This year’s expanded report is the third annual survey based on interviews with over 500 senior staffers (legislative directors and above) from capital cities in 11 different countries around the world including Washington DC, Brussels, London, Beijing, Ottawa, Mexico City, Paris, Berlin, New Delhi, Buenos Aires and Brasilia.

Although traditional methods public affairs components are still valuable, social media channels have experienced a meteoric rise in their ability to shape and influence policy worldwide over the past year.

Specifically, policymakers have shown a dramatic increase in their use of Twitter, Facebook and mobile technology which underscores the importance of social media and the Internet in educating policymakers and galvanizing them to support a policy issue.

Highlights include:

• 60% of staffers learned about a policy issue for the first time online
• 1/3 changed their position on policy issues based on online information
• 80% of staffers still view in-person visits, phone calls and written letters as effective
• A majority (53%) of policymakers use Twitter
• Poor messaging and lack of grassroots support lead among top campaign “fail factors”

Other global data from the report may be found in the Slideshare PowerPoint and infographic posted below.

RELATED

Edelman Friday Five: 2011 Capital Staffers Index
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Originally posted on Edelman on Influence

This morning, I had the pleasure of speaking at the Holmes Report’s ThinkTank Live event here in Washington, DC where I discussed the evolving media landscape and the role of social media in shaping politics and public policy. In preparation, I got to thinking about how social media was impacting the election process this early in the race. Between the Romney-Perry video battles and the buzz around Herman Cain’s “smoking” ad featuring his chief of staff Mark Block, it was a perfect week to perform a little deeper analysis.

So, I decided to take a look at how some of the top presidential contenders were using various social media platforms. Specifically, I set out to aggregate data to include the number Facebook likes, Twitter followers, YouTube views, Foursquare fans, Flickr photos, LinkedIn friends and Google+ circles. Of course, when measuring ultimate campaign success, it’s not just about numbers but I do think that they can be an indication as to whether a candidate is building support or if specific messages are resonating (i.e. Cain’s 9-9-9 plan).

While researching, I looked for the official 2012 campaign accounts even though there might be other user accounts related to the same candidate. For example, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN-6th) has an official Twitter account (@MicheleBachmann) with over 108k followers that her Congressional office maintains which is different than the account (@TeamBachmann) that her presidential campaign uses.

Sometimes it was easy to differentiate between several accounts because most of the official campaign websites provide links and/or widgets to their social media properties so I didn’t have to rely on search to find the best account. In other cases, it was difficult to locate the proper accounts because they were lost among parody and/or “unofficial” pages likely set-up by supporters.

Below is the complete list of accounts that I was able to locate. Click on the icon that runs horizontally across from the candidate’s name to view the related campaign social media property or group.

	Facebook	Twitter	YouTube	Foursquare	Flickr	LinkedIn	Google+
Obama							X
Romney							X
Perry
Paul				X
Bachmann				X		X	X
Cain
Huntsman*				X	X	X
Gingrich					X

The final issue was to determine the order of how I should list each of the candidates. My first instinct was to do so in alphabetical order by last name in the spirit of fairness. Then I considered doing it based on early poll performances, however, I ultimately decided to list them based on what really matters at this point in the race… money in the bank. I used the “Total Money Raised” data provided by Roaring Republican, which posted the latest Third Quarter 2011 Fundraising Numbers as of October 18, 2011.

Key Takeaways

• Clearly, the power of incumbency is a huge advantage for President Obama. Picking up where he left off after Campaign 2008, the Obama camp now boasts over 23.7M Facebook likes and 10.8M Twitter followers. In fact, the president is the first politician to crack 10M followers and the only non-entertainer in the Twitter Top 10). Basically, he overpowers everyone in the GOP field in almost every category with only two exceptions: 1) President Obama himself did not have a profile on Google+ and 2) the Obama campaign didn’t have a presence on Foursquare. However, the White House does have a branded Foursquare page so I included that in the grid.

  Earlier this week, the Obama 2012 campaign broke new ground when they launched a new page on the popular micro-blogging platform Tumblr which will serve as an ideal host to various forms of digital content and social media sharing.

• On the other side of the aisle, it’s a pretty crowded Republican field but former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney seems to be emerging as the one to beat as we near primary season — but it’s still early. Romney finishes way ahead of his GOP counterparts on Facebook with 1.1M likes with Ron Paul at a distant second with 565k. Romney has the third most Twitter followers but is second to last on YouTube with only 1.8M total upload views of his 57 videos.

