States

SF government innovators, entrepreneurs to showcase civic value of open data, open government at sf.govfresh

I’m very excited about GovFresh’s first event next week, sf.govfresh, September 1, 2010, 6:00-9:00 p.m. Admission is free and will held in a beautiful space at Adobe‘s San Francisco offices (special thanks to Adobe for hosting and sponsoring this event).

The goal of sf.govfresh is to bring together public servants, citizens, civic developers and social entrepreneurs to network and learn more about San Francisco’s innovation, technology and open government initiatives. Together we can learn how government is changing the way it works and how we as citizens can change the way we work with government.

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An open source union movement

Earlier this year, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom ignited an open source