GovLoop, the social network for the government community, has joined forces with GovDelivery, provider of government-to-citizen communication solutions, the organizations announced today.

Although GovDelivery might not be a household name, it actually reaches millions of inboxes every day. More than 300 government entities, including federal agencies as well as local and state governments across the country, use GovDelivery to send 150-170 million emails and wireless alerts each month to individuals who choose topics based on their interests.

GovLoop was the brainchild of Young Government Leaders founder, Steve Ressler, who was losing touch with his former colleagues in D.C. after he moved to Florida. Realizing the power of the Internet, he took an off-the-shelf social network platform, Ning, and created GovLoop, so that those inside and outside of government could communicate and exchange best practices. Since launching on Memorial Day 2008, Ressler has been balancing his full-time government job with his desire to nurture the GovLoop community, which now boasts about 18,000 subscribers. 

Ressler and Scott Burns, CEO of GovDelivery, talked with OhMyGov! prior to today's announcement about the merger and how the union will enhance the government experience.

After realizing that GovLoop required a greater commitment to truly improve government, a side bar conversation with Scott Burns at the Gov 2.0 Camp in March 2009 blossomed into further talks about the government space and how to help improve communications. At the time, 15 to 30 percent (15,000 - 30,000) of GovDelivery subscribers were from state, local and/or federal government and both saw the opportunity to help create a more vibrant community within the government space.

GovDelivery will now have three operating divisions: GovDelivery, GovDocs, which provides government documents on-line, and now GovLoop, which will expand GovDelivery's current business line from being solely an information provider to more of an interactive platform.

Jumping from the public to the private sector, GovDelivery will be able to give Ressler, a former fed, the resources and flexibility to take GovLoop forward. "With Steve's ability to nurture the community, GovDelivery will be able to expand GovDelivery's outbound delivery service and take advantage of GovLoop's success to connect government agencies to one-another," said Burns.

The "a-ha moment," Burns said, was when he realized how the FEMA website alerts were being cross promoted between federal agencies and saw an opportunity for government agencies to work together and facilitate the process.

Not satisfied with the quality of conversations on the more well-known social media tools such as Facebook and Twitter, he was impressed with the high-quality conversations between people in government on GovLoop. Burns said GovDelivery wants to create a "higher value use... and GovLoop will do that."

"We think GovLoop is a powerful place to become aware of how government can collaborate and GovLoop helps to resolve that problem," he added.

So what changes should we expect from GovLoop?

Said Ressler, "On day one, GovLoop will look the same, the sphere will be the same, and there will be no radical changes." In the future, expect premium GovLoop groups. Right now subscribers can create groups for free, but there is an art to building a workgroup. Ressler's new GovLoop team will help to develop the on-line community, moderate and promote as a subscription service to government agencies, he said.

Ressler's main goal, however, will be to connect government, and the merger will allow him to take his vision to the next level, "not as social network but a knowledge network...a place where you can go if you are taking about a real issue, be it acquisition, technology, etc. If all works out this merger is expected to improve government, to scale and solve more problems."

"Steve was a committed civil servant, and we are very excited to have him as part of GovDelivery," said Burns.

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