Evolution of Security is the blog of the Transportation Security Administration and the most popular Government blog I have seen, with most recent posts averaging over a 100 comments.

One of the most interesting differences between this and most Government blogs, is the effort that has been made to put a human face on the the TSA. The closest most people get to the TSA is brief conversations with faceless personnel at security checks in airports. So the TSA has made a serious attempt to show the human side of the TSA, all the contributors to the blog have their first name and a bio on the blog. It works, a large number of comments begin, hi name.

The blog has been so successful that one of the regular authors, Bob has moved from his regular job at Cincinnati-Northern Kentucky International Airport to be a full time blogger at TSA headquarters.

So why has the Evolution of Security been so successful in such a short time, it was only launched in January this year. I believe it is a combination of factors, airport security affects a large number of Americans and therefore a large number of people are interested in the subject matter, a well developed and executed a social media strategy which include putting human face on the TSA and this human interaction has lead people to constantly return and regularly comment.

The lesson for anybody about to create a government blog or other social media, make it with real people and let them interact, you will have the public interacting in return.

The report itself is an old school 3.5Mb PDF, it is the contents that are more interesting. In compiling the report, the authors reviewed 618 websites, covering every single House and Senate Member, committee, and leadership websites of the United States Congress.

It is the trends that it reported that make it an interesting read, of the 618 websites:

• 25% offered RSS feeds,
• 56% offered video,
• 11% offered podcasts.

These are fairly interesting statistics given that the websites are not centrally managed, with most managed by staff of the individual Congressman or Senator. It also shows that American politicians are far more internet savy than their Australian counterparts. The web is used as a tool to communicate with their constituents, unlike Australia where with the exception of Andrew Barlett, politicians see it as a repository of media releases, policy statements and videos (both polictical and embrassing, no wonder they want to make the internet safe for children.

My next task is to have a look at the 4 sites, that have consistently earned gold stars for the last 4 reports.

7th Circuit Practitioners Guide Wiki

Hat tip to Anthony D. Williams for this one. Do not know the original source of quotes on Anthony’s post, but they are good.

Chief Judge Frank H. Easterbrook

As a group, the attorneys practicing before our court know more about appellate practice than any single person. With our wiki, we’re drawing on that wisdom.

I would consider legal arms of government and particularly the court system to be one the most risk adverse sections of government. Yet the US 7th Circuit Court of Appeals has used a wiki for their Practitioner’s Guide. From the looks of it, the wiki has been success, a great way of sharing the accumulated knowledge of number of a professional group people.

Quotes came from an article in The Third Branch the newsletter of the federal court.