• Earlier today, it was reported that Godfather’s Pizza CEO and political newcomer Herman Cain is performing surprisingly well in initial primary state polling placing second behind Romney in Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Florida. He’s holding his own in social media, though some of that may be misleading since the most recent “smoking” video attained about 1M views since it was posted on October 19th due to some criticism and scrutiny as to the message behind it. Again, the numbers are impressive but one could argue that it’s not helping the campaign. In addition, he has only raised about $5M so the question remains as to whether he can sustain his poll numbers, continue to build more support, increase his financial position and pose a serious challenge for the nomination.

• Meanwhile, Texas Governor Rick Perry still enjoys broad support and has a decent amount of cash on hand but his decision to skip some of the upcoming debates, likely after perceived poor performances in the past, has many wondering whether he’s up to the task. Governor Perry and Herman Cain are the only two candidates in the top tier who have a social media presence on all seven of the social media outlets evaluated, though admittedly there’s some confusion on a couple of the accounts as to whether some of Perry’s content was generated due to his role as Governor of Texas or whether it was officially posted as part of the presidential campaign. For example, 13k photos on Flickr seem to be a mix of both — and that’s a ton of photos but nowhere close to the 56k that President Obama has posted, in addiiton to the 52 sets of photos on the official White House Flickr photostream.

• Texas Congressman Ron Paul enjoys very strong support online and much of that dates back to Campaign 2008. There are still digital remnants from the race four years ago and it appears that he’s continued to use the “/ronpaul” username consistently across all accounts for quite some time which will certainly skew the numbers a bit. In other words, it’s unclear how many joined his current cause as opposed to 2008, but in some ways it doesn’t matter. Those who supported him in the last cycle may still be loyal this time around and probably explains why he has been able to build up a relatively healthy campaign war chest.

• The Team Bachmann approach is interesting and makes it clear that there’s a distinction between Rep. Michele Bachmann‘s presidential bid and her role in the U.S. Congress. Of course, there are limitations when posting official tweets vs. campaign updates (i.e. requests for donations) so it’s good to see that they have drawn a line firmly between the two. Almost 460k people like Rep. Bachmann on Facebook and it seems that is her strongest social media outlet with Twitter and YouTube close behind.

• Perhaps what is most interesting is that former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-GA) is dead last in Facebook likes at 157k but wins decisively in every other social media platform with 1.3M followers on Twitter, almost 5M total upload views of 184 videos, 2,800 Foursquare followers and has been added in over 16k circles on Google+. Oddly, no Flickr page for the Speaker but there are over 270 photos posted to Facebook. Yet, despite these impressive numbers, strong name ID and regular media appearances over the years, Newt has only managed to raise $2.6M which is at rock bottom on this list and poses a real threat to the future of his campaign.

Bottom Line

Speaker Gingrich wins hands down when it comes to his digital share of voice but finishes dead last in fundraising. Governor Romney has a strong online presence, as well, and his support seems to be growing the most rapidly both online and off. Herman Cain is making a strong run in the polls but the ability to sustain and raise money will determine how long he remains in the race through the primary season.

It will be interesting to see how these numbers and donations change over the next several months and I’ll plan to post an update as the race matures. In the meantime, would love to hear your thoughts, as well.

As stated at the outset of this post — we are about a year away from the ultimate poll, Election Day 2012. On that day, the only friends and followers that matter to candidates are those that cast their votes!

Here’s a short video that the Holmes Report asked me to post to help promote today’s event. In it, I briefly discuss the importance of social media in the political process.

UPDATE 10/28/11*
Former Utah Governor and GOP presidential candidate Jon Huntsman gained some steam via YouTube when his daughters posted their parody “smoking” video in response to the Cain ad. However, the popular video was posted on a separate account instead of the official Jon2012HQ YouTube channel with 69 videos and over 269k total views. Incidentally, the campaign also has a Jon2012 Vimeo account linked directly from their website. I didn’t include the Huntsman campaign in the original tally, but after the video was released I decided to go back and take another look. Links to the Jon 2012 social media accounts have been added to the chart above. On Twitter, the @Jon2012girls have almost 8k followers which is impressive, especially considering that their father’s campaign account nears 46k. About half as many people support Huntsman on Facebook with almost 22k likes.

