Another White House score: GSA’s Bev Godwin… and insights on why there is an announcement backlog

Bev Godwin

The White House made some significant appointments — Vivek Kundra to be the OMB administrator of e-government and information technology, and Google’s Katie Jacobs Stanton to be the administration’s director of citizen outreach. And there is another score reported first by Candi on Content but confirmed: Bev Godwin, who has been at GSA Director of USA.gov and Web Best Practices at General Services Administration will be the director of online resources and interagency development on the Obama administration’s new media team.

Godwin is a real star who really understands the challenges that agencies face with many of these new technologies. She is part of the remarkable team that makes up WebContent.gov , which is a remarkable collaboration of people working to share information about how to use Web 2.0 technologies. (I’m always impressed when people working on collaboration actually collaborate to solve the issues they have. What a fantastic way — and a safe way — way to learn.) Two of their best documents are the Federal Web Managers’ white paper for the Presidential Transition team, Putting Citizens First: Transforming Online Government, which I have posted after the break, and the wonderful Barriers and Solutions to Implementing Social Media in Government, which I have posted here.

Why the lack of announcements coming from the White House? One former OMBer told me that it is likely because of that pesky OMB deputy director of management (DDM) vacancy. We all remember that Nancy Killifer pulled her DDM/chief performance officer nomination over a tax problem — foolish, in my opinion, but… I’m a distinct minority on this one. Regardless, the issue: Can you announce the other people without announcing the performance person?

So how quickly will a new performance person be named?

Here is a CJD suggestion — Marcus Peacock. Yes, Peacock has spent years with the Bush administration, but there are few people who have a more keen knowledge of the performance issues — and have used new technologies to make it happen. He’s had this Web 2.0 think for a long time. And, given the Judd Gregg situation, the administration seems to be in search of a Republican…

After the break, read the “Putting Citizens First” report.

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