Growing GovLoop: Once a Passion Project, the "Facebook for Government" Becomes a Business Venture

For all its upsides, working for the public good as a government employee can be a lonely pursuit. Forget the often stressful office spaces, or the pay isn't going to make you rich, or the general sense that the public sometimes doesn't like you very much. What can really drag you down is the feeling of being isolated from other people who are eager to figure out creative ways of doing the business of government extremely well. When Steve Ressler, stationed at the Department of Homeland Security, launched the GovLoop social network over Memorial Day weekend 2007, he found that there were indeed plenty of "govies," as he lovingly calls them, eager to connect with one another.

In fact, over the last year and a half, the GovLoop community, often explained as "Facebook for Government," has grown to 20,000 members. Through GovLoop, government employees -- from those working for the federal government to local government staffers -- and public policy academics and contractors share ideas on bringing the "Gov 2.o spirit" to their own offices, ask one another for help, gossip, commiserate, brainstorm about how they can help create better government, and even ask one another for advice on the tricky question of what the fashionable governmentista wears today. ("A jacket is a must. Nice shoes are a must. Tuck things in. Comb things back.")

The big news today is that GovLoop has been acquired by GovDelivery, a Minnesota-based software-as-a-service company that provides digital communications tools. According to the company, they work with more than 300 government entities, including the Defense Department, State Department, the Department of Labor, HHS, the states of California and Indiana, and the cities of Washington DC and Minneapolis. Ressler will become CEO of GovLoop, and his passion project will become his full-time gig.

From the press release:

What began as a simple idea to improve government through collaboration has already grown on a scale well beyond my expectations and is on a trajectory to become much larger. GovDelivery is an awesome partner to help take GovLoop forward so we can engage more of the government community in more ways to improve government. Already, there are 10 new examples every day of how GovLoop connects people to solve government problems. With GovDelivery, I believe GovLoop can scale so that the community is solving 1,000 government problems daily through collaboration.

Ressler says that he is hopeful that with his new increased focus on the site and GovDelivery's resources, the network quickly scale up to somewhere in the neighborhood of 100,000 members from all areas of government work. Playing devil's advocate, I asked Ressler if the fact that the social hub is now attached to one particular online service vendor might give some people working in government pause before, say, pulling up GovLoop.com while at work. Ressler didn't think so, putting the site in the context of other privately-run resources that government workers already use. "Government employees already connect and collaborate through associations, conferences, and events as a place to get information and ideas from others," he said.

Beyond GovLoop, building a community around government service is turning out to be a idea that many are interested in. The National Journal Group recently launched 3121, a social network and collaborative space exculsive to Capitol Hill staffers in both the House and Senate. And as we reported here, at the recent Gov 2.0 Summit in DC deputy CTO Andrew McLaughlin floated the idea of creating networked profile pages for everyone working in the federal government. If "govies" are lucky, they may find themselves with more than enough opportunities to connect up with like-minded public servents.