Nearly a year in the making, the amended terms alter Facebook's standard terms as applied to state and local governments utilizing Facebook Pages for official use. Facebook Pages are different from the average individual person’s profile in that they are intended to promote businesses and other commercial, political, or charitable endeavors. The agreement, already in effect and applied retroactively to governments with an existing Facebook presence, eliminates Facebook’s choice of venue and governing law clauses while limiting a government agency’s indemnification of Facebook for the agency’s actions to the extent permitted in the agency’s jurisdiction. In Washington, the site’s general indemnification terms, protecting Facebook from “claims related to [a government’s] actions, content or information on Facebook,” may apply to local governments and state agencies as these entities generally have authority to contract for indemnification.

While this agreement resolves some issues facing governments interested in developing a social media presence, there will likely be continued growing pains as bureaucratic organizations deal with the increasingly complex electronic world. Local governments will continue to manage concerns on many social media fronts, including public records in cyberspace and user comments on Facebook and Twitter posts.

• 100 million homes with affordable access to 100 megabit per second internet access.
• At least one institutional (e.g., hospital or university) connection at one gigabit per second in every community. 

Closer to open local government’s home, the Plan’s “Civic Engagement” chapter may raise the bar for municipalities in providing access to records and officials. Although the Plan is directed to the federal government, citizens are likely to expect the same level of service from all government agencies, including their local city hall.

Some Plan recommendations that could make their way to local government requirements in the next few years include:

• All responses to Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests should be made available online (rather than delivered only to the requester), in part to cut down on time and money spent processing multiple similar requests.
• All government meetings, hearings, and town halls, should be broadcast online.
• Government should accelerate the adoption of social media technologies given the success stories to date, e.g. 37 million views of H1N1 flu-related media feeds.

Given the potential impacts of the Plan (and technological innovation generally) local government stakeholders would be well-advised to educate themselves about broadband technology and its impact on citizen interaction with their government leaders.

Kitsap County’s decision follows a similar decision made by Alachua County in Florida. According to the Gainesville Sun, Alachua County recently put a ban on staff conducting any county business using text messages – whether using a county-issued cellular phone or a personal cell phone. The reason cited for the ban is the fact that text messages are public records and the county’s computer system has no way to track and save the messages.

The advice sheet provides five (5) factors for agencies to consider when managing the retention of public records created or received through social networking sites. These factors include determining whether the posts are public records (yes, if the posts are made or received in connection with the transaction of the agency’s public business). Determining whether the posts are simply copies of records that the agency is already retaining or whether the posts are primary records. Determining how long the posts will be retained and how the agency will retain the posts (especially if the posts are maintained by a third-party vendor). Finally, determining which business activities are appropriate for social networking, particularly if the agency is unable to manage the creation, receipt, and retention of the posts as public records.

Here is his email response (my questions are in black, his responses in red).  Essentially, Ford states that the content is the public record, not the "look and feel" version that actually would appear on the Web 2.0 site.  This addresses my biggest concern. 

And here is Russell Wood's response to the retention issues.  Again, Wood states that it is the content that is subject to retention (this is an edited version of the email).

The one remaining open issue is whether an elected official's personal blog becomes a public record if the official discussions agency business.  Agencies also have to use extreme caution if they accept comments to ensure that comments are not edited or removed in a way that would violate the First Amendment.  A clear policy is essential for this purpose. 

Here is Olympian reporter Brad Shannon's blog post on the topic.

Here are my earlier posts on the topic:

"To Blog or Not to Blog -- that is the question"

"Lauderdale city attorney tells politicians: Stay off Facebook"