OKLAHOMA CITY – August 25, 2011 – Public sector web and communications professionals convened in Oklahoma City’s Metro Technology Center for the The Oklahoma State Webmanagers Group (OSWG) Fall Conference 2011: Innovation and Modernization, Oct. 25-26. The conference featured a keynote address by Governor Mary Fallin and State of Oklahoma Chief Information Officer Alex Pettit.

“Online citizen communication and services are vitally important to making government accessible,” said OK.gov General Manager, Mark Mitchell, “This conference helps all levels of public sector webmanagers and communicators share best practices to advance eGovernment in Oklahoma.”

The conference offered a day of pre-conference sessions featuring in-depth classes with expert speakers and a second conference day with a variety of shorter sessions aimed at providing key information and best practices on topics ranging from social media to mobile applications and video captioning to Drupal/Open Public CMS.

“From the rapidly expanding mobile technology capabilities to the increasing adoption of social media, government technology employees need to continue to innovate and keep pace with the changing technology,” said Alex Pettit, Chief Information Officer of the State of Oklahoma. “Using technology to its fullest potential brings efficiencies to our cities, counties, and the state.”

Conference sessions were relevant to public sector communications and web professionals from state agencies, city government and services, higher education institutions, corporations, and all developers interested in skill building.

Conference speakers provided ideas, designs, and information agencies could implement immediately following the conference. The conference was also an opportunity to meet and network with people in the industry.

“This two-day, statewide conference grew out of a need to provide an Oklahoma conference choice created specifically for local and state government web developers, web managers, public information officers, communication specialists, IT program managers and individuals interested in the latest web development techniques,” Debra Herlihy, OSWG president, said. “The OSWG seeks to meet the needs of our attendees by increasing their knowledge of web development, usability and accessibility.”

As social media increasingly becomes part of everyday life, more government agencies are carving out a social media presence online. Facebook, not surprisingly, is perhaps the most common outlet for government social media efforts. Below is a list of ten of the most "liked" government Facebook pages.

The U.S. Marine Corp: http://www.facebook.com/marines 
1,584,318 likes

The White House: http://www.facebook.com/WhiteHouse 
1,178,189 likes

The National Guard: http://www.facebook.com/nationalguard 
1,012,382 likes

The U.S. Army: http://www.facebook.com/USarmy 
920,629 likes

NASA: http://www.facebook.com/NASA 595,788 likes

The U.S. Air Force: http://www.facebook.com/USairforce 
562,301 likes

The U.S. Navy: http://www.facebook.com/USNavy 
384,107 likes

The CDC: http://www.facebook.com/CDC 160,253 likes

The FBI: http://www.facebook.com/FBI 154,051 likes

The U.S. Dept. of Veterans Affairs: http://www.facebook.com/VeteransAffairs 
146,314 likes