Websites have easy metrics. You tweak the information architecture and you get more hits. But that doesn’t mean you’ve reached more people, much less reached the people who need your information. We should be looking to automate more of the publishing process, for instance, so government web workers can use their time to go where the real parties are.

Of course, the blocking of social sites has to stop. You need to have access to the web in its entirety so you can even find those parties. And then workers have to be allowed to spend time on social sites. You can’t just drop in out of the blue and expect an established community to accept you as a peer!

Like panning for gold, there can be long stretches with no measurable outcome: an empty pan or just a few grains of dust. But every once in a while, you get a nice, big nugget: you share some information and people are excited to get it and come to you for more. Yet there has to be accountability, so we need to learn how to measure and value both the nuggets – the anecdotal success stories – and the gold dust – enhanced reputation and trust.