Here’s a recap of the past week’s social media and politics news. Shana Tova!

1. GAO rprt: Social Media Fed Agencies Need Policies & Procedures for Managing & Protecting Info They Access and Disseminate http://ow.ly/6GES1
2. House Democrats launch social media competition bit.ly/rbwG6Z via @thehilltweets
3. Great talk, must read article RT @Alderman_Moreno: My blog about #SMW for @HuffPostChicago: http://ow.ly/6Gqlx Picture by Mr. @johnfritchey
4. RT @rachelsterne: Great advice from @AdamS 4 @nycgov agencies on Twitter. Discover, share, engage, promote. ow.ly/i/i5Bv #engagenyc
5. Here’s a link to the audio from my interview yesterday with Tim Farley @MorningBriefing on SiriusXM http://ow.ly/6FpeI
6. RT @NYCMayorsOffice: Mayor Bloomberg speaking to digital managers and comm staff at City gov’s first ever Social Media Day. #engagenyc
7. RT @gracecheung: NYC government currently reaches 1.5 million through social media.#engagenyc
8. RT @lheron: Wow. MT @SlaughterAM: Whoah. Rwandan Pres. @PaulKagame is on a Twitter roll (perhaps rant). fascinating stream of consciousness
9. How Twitter, FB, Google & LinkedIn are entering the political landscapenyti.ms/rlbPdp via @lheron
10.  Facebook forming own PAC to back candidates tinyurl.com/3fjx89 via @thehill
11. RT @mathewi: MT @defcon_5: Time to get to 50 million users: Google+, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, MySpace: yfrog.com/nvdo8np
12. MT @IdeaGov: RT @PrivacyWonk: Congrats to @USMC for an awesome #gov20 #socialmediahandbook bit.ly/ntk0xY
13. Obama Town Hall: LinkedIn’s Economic Role [infographic] by @JonMwords rww.to/otoiCq via @RWW
14. ‘Young Guns’ head to Facebook – Mike Allen – POLITICO.com: http://ow.ly/6F3qE via @politico
15. Study: Twitter Played Pivotal Role In Arab Springhttp://ow.ly/6D10H via @TPM
16. MT @maegancarberry Should candidates have 2 Twitter accounts? @KLSoltis “official + personal handle adds authenticity” http://ow.ly/6CUXc
17. Twitter users are very sensitive to authenticity. – @AdamS #smchicago #smwtwittergov
18. RT @gbyehuda: DC EMS suspends #Twitteraccount?! Not good #emergency planning! look:bit.ly/e2P4Xd read: bit.ly/nDY3HG #gov20
19. RT @Ekaterina: Marine Corps Facebook page went from 0 to 1M in a year – @gregreeder #SMSS
20. Thanks @ZekeJMiller for the shoutout! Twitter Users: Get Ready For Political Ads To Infest Your Stream http://ow.ly/6AJBA via @bi_politics
21. President Obama to participate in @LinkedIn town hall – The Hill’s Hillicon Valley: bit.ly/q1Emui
22. RT @Adweek: Twitter to Launch Political Adsgoo.gl/fb/1uD67
23. “The politician becomes their own media company”#smchicago #gov20 #socialmedia

This past week I was invited to speak at a conference on new media to staffers for the California state legislature, both Senate and Assembly. This was a very cool opportunity and when I was asked to speak, I immediately began thinking of all the best practices points I would go over. Only after I accepted did I learn the dark secret of both chambers of the CA legislature: staffers are forbidden from using social media.

And I don’t mean updating their own personal facebook pages. They are forbidden from updating their bosses facebook accounts or tweeting on their bosses behalf. And this is not just some obscure proceedural rule. The problem largely stems from the Political Reform Act of 1974, which means that it is probably a FELONY for a staffer to use government resources or government time to use social media. For the few staffs that have braved the social media waters (Senate, Assembly), it seems one workaround is to update from personal computers after work – not an ideal situation.

In the state that Silicon Valley calls home along with nearly every social media company HQ, their legislature cannot even use the products they produce. (Senators and Assemblymen are free to use social media themselves, the rules only apply to staff.)

The California government as a whole is not social media adverse. Governor Jerry Brown as well as hundreds of state agencies, sub agencies and government programs use facebook, twitter, youtube and more. The problem resides solely with the legislature.

Once I learned this, I started calling around to other states to see what policies or rules their legislatures had. I have not yet reached out to all 99 (points if you know why 99 and not 100), but what I’ve found so far is that California has the most restrictive rules regarding staff use of new technologies than any other.

Part II of this post will include the data I have obtained so far.