Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

GSA Signs Deals For Agencies To Use Social Media

Posted by timothy on from the 1321-messages-from-user-eyearress dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Agencies can now engage with citizens through popular media technologies such as video-sharing service YouTube, using pre-negotiated service agreements that comply with federal terms and conditions. After nine months of negotiations, the General Services Administration signed agreements with four video-sharing and social networking sites: Flickr, Vimeo, blip.tv and YouTube. GSA also is negotiating with the social networking sites Facebook and MySpace. 'We found when we reviewed standard service agreements that they were not a good enough fit for the [requirements] of the federal government,' said Michael Ettner, GSA general counsel."

14 comments

  1. Please disengage by Tokolosh · · Score: 1

    A whole new way for the government to help us.

    --
    Prove anything by multiplying Huge Number times Tiny Number
    1. Re:Please disengage by suitablegirl · · Score: 1

      I'm not sure I understand what you're trying to say; how is this not a good thing? Government needs to be where the citizens are!

    2. Re:Please disengage by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Apparently you did not get the reference to the #1 lie you know when you hear it:

      "I'm from the government and I'm here to help you."

      So I believe the opposite of you, that the government should remain away from me.

    3. Re:Please disengage by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I can possibly see sites like youtube or flickr. But myspace or facebook? The government is not my friend, neither is it yours.

  2. Service guarantees citizenship! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    Would you like to know more?

    1. Re:Service guarantees citizenship! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It was smart of you to post AC, so nobody would know who the dumbbell is that doesn't understand the difference between socialism and nationalism.

      -jcr

    2. Re:Service guarantees citizenship! by Aphoxema · · Score: 1

      I'm doing my part!

      --
      "Most people, I think, don't even know what a rootkit is, so why should they care about it?"
  3. How do they decide which services to use? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    And why aren't they worried about the potential security vulnerabilities? Why should the federal government use YouTube? Can't they come up with their own way to post embedded video? It's not rocket science...

    1. Re:How do they decide which services to use? by shawn(at)fsu · · Score: 1

      Why reinvent the wheel? If youtube lets you host videos for free why should 20 different govt agencies try to do it themselves? And if they are posting public information again it would be better for it to be on someone else's machines. If the agency was hosting on one of their machines the risks would be higher, since they would have to make sure that public facing machine was guarded and secured very well so that if someone found a vulnerability they could access other parts of the network that weren't meant for public exposure.

      --
      500 dollar reward for tip(s) leading to the arrest of the person(s) who stole my sig.
  4. Has to be said... by cromar · · Score: 1

    Wu Tang!

  5. Service agreements. by palegray.net · · Score: 1

    'We found when we reviewed standard service agreements that they were not a good enough fit for the [requirements] of the federal government,' said Michael Ettner, GSA general counsel.

    All your Diggs are belong to the Feds?

    --
    512 MB RAM, 20 GB disk, 200 GB transfer, five datacenters. $19.95/month.
  6. Gotta admit it's probably cheaper... by mdm-adph · · Score: 1

    than the government trying to do it themselves.

    --
    It is by my will alone my thoughts acquire motion; it is by the juice of the coffee bean that the thoughts acquire speed
  7. Excellent! by n3tcat · · Score: 1

    Too bad we still can't get to youtube from within the .mil domain.