Yesterday, the Small Business Administration announced the launch of a new Web
initiative – http://Community.Business.gov
– a government-sponsored online community built for
small businesses.
The objective was to
"provide small business owners, bloggers, and the government with a place
to discuss and share information about starting and running a successful
business." A self-professed extension of Business.gov that combines discussion forums, blogs, and an idea exchange, the site falls well short of the social networks we're all accustomed to today. While a good idea, the technology deployed is little more than a clunky forum more reminiscent of Web 1.0 than Web 2.0.
That being said, patient browsers may still find a wealth of useful information about starting and running a small business with Uncle Sam's help. Eavesdropping on one conversation between aspiring government contractors demonstrated the power of information sharing, even in such a basic platform, as one firm learned the rules of becoming a veteran-owned small business from the other.
“Over the past year, we have significantly expanded our efforts to
engage with small business owners, by giving them easy access to the
information they need to run their business,” said Nancy Sternberg,
program manager of Business Gateway. “The launch of the Business.gov
Community represents a new milestone. Through the application of Web
2.0 technologies, we hope to unite small business owners, industry
experts and government, and take the program to a new level of
collaborative knowledge-sharing and insight.”
In the coming months, SBA intends to expand the Business.gov
Community with additional features
that address the interests of users and provide more interaction with SBA employees that really do participate in the online conversations - and believe it or not, they are very helpful.
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