© V3Web 2.0 uptake remains slow in the government sector
The government's take-up of Web 2.0 technologies is being slowed by fears over security, according to Ovum.
The analyst firm's Business Trends: understanding your government customer 2010 report found that 50 per cent of respondents in Europe cited security issues as their greatest concern about the implementation of social media technologies, compared to 46 per cent in North America.
"With more stringent regulations in the EU than the US, and more of a culture of privacy in Europe, it's perhaps not surprising it's a bigger concern than in North America," said Jessica Hawkins, associate analyst at Ovum, who compiled the report.
"A lot of governments are more concerned with creating tools that empower citizens to access resources than use tools like Twitter to talk to the public. "
Hawkins added that the worry over data being released incorrectly, or accounts being hacked in to for malicious purposes, were some of the risks governments had identified with the use of social media.
The report also found that, although 16 per cent of government agencies had already adopted Web 2.0 technologies, a far larger 41 per cent had no plans to adopt it for the foreseeable future.
A lack of training resources, restrictive regulations and a lack of 'buy-in' from senior decision makers were also cited as reasons why take up is slow.
Despite this, Hawkins expects the use of social media tools to continue to rise in this sector, even if adoption takes longer than in other areas.
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