Today, GovLoop, the ning-based social networking site for government communities, announced that is has been bought out by GovDelivery, a for-profit, government communications service provider.

Upon hearing this, I deleted my account, because it just feels a bit icky to talk about communications issues on a social network owned by a company trying to get business solving those issues.

Via twitter, the founder of GovLoop contacted me and said that he chose this company because they promised not to use the network to solicit business, but that seems unrealistic to me. They are a business. If not to increase their potential for contracts, why would they bother buying the network?

Here’s the press release: http://www.govdelivery.com/pdfs/GovLoop_Release.pdf. Here is some additional info: http://www.govdelivery.com/govloop.php

I’d love to hear what others think about this new development. Is it okay to discuss our communications challenges on a network owned by a company that might want to send us bids/proposals to solve those challenges?