Social Networking VARs Will Be Big Winners Under Obama Initiative

That was one of the big Beltway takeaways from a keynote address Monday night at Everything Channel's XChange Government Integrator conference. Titled "Recession? What Recession? How Obama's Open And Transparent Government Will Drive Channel Opportunities," the session was led by Jill Aitoro, senior reporter for Government Executive and Nextgov.com.

Standing before a slide listing the many social networking sites from Facebook to LinkedIn to Slideshare to YouTube, Aitoro told about 100 government integrators at the conference that the time has come for them to help federal agencies take advantage of the social networking milieu.

Aitoro, who has closely monitored the Obama administration's many technology moves, said the General Services Administration has signed contracts with the various social networking sites, opening the door for federal agencies to take advantage of the social networking phenomenon.

"It's time to understand that these [social networking tools] can be used to develop [solutions] for the federal government," said Aitoro. She said the federal government and agencies are going to need help customizing and implementing the various social media services to build more interactive Web sites that drive more communication and collaboration on the Web with U.S. citizens.

She said many federal agencies are in the process of determining how to comply with Obama's open and transparent mandate and are looking at tools like social networking. "They just don't have the skill sets at this moment in the federal agencies to provide the kinds of services that the administration is talking about," Aitoro said. "A lot of these agency Web sites are still relatively static. You are lucky if you have a comment e-mail that you can send in."

Aitoro also urged solution providers to provide cloud computing options for the federal agencies given the compute-intensive nature of collaboration solutions and the budget constraints faced by agencies.

A key funding source, Aitoro said, is the E Government Fund technology budget, which is soaring from $2 million in 2009 to $33 million in 2010. "That is probably key area to find money that will go to transparency and open government initiatives," she said.

What's more, she said, the Integrated Technology Service funding, the traditional technology budget for Schedule 70 procurement, will be up $21 million in the new fiscal year.

"There is more money out there," said Aitoro. "It is coming through. It is just a matter of getting your hands on it. You are going to need to delve into some of the new media technologies."

Keith Nelson, vice president of technology for Vistem Solutions, an Irvine, Calif., solution provider who is a technology architect for the Port of Los Angeles and Long Beach, Calif, said he is heartened by the Obama administration initatives. He said there are more funds being spent in the LA and Long Beach ports even though import/export traffic is down about 20 percent.

"What Obama brings to the mix is the willingness to invest in capacity for future economic growth," said Nelson.