GSA Signs Deals with Facebook, Other Social Media Firms

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on April 29, 2009 - 7:13am.

Washington - In a move designed to make it far easier for government agencies to share information over the Internet, the General Services Administration (GSA) has signed agreements with a group of social media services including Facebook, MySpace, Blist, Vimeo, Slideshare and AddThis. The deals allow other federal agencies to legally use the Web tools without negotiating their own terms of service.

"We are working at a fevered pace to improve the public's experience when engaging with the government," said Martha Dorris, acting associate administrator of the Office of Citizen Services and Communications.

Facebook and MySpace dominate the U.S. social networking market; Blist provides a consumer focused service for publishing data on the Web; Slideshare allows users to share PowerPoint, Word and PDF documents; and AddThis is a bookmarking and sharing platform reaching more than a half billion users.

The GSA also has signed agreements with Flickr, YouTube and blip.tv, and is in discussions with several others.

The latest deal resolves the legal concerns found in many standard terms and conditions that pose problems for federal agencies, such as liability, endorsements, advertising, freedom of information and governing law.

http://www.gsa.gov