US Government Gets Social

US Government agencies can now officially use YouTube, Flickr, Vimeo, and blip.tv to interact and communicate with citizens. After nine months of negotiations with these popular social network sites, the General Services Administration (GSA) announced that the government has signed agreements with these companies that will allow federal agencies to officially post content to these sites. The new agreements resolve legal concerns associated with many standard terms and conditions that pose problems for agencies, such as liability limits, endorsements and freedom of information, GSA officials said. The GSA is negotiating with MySpace and Facebook, too. GSA has already determined that Twitters Terms of Service is in line with federal requirements. Why is the federal government on YouTube?

"We need to get official information out to sites where people are already visiting and encourage them to interact with their government," said GSA Acting Administrator Paul Prouty. “The new agreements make it easier for the government to provide official information to citizens via their method of choice.”

You can read the details at articles in NextGov and Federal Computer Week, including why the GSA determined the need for the special agreements.