Have you heard of GovLoop? It's a place where anyone working in the government community around the world can connect to share ideas, solve problems, and make friends. In less than 1.5 years, GovLoop has gone from an idea to a vibrant community with more than 18,000 members. If you work in government, it is imperative that you join and contribute to this community. You need it and it needs you.

If you work with government and have a passion for continuing to make it better, I hope you'll join GovLoop now and encourage your colleagues to do the same. You won't believe all of the great conversations and resources. For example, is your agency debating whether it needs a social media policy? On GovLoop, one discussion thread on the topic has reached over 65 comments with links to specific examples and real-world advice from practitioners across the world on how they have solved the problem.

Today, I'm pleased to share the news that GovLoop has joined up with GovDelivery to form one company that is focused on doing awesome work with government. GovDelivery's mission is to provide the best possible communications platform to the public sector. GovLoop connects government to improve government. It is a great match, and we're really excited about it.

Why are GovLoop and GovDelivery such an exciting combination?

• GovDelivery serves over 300 government agencies across all levels of government; in 2009 alone, government agencies have already sent over 1 billion messages to stakeholders using the GovDelivery platform.
• We've seen the need for better collaboration across government, but most importantly, we've been a part of the amazing things that can happen when different government agencies work together. The GovDelivery Collaboration Network (an idea brought to us by our clients) has allowed different government agencies to cross-promote their content on GovDelivery so a citizen interested in information from the CDC is also offered relevant updates from NIH, FDA, and FEMA. It's a simple concept, but the results are powerful: the average government agency using the network has seen subscription rates more than double.
• Every day 10,000 - 100,000 new people signup to receive updated information from a government entity using GovDelivery-- 15-30% of the people signing up everyday work in government, the military, or as government contractors (the same groups that participate on GovLoop).

GovDelivery is known for its work helping government improve email communication with the public, but since launching the collaboration network using a simple Web 2.0 mashup concept in early 2008, we've deployed a number of additional social media integrations and innovations including the ability to stream updates into a shareable widget, a share this email capability, and a discuss this email blogging capability.

What we've learned reinforces what we've heard from our clients: social media is most powerful when it creates connections that either improve government, improve citizen access to government, or both. While we will continue to help our clients use the GovDelivery platform to launch content into social media, we believe that, together with GovLoop, we can help create the kind of connections between government people and organizations that lead to enduring and positive change in the governments we serve.

This will be good for our clients, the people in the government organizations we serve, and for the public.

GovLoop and GovDelivery believe that we can work together to help grow the GovLoop community so it becomes even more vibrant than it is today. We also intend to work together to give GovLoop more resources than it has had in the past. Effective immediately, GovLoop President Steve Ressler is working full time on GovLoop and he will be building a team to work with him in support of the community. I encourage you to read what Steve has to say about all of this here.

If you are a current GovLoop member, I personally commit to you that I will do whatever I can to support Steve in making GovLoop even more awesome. Steve is a terrific leader, and his leadership at GovLoop has helped unleash the power of the community. From the time I first met him at Gov 2.0 camp (where he sold me a terrific GovLoop t-shirt), I hoped that I would have a chance to work more closely with him.

I welcome your feedback on this exciting change. You can find me on GovLoop or comment on this blog.

If you are a current GovDelivery client, please take the following steps:

1. Join GovLoop if you have not done so already
2. Join the newly created GovDelivery User's Group in GovLoop where you can share your ideas and seek collaboration with other GovDelivery users and the GovDelivery team
3. Consider starting a GovLoop Group around your government organization and/or relevant topics where improved collaboration with other entities/agencies is needed; there are free groups and premium groups available

Best regards,

Scott Burns
CEO & co-founder
GovDelivery

P.S. You can read the GovLoop press release here.