GSA launches photo-sharing contest for Fourth of July

In between eating hamburgers and watching fireworks on July 4 be sure to take lots of pictures.

The U.S. General Services Administration is asking Americans to upload their holiday shots to an album it has created on the photo-sharing Website Flickr.

"What says America to you?" Laura Godfrey, bilingual web content manager for USA.gov said in an interview on Federal News Radio's Federal Drive with Tom Temin and Jane Norris. "How do you celebrate this great country? What does independence mean to you?"

The project is just one of many being developed that uses social media tools to encourage public interaction with the federal government.

"The objective is to engage with the public," Godfrey said. "We have found a new and innovative and fun way to go to the public where the public already is."

Flickr can be accessed through the U.S. government blog, GovGab.gov, or the Spanish-language GobiernoUSA.gov. Through this blog, the public can find instructions on how to post pictures and comments to Flickr, as well as guidelines for the photo contest, Godfrey said. The Flickr project is also being promoted via other forms of social media like Facebook and Twitter.

"We're going to feature up to 10 of the best pictures in GovGab," Godfrey said. "You have to own the copyright. No nudity, drugs or violence. We are not censoring anything. As long as it is within the guidelines, it goes up."

Photos posted on the site may be used on GovGab.gov or its affiliated Facebook pages. Anyone 18 years old or above can post pictures on the Website through July 5.

(Copyright 2009 by Federal News Radio.)