media links for Twitter, Facebook, flickr, and YouTube.

Have a terrific weekend, everyone!

State and Federal Communications just wrapped up its 2012 United Way Campaign and it was a success. We are proud to say this is our twelfth campaign for the organization and we are believers in the work they do.

Each year United Way brings in a speaker from one of the agencies they support so that we can see how our contributions go to work in the community. This year we had the privilege of hearing a representative from the Salvation Army speak to us about the vital services they offer in the community and how United Way has been integral in supporting that work.

Each year year State and Federal Communications tries innovative ways to meet our fundraising goal. This year we set up two teams, the Stars and the Stripes. The team with the highest percentage of team members contributing what United Way calls “Fair Share Plus” would win a number of prizes.

The winning team was the Stripes, headed up by IT Business and Operations Analyst Dave McPeek. Congratulations team Stripes!

State and Federal Communications came up with 129% of the target goal that United Way had given us! We are thrilled. Thank you to everyone who so generously contributed.

The Missouri Legislature will consider legislation to cancel the state’s 2012 presidential primary. Here is an Associated Press article that appeared in the Columbia Missourian announcing the possible action: “Missouri to consider abolishing presidential primary.”

According to the article: “Senate President Pro Tem Rob Mayer says his chamber will convene Monday to consider legislation canceling Missouri’s 2012 presidential primary … repealing that law could save the state from spending millions of dollars on a purely symbolic election.”

You can now watch streaming video feed from the U.S. House floor on your mobile device. HouseLive.gov is beta testing the process, which uses Silverlight, Flash, and HTML5. It should be compatible with your Android device, or on an iPhone and iPad.

Alex Howard of Govfresh wrote a great blog about it in “HouseLive.gov embraces open format to bring live video to mobile devices” on October 11.

U.S. House Speaker John Boehner’s blog made the announcement about it here: “House Floor Now Streams to Your Mobile Device via HouseLive.gov” by Don Seymour.

The Economist reported on a recent study by the analysis firm Strategas, which says companies that spend more on lobbying do better over time on the S&P 500.

Here is the article in the Economist: “Money and politics: Ask what your country can do for you” from October 1, 2011.

Brad Plumer also covered the story in “The outsized returns from lobbying” from yesterday’s Washington Post.

TechPresident’s article “How Campaigns’ Use of Facebook Data Might Change the 2012 Election” by Nick Judd explores the role Facebook may play in the 2012 presidential election.

The social media platform not only provides a good civic space for broadcasting political messages, but Judd discusses how services like NGP Van can use Facebook friend lists to find precisely targeted audiences for campaign messages.

In “The Week Ahead in Congress,” Donny Shaw  from Open Congress gives us this week’s agenda for U.S. Congress and the legislation that is being considered.

From Govloop: Christopher Whitaker discusses the ten app winners in round two of the contest where people write helpful apps using open government data from the city of Chicago. “Chicago Apps Contest Round II: Community Apps that bring the civic awesomeness”

From the Washington Post: Marjorie Censer writes about a new government contracting trend in here article “Federal agencies turn to contractors for social media help.”

The American League of Lobbyists website posted a new Lobbyist Certificate Program opportunity – “Effective Communications: Congress and the Media – A Lobbying Certificate Program Session with Media and Issue Ad Experts.” The session will discuss how to use social and traditional media effectively and  how to get a high return on your efforts.

From the Evansville Courier and Press: Ellie Price describes IN.gov’s use of QR codes to bring traffice to government websites in “Indiana to take smartphone plunge.”

Each week the U.S. House Office of the Clerk gives “Historical Highlights” and today it remembers how 93 years ago the country was facing a flu pandemic. The House and Senate decided to close the public galleries.

The Office of the Clerk gives us an idea of the scope the problem: “According to some modern estimates, more than 50 million persons perished worldwide in the 1918–1919 outbreak; most sources attribute 500,000 or more deaths in the U.S. alone to the Spanish flu. Washington, D.C., swelled by an influx of government workers during the First World War, was particularly hard hit.”

They reported that there were 400 deaths in D.C. during the second week of October, and 730 deaths the week after that. A number of House members were absent from the session and action had to be taken.

U. S. Rep. Henry Rainey (D-Ill.) said, “Mr. Speaker, it is matter of common knowledge that an epidemic of alarming proportions is prevailing throughout the country. … Out of an abundant precaution the Senate has ordered the galleries closed, which action, I understand, meets with the approval of the medical authorities, and so I ask unanimous consent that the Speaker be instructed to close the galleries of this House until further action shall be taken by the House.”

The motion was approved without objection, and the House and Senate galleries were closed and were not reopened until November 4.

I saw this item on Eric Brown’s Political Activity Law blog.

YouTube is now the place to watch the latest political videos with its new YouTube Politics Channel. According to YouTube’s blog, “The new YouTube Politics site will feature the latest campaign ads, parodies, gotchas, and speeches, offering you a 360-view of the election.”

YouTube Politics follows in the footsteps of other Google projects that touch upon politics and elections, such as YouTube News and YouTube Town Hall. Of course since it is YouTube, you will be able to follow each candidate to see how they are doing by seeing their stats – how many video views they have had, how many subscribers, and the quality of the comments they receive.

YouTube’s blog offers this announcement in honor of the event: “YouTube.com/Politics: Tracking the 2012 election campaign through online video” and here is Politico’s coverage of the launch: “Google to Launch YouTube Politics” by Jennifer Martinez.

Indiana’s government website, IN.gov, now boasts 1 million registered users – people who receive emails, text messages, and RSS feeds from the site. IN.gov links to 82 state agency websites and there are 1600 topics to which anyone can subscribe.

Govtech.com reports today about the landmark in the article “1 Million Users Register for Indiana Digital Updates” by Sarah Rich. The article says, “According to Indiana, the state is the first in the country to reach 1 million registered users through GovDelivery.”

It is easy to see why In.gov is such a success. The site is clean, nice-looking, and easily navigable. You can readily find social media links, a subscription menu, transparency information, links for offering suggestions and sending email, and even a QR code.

I couldn’t help but be impressed with the degree to which Indiana’s Office of Technology has done its homework. They have analyzed the usage of the website by monitoring whether the agencies are releasing information regularly for each subscription topic and whether anyone is subscribing to the feed. If not, the topic is removed. They have determined the program has saved them over $200,000 in costs by reducing the need to print and mail information.

State and local governments, take note!

The outage will occur in the afternoon while we make some upgrades.

Thank you for your patience. We appreciate our many readers!

Business experts gave their evaluation of the effectiveness of government apps in Nextgov.com’s article “Government apps: Learning from industry” by Joseph Marks. The article highlights some apps you may not have heard of – an informational app from the Smithsonian, a Post Traumatic Stress Disorder app from the Veterans Administration, and a baby naming app from the Census Bureau, and many others.

Marks discusses the experts’ criteria for their grading, the growth of government use of mobile apps, and some current trends  to watch.

Here is an interactive infographic showing the results of the grading.