Local government officials had mixed views about how they see Web 2.0 meshing with their needs.
Mary Benner, CIO of the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry, called it "something that we need to pursue, but it is not an immediate priority."
While Web 2.0 can help residents communicate better with their governments, she said, offering those kinds of features is becoming a key way to lure younger IT workers to take jobs in government where they can build innovative Web 2.0 applications.
"They use it everyday at colleges," Benner said of the next generation of IT workers. "That's their way of communicating. If we don't offer those technologies, they will see us as being in the dark ages."
More Web 2.0 integration will happen over the next one to three years inside her department, Benner said, as interest and demand builds from residents. A handful of residents have already communicated their interest in features such as live chat with agency officials, she said, and those requests are being evaluated. Security, privacy, use and other policies need to be established to make it work, she added.
Michael Gallagher, a newly elected township supervisor in Newtown Township in Bucks County, said he started his own Web site and blog to better communicate with residents. "I ran on a platform of opening the lines of communication," he said.
Gallagher, who is a software developer, said he'd like to see the township look at Web 2.0 applications to better serve its residents. One problem is that there are only two full-time IT staff members in the township offices and they are there to maintain the system's servers and other tasks. But "the public is asking for more communications," he said.
Not everyone is ready to jump onto the Web 2.0 for government bandwagon, though. Ron Mont, an application developer with the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development, said Web 2.0 features can be great, but he's not sure where they can benefit residents across the board. Mont said he's specifically not sure there are beneficial ways to use such technologies in his department.
Part of the problem, he said, is that security and privacy issues with data maintained by the state would be hard to reconcile with Web 2.0 features that could endanger the data if it were accessed by hackers entering through Web 2.0 applications.
Another problem, he said, is that department policies on Internet use often preclude using YouTube.com and even Google Earth because of security and licensing issues. That can stymie many potential Web 2.0 uses, he said.
"I don't do anything virtual world," Mont said. "I don't have time for that. My day is filled with building applications that are mandated by my higher-ups."
In Pennsylvania, he said, a more important IT focus could be getting all government agencies onto the same hardware and software platforms to increase productivity and system integrity. Some agencies are still using Windows 98, while others use Windows XP, while various agencies have different versions of key applications. "I think the biggest issue is not Web 2.0, but getting all these agencies on the same page."