UPDATE 11/4/11
For those wondering if the current sexual harrasment allegations leveled at Herman Cain from his time at the National Restaurant Association are hurting his campaign, the answer is that it may be too early to tell. His poll numbers seem to be holding strong and both his Facebook and Twitter support increased with 329,515 likes and 153,506 followers respectively since 10/27/11. However, the real measurement will be whether funds will continue to pour in. If his presidential bid is to survive, there’s no question that this Wednesday’s CNBC GOP debate will be an important night for Cain to demostrate resilience and strength in the face of controversy.

We discussed the new Kindle, Apple price fixing allegations, President Obama’s “We the People” petition via WhiteHouse.gov, government and social media, crowdsourcing, ID spoofing and much more.

Here are the show notes for TWiL #131: All You Need is Seven Inches.

In fact, I noticed that one neighbor who usually treats visitors to impressive annual displays actually leaves up his Christmas lights all year round to save the hassle.

However, there’s something about the 4th of July that I have always loved. The sense of patriotism, respect, pride, reverence and history is unlike any other on this day. It’s a day where Americans from all corners of the country (and around the world) can put aside differences and come together to celebrate who we are as a nation — as one!

Of course, this didn’t happen by accident and we should never take our blessings for granted! We can never repay the debt or express enough gratitude to all those who have served our nation and proudly worn the uniform of the U.S. Armed Forces to protect the peace, defend our country abroad and preserve our freedoms here at home.

Now, I may have a biased view since we literally live a stone’s throw from George Washington’s Mount Vernon and just a few miles from our Nation’s capital — but I doubt it.

Over the years, I have had the honor of visiting all 50 states and I often drove the backroads to get a closer look at hometown Americana. In my experience throughout my travels, American flags were always proudly flying and other unique local patriotic symbols could be found in each place I visited. Though we may celebrate our independence each year in special ways on July 4th with parades, barbecues and fireworks — I know that patriotism is alive and well every day all across the United States.

However, on this day we take time to pay homage to our Founding Fathers and celebrate the signing of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776 resulting in the birth of our great country.

Below is just a small sampling of how some of our neighbors decorated their homes this year. Happy 235th Birthday, America!

Here are a few photos from our humble, yet spirited Independence Day Neighborhood Parade in Fairfax County, Alexandria, VA.

UPDATE 7/25/11
Drove by this house in Alexandria on the way to work and just had to add it!

God Bless America!

Citizen Engagement in the Digital Age

When Barack Obama was sworn-in as the 44th President of the United States in January 2009, much was written about his campaign’s effective use of digital and social media tools to build support, reach new audiences and engage younger voters. Many credit those efforts as being critical to his successful bid for the White House.

Once in office, it was largely expected that the Obama Administration would utilize similar digital strategies for government application. They set out to build on the foundation laid by their predecessors by seeking to leverage emerging digital outlets to better serve and connect with Americans while simultaneously adapting to a rapidly evolving media landscape. The same was true for Capitol Hill.

Growing, Growing, Gone?

The 2010 Capital Staffers Index demonstrates significant increases in digital media including four-times the usage of Facebook compared to three years ago, nearly double for text messaging, almost three-times for blogs and over five-times worth of growth for Twitter. During key policy debates on issues such as the economy, jobs, healthcare, national security, energy and immigration, constituents flocked to the Internet to make their voices heard.

Members of Congress and Hill staffers quickly learned how to navigate in these new channels through direct constituent engagement and the creation of content best suited for social media and networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Flickr. In many cases, such content was embedded on official House and Senate “dot gov” sites to augment message reach, optimize digital footprints and increase the opportunity for sharing across various social platforms.

In May 2010, the House Republican leadership even created their own unique digital channel with the launch of “America Speaking Out.” The site was built to serve as an online clearinghouse for crowd-sourced policy ideas with the best rising to the top based on community votes. However, sites like this aren’t designed with the intent of completely replacing traditional methods of contacting Congress such as in-person meetings, phone calls, letters and e-mail which are all still effective in many ways. Rather, they simply open up new avenues to connect.

Similarly, though the rise in social media and digital engagement is remarkable, let’s be careful not to write obituaries for mainstream media outlets just yet. Newsrooms may be shrinking but according to the survey results, their influence on Capitol Hill sure isn’t. For staffers, online news sites remain valuable and consistently rank far above social networks, blogs and social media with the highest usage (64%) occurring from 9 AM to 10 AM and the lowest (42%) from 5 PM to 6 PM.

The Key To Surfing Is… Timing

One of the most interesting findings in the 2010 Capital Staffers Index is how online activity trends throughout the day. Heavy traffic for online news sites early in the morning are likely due to staff who are preparing for briefings, conducting research or just getting caught up on the news of the day.

