Can Social Media Make Government Work Better?

Living in the information age is a blessing and a curse. We find ourselves spending half of our time searching for specific information in databases and search engines. Our government is comprised of hundreds of agencies, committees, subcommittees, and layers of bureaucracy. To Belt Way outsiders it seems obvious that entities, which cover similar policy areas, should be able to easily communicate and share information. However, on Capitol Hill the obvious is not reality, plans to centralize authority and merge agencies like the Commodities Futures Trading Commission and the Securities and Exchange Commission have foundered on Capitol Hill.

My first thought upon hearing this was, “I thought we learned our lesson with intelligent agency communication failures?” According to Norman Ornstein at Roll Call there are serious turf wars in our government, which contributes to inefficiency and poor policy making. So how do we solve difficulties in finding and sharing information?

Enter, the age of social media and “pedias.”

Intellipedia, the first government “pedia” was introduced in 2004 by a CIA analyst. Intellipedia is a proprietary, Wikipedia-like system set up to enable 16 separate intelligence-related agencies, from the CIA to the FBI, the National Security Agency and various entities in the Department of Defense, to share information, data, theories, insights and ideas in an interactive fashion, and to edit the entries that are put onto the network. There are now tens of thousands of articles on Intellipedia, with hundreds added every week.

Intellipedia is shear brilliance, this simple tool is connecting people across agencies, which would most likely never meet, and allows them to share information vital to our national security. For example, data uncovered by one analyst may be shot down by another, reducing the likelihood of dry holes or actions taken on the basis of faulty intelligence.

For Congress a “pedia” can be created for legislation and be a place where staffers and Members can share policy information.

In lieu of merging agencies and commissions, “pedias” can be created as a medium for information exchange. Social media is allowing staffers, analysts, committee persons, and citizens to participate in policy making. This is not only smart government but good democracy.

In a world of instant communication, we cannot afford for our government to fall behind. Information is everywhere, social media helps us find and utilize the right information. More importantly social media allows us to carry on conversations about security and policy involving any subject matter.

We would love your feedback on the idea of connecting Capitol Hill through social media tools. Does centralizing information through “pedias” work or create more headaches?