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a b s t r a c t Keywords:Social media measurement Digital interactions Open Government Initiative U.S. federal government Social media applications are extending the information and communication technology landscape in the public sector and are used to increase government transparency, participation and collaboration in the U.S. federal government. The success, impact and performance of these new forms of bi directional and networked interactions can provide insights to understand compliance with the mandate of the Open Government Initiative. Many government agencies are experimenting with the use of social media, however very few actively measure the impact of their digital interactions. This article builds on insights from social media directors in the U.S. federal government highlighting their current lack of measurement practices for social media interactions. Based on their articulated needs for measurement, existing rules regulating the extent of measurement practices and technological features of the main social media platforms, a framework is presented that traces online interactions to mission support and the resulting social media tactics. Implications for both researchers and practitioners are discussed.

This article examines the road that network scholarship has followed in Public Administration. We look at the historical drivers of the use of networks in practice and scholarship in the field and discuss how that has shaped the current literature. The body of the article focuses on the current challenges that network scholars face in the discipline, specifically basic theoretical issues, knowledge about formal networks, knowledge about informal networks, and methodological issues. We close the article with a look to the future and some suggestions for the future of network scholarship in Public Administration.

In 2009, the departments in the executive branch of the U.S. federal government received the presidential marching order to "harness new technologies" in order to become more transparent, collaborative and par ticipatory. Given this mandate, this article sets out to provide insights from qualitative interviews with social media directors to understand the factors that influence internal adoption decisions to use social media ap plications, such as Facebook, Twitter, or blogs. Three distinct factors influence the adoption decisions of social media directors: information about best practices in their informal network of peers, passive observations of perceived best practices in the public and private sector, and "market driven" citizen behavior. The resulting adoption tactics include: (1) representation, (2) engagement, and (3) networking. The findings point to the need for higher degrees of formalized knowledge sharing when it comes to disruptive technology innova tions such as social media use in highly bureaucratic communication environments. Recommendations based on the lessons learned are provided for practitioners and social media researchers to develop social media tactics for different organizational purposes in government.

With each new wave of technology, organizations are faced with a number of choices, many of which begin with the decision of whether to adopt and implement the technology. Social science has several wellestablished theories to explain this general process.Diff usion theory looks at how the communication of innovation leads to growing numbers of adopters over time in aggregate over a population of potential users. Th is theory gives rise to the classic S-shaped curve and its numerous variations. Because the diff usion process unfolds over time, it is often organized into stages refl ecting diff erent points in the process. Th roughout the history of ICT innovation, staged models have been used to describe, predict, and control the process for practicing managers. A critical review of several such staged models applied to e-government is provided by Coursey and Norris (2008). Sometimes these models focus on whether individual organizations are likely to be early adopters or laggards. Others view the process as moving from simple to more complex forms of the technology or more complete integration within organizational processes.At the same time, social science has developed a number of theories related to the individual decision processes used by individuals and organizations to adopt new technology. So-called adoption theories focus on individual decision units. Some derive from economic theory and cost-benefi t analysis, while others apply a communication of innovation element such as information media and conduits, and still others look at a more complex array of institutional and organizational factors. While diff usion models tend to focus on aggregate behavior over time, adoption is the micro-level adoption process. Diff usion begins from the assumption that individuals learn about the innovation from others and decide to adopt, but it does not provide an explanation of why they decide to adopt. Th e implied assumption is that exposure to the idea is suffi cient to make them want to adopt.In the context of the current cluster of new ICTs, social media applications (e.g., Facebook, blogs, and Twitter), this article refl ects on government organizations' previous experiences with new ICTs to construct a staged model that focuses on adoption and implementation. Unlike previous work, this model does not attempt to explain the adoption decision or