For the most part, social networks run a distant second in usage percentage when to compared online news sites with two exceptions where they experience significant spikes both during the lunch hour (31% from 12 PM to 1 PM) and at the end of a typical work day (tied with online news at 46% after 6 PM). This would seem to suggest that Hill staffers utilize social networking sites all day for both personal and professional purposes, with an emphasis on the personal during perceived down time.

The Next Wave

Two short years after President Obama’s historic victory, the political tide seems to be turning once again. Perhaps the November 2010 midterm election will most certainly be remembered for the GOP’s sweeping wins, especially in the House of Representatives where Republicans netted over 60 seats, the biggest gain since 1938 when the Democrats lost 71.

In preparation for the start of the 112th Congress, freshman members will endure orientations, elect party leadership, set legislative agendas, learn shortcuts from their new offices to committee rooms, attend briefings and of course, hire various key staff. Many likely campaigned heavily online – but now politicians and staffers alike find themselves in positions of power with great responsibility where they must learn to govern online, as well.

For those who are either unable to accept or unwilling to embrace these new communications realities, perhaps these words from American philosopher, writer and 1983 Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient Eric Hoffer will serve as encouragement, “In times of change, learners inherit the earth; while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists.”

Tomorrow, November 9, 2010, President Bush breaks his silence with the official release of his new book, Decision Points.

In it, he takes a self-described “untraditional approach” to writing his life’s memoir by providing a unique perspective of his presidency and focusing on the most demanding part of the job… making decisions.

From the Amazon.com website:

In gripping, never-before-heard detail, President Bush brings readers inside the Texas Governor’s Mansion on the night of the hotly contested 2000 election; aboard Air Force One on 9/11, in the hours after America’s most devastating attack since Pearl Harbor; at the head of the table in the Situation Room in the moments before launching the war in Iraq; and behind the Oval Office desk for his historic and controversial decisions on the financial crisis, Hurricane Katrina, Afghanistan, Iran, and other issues that have shaped the first decade of the 21st century.

President Bush writes honestly and directly about his flaws and mistakes, as well as his accomplishments reforming education, treating HIV/AIDS in Africa, and safeguarding the country amid chilling warnings of additional terrorist attacks. He also offers intimate new details on his decision to quit drinking, discovery of faith, and relationship with his family.

A groundbreaking new brand of memoir, Decision Points will captivate supporters, surprise critics, and change perspectives on one of the most consequential eras in American history – and the man at the center of events.

In addition to the traditional hard copy of the book, some readers may alternatively choose to purchase the digital eBook version (see video below). There’s also an accompanying toolkit for those interested in spreading the word about the book, sharing their thoughts via social media and ordering online.

On October 16, a contest to interview the former president in Dallas, Texas was launched via the official George W. Bush Facebook page. This past Saturday, it was announced that Wyatt Smith, a 22-year old college graduate from Alabama, was selected as the winner and after viewing his video, I’m confident that he will represent the “Facebook Generation” quite well.

In coordination with the book launch, below is a list of President Bush’s scheduled interviews with various media outlets over the next couple weeks. Set your TiVos!

Monday, November 8, 2010
8 PM EST – Matt Lauer, NBC

Tuesday, November 9, 2010
Check Listings – Oprah Winfrey (Local Affiliate)*
1 PM EST – Rush Limbaugh (Local Radio Affiliate)
3-6 PM EST (TBD) – Sean Hannity (Local Radio Affiliate)
9 PM EST – Sean Hannity, Fox News Channel

Wednesday, November 10, 2010
7 AM (local) – TODAY (in studio) w/ Matt Lauer, NBC

Thursday, November 11, 2010
8 PM EST – The O’Reilly Factor with Bill O’Reilly, Fox News Channel

Friday, November 12, 2010
10 PM EST – On the Record with Greta Van Susteren, Fox News Channel

Saturday, November 13, 2010
9 PM EST – Sean Hannity, Fox News Channel**

Sunday, November 14, 2010
Check listings – Jim Axelrod, CBS Sunday Morning***
9 PM EST – State of the Union with Candy Crowley, CNN****

Monday, November 15-Wednesday, November 17, 2010
7 AM EST – Fox and Friends w/ Brian Kilmeade, Gretchen Carlson & Steve Doocy, Fox News Channel

Thursday, November 18, 2010
11:30 PM EST – The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, NBC

Source: Office of George W. Bush
* includes segments with 41s.
** this is a separate interview from the one airing on November 9.
*** with Mrs. Bush.
**** with Jeb Bush.

UPDATE 11/30/10: President George W. Bush visited Facebook headquarters in Palo Alto, California on Cyber Monday to discuss his book Decision Points. He was joined by Facebook’s Founder & CEO Mark Zuckerberg and VP & General Counsel Ted Ullyot who served in the Bush Administration both at the White House and the Justice Department.

Monday, November 22, 2010
The Kudlow Report, CNBC

Wednesday, December 8, 2010
8:30 AM EST – Bill Bennett, Morning in America

Monday, December 13, 2010
Hugh Hewitt
Scott Hennen: Part 1 & Part 2

Sunday, January 30, 2011
Q&A with Brian Lamb, C-SPAN

For those not familiar with what this actually means, a CMS is basically the back-end (not visible to visitors) of a website that allows the administrators (owners) of the site — often non-programmers — to easily organize site navigation and add content designed to appear on the front-end.

For most CMS solutions, the user experience is pretty simple, usually consisting of a password protected login, options for varied user permissions for approval and forms with specific fields based on type of content such as text, photos, audio and video. Once entered and saved, the CMS stores the information in the back-end database and displays the content on the front-end when called up by a site visitor.

In the early days of the Internet, many developers created unique proprietary CMS solutions for their staff and clients to save time and streamline the process of maintaining a timely and relevant site. Today, there are hundreds of options out there to choose from. Check out this list from CMS Matrix.

Open source is basically the idea that code doesn’t have to be authored or owned by one person, group or company but rather by a public community of developers free to collaborate, write code, make updates and help advance newer software versions for all to share and benefit. For a more specific description of open source, let’s go to Wikipedia which is, ironically, a type of open source resource for defintions:

Open source is an approach to the design, development, and distribution of software, offering practical accessibility to a software’s source code. Some consider open source as one of various possible design approaches, while others consider it a critical strategic element of their operations. Before open source became widely adopted, developers and producers used a variety of phrases to describe the concept; the term open source gained popularity with the rise of the Internet, which provided access to diverse production models, communication paths, and interactive communities.

Before commenting on the recent upgrade, I did want to set the record straight on a couple things regarding the history of WhiteHouse.gov and the previous CMS.

To get a better understanding of the complete background, I spoke with a couple of my former White House colleagues who were federal government employees in the Office of Administration (OA) of the Executive Office of the President (EOP) back during the transition from President Clinton (42) to President Bush (43).

As I have mentioned before, in my opinion, President Clinton is truly the first Internet president, meaning he was the first to launch a White House website. Here’s what WhiteHouse.gov looked like circa November 1995. Not too shabby at the time. Evidently, in the late 90′s, updates to the site were a bit of a chore. They had to be made manually via files copied to tapes, then physically carried between floors to upload them onto the server a few times a day. Typos could mean a little more exercise that day. Toward the very end of President Clinton’s second term, an automated system was put in place but it wasn’t capable of managing an entire new site for the next four to eight years.

In 2000, with the transition to President George W. Bush’s Administration approaching, a few EOP programmers got together to create an internal homegrown Perl based solution designed to manage basic content needs for the new president’s site. Why Perl? Two reasons. First, Perl was a common programming language at the time, generally used for similar projects. Second, out of the other programming options available, those who were actually developing it knew Perl the best!

(Update from a former EOP insider: “It should also be noted that Perl was picked because the Tool started out as an e-mail to web page processing script. The original tool was developed to solve the problem of posting press releases to the web site automatically. On weekends and after hours, there was no IT staff to do it … so the tool was born of that. Perl as handler script to parse e-mail text into an HTML form and post to the web site. Then it just grew and grew… initially it was all about automation. Only during the later years [sic] did it start into more of your standard (term used loosely) CMS.”)

Out of this collaboration, a completely new and unique solution was born which we affectionately (most of the time) called, “The Tool.”

Over time, as newer site versions and features were rolled out on the front-end, the Tool scaled with it and was updated accordingly to support them including many things it wasn’t originally designed to do such as creating on-the-fly printer friendly alternative text pages (508 compliance) and digital image processing.

In March of 2007, we launched a new (and final) version of WhiteHouse.gov under President Bush. However, even with the new design and improved functionality for users, the Tool remained in place on the back-end. It was tweaked and updated, but the foundation was the same. We considered options to deploy a new CMS, but personally I wanted to be a good steward of taxpayer money and didn’t think it was prudent to spend a couple million dollars on something that was only going to be used for a year and a half or so before being shipped off to the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) in January 2009. As a result, the site continued using the Tool all the way up until Inauguration Day.

Several months prior to Election Day, and in a very similar scenario to the Clinton-Bush transition preparation in 2000, career federal employess in EOP’s OA division gathered to begin planning for the next president’s website — whether for Sen. McCain or Sen. Obama, nobody knew. They initiated a review of the most effificient, secure CMS solutions. After the completion of the thoughtful, competitive procurement process, General Dynamics Information Technology (GDIT) was awarded the contract and immediately began work on a new CMS for the 44th President of the United States.

Many stories have reported that President Obama’s team inherited an “old proprietary CMS which has been used by WhiteHouse.gov since the Bush Administration” built and executed by GDIT. However, that isn’t true. As I mentioned earlier, President Bush’s website, CMS Tool and all, was taken offline at 12:00 PM ET on January 20, 2009, President Obama’s Inauguration Day, and ultimately sent to NARA.

President George W. Bush is the first digital president, meaning that he is the first to have his entire presidency captured online via WhiteHouse.gov in the form of transcripts, photos, video and audio. However, Web 2.0 and social media was just gearing up around the time I left the White House in May 2007.

Clearly, the campaign had a huge impact on the growth of the Internet through social media and rapid programming advancements (WordPress 2.8.5 is now available already? I just upgraded to 2.8.4 two weeks ago!) but many of the tools that are being used today either weren’t available to us or hadn’t been tested or matured to the point that we could utilize them effectively within the E-Gov guidelines, privacy policies, security procedures and budgetary limitations that often presented challenges.

To put it in perspective, from 2005-2007, MySpace was the most popular social network, Facebook was locked down to only college students with .edu email addresses, YouTube had recently been purchased by Google but was still growing and Twitter had just launched in March 2007 at SXSW in Austin.

There’s no question that the increased adoption of open source backend solutions in the private sector, and now in government, represents yet another evolutionary step in the rapid growth of the Internet. As these tools become more prevalent, users will be able to better connect and collaborate on shared platforms which only improves the potential for digital public engagement in shaping our democracy.

Congrats to the entire White House new media team!

Want to give it a try? You can actually demo Drupal yourself (and many other open source solutions) courtesy of opensourceCMS.com or you could save yourself some time and just go hire the best in the business!

MEDIA

Podcast: The Right Doctor with David Almacy

(Dr. Melissa Clouthier, The Right Doctor, 11/05/09)

WhiteHouse.gov goes Drupal (techPresident, 10/24/09)

RELATED

White House opens Web site programming to public (Associated Press)

Before Drupal, There Was “The Tool” (techPresident, 10/30/09)

For Drupal Enterprise Software in White House, It’s One Step Forward, One Step Back (IT Business Edge)

Whitehouse.gov could be a springboard for Open Source for America (InfoWorld)

WhiteHouse.gov on Drupal: A skeptic weighs in (OhMyGov)

Whitehouse using Drupal? (Drupal News)

The New York Ave location is home to approximately 15 Googlers for now – with ample room to expand.  In keeping with Silicon Valley style, the space itself looks more like the Googleplex in Mountain View, rather than a traditional, stodgy law firm which is a welcome departure – and an indication that times, they are a changin’! 

Individual work areas are complete with colorful yoga balls, curved desks and open air studio celings.  Various other meeting spaces including conference rooms, a game room lunch room and kitchen bear names familiar to the DC power set such as the Situation Room, Camp David, and even, yes, a Secret Undisclosed Location - which isn’t too secret considering the bold-lettered sign by the door. 

Google CEO Eric Schmidt attended the event, as well as members of Google DC’s leadership team including Alan Davidson, senior policy counsel, Dr. Vint Cerf, chief Internet evangelist, and Bob Boorstin, corporate communications.  

As guests, we were treated to an open bar and lite fare of mini-beef or turkey burgers, coconut shrimp, lamb, sushi, corn pudding and tiny ice cream cones for dessert.  Vodka and cranberry juice shooters also made the rounds served in test tubes, appropriately named “YouTubes“ after the popular video sharing site that Google acquired in October 2006.  However, no worries for parents of Hill staffers, these “series of tubes” were consumed responsibly.

Related:

D.C. Googleplex: 1,100 sq. ft. per worker, and built to party (CNET)

A Night Out: Google Opens a DC Office (Washingtonian)

Google Welcomes Washington (TechRepublican)