uOttawa News

OTTAWA, March 7, 2012  —  The Government of Canada’s Web 2.0 sites are more accessible than ever with the official launch of Zegov.ca, a content aggregator designed to provide the public, the media and public-service employees with a continuous flow of information generated by government institutions through social media.

The project was designed by University of Ottawa students Joëlle Drouin and Andréane Drouin-Charette, together with Sophie Gaudreault, Daniel Brousseau and Jonathan Laurin, as part of a study on Web 2.0 usage in the federal public service. The site uses a single gateway page to gather content from discussions featured on the government’s Twitter and Facebook channels and official blogs.

The government of Canada and its institutions currently host 222 Twitter accounts, 95 Facebook pages and 11 official blogs.

Zegov.ca places the spotlight on these collaborative spaces, which allow Canadians to exchange ideas and express themselves. The networks have spawned “conversations” between the government and the public, making for an increasingly open and collaborative public service.

“Zegov.ca acts as a facilitator and observes the relationships that citizens build with their government departments and the dialogue that is shared through social media,” explains Joëlle Drouin, founder of the project.

The Zegov.ca team plans on expanding the project to include other social networks, such as YouTube, Flickr and LinkedIn. It hopes that Zegov.ca becomes the one-stop shop for discussions in the government of Canada’s Web 2.0 sphere.

For more information and to view the project, visit:
zegov.ca
Twitter : @ZegovCanada
Facebook : Zegov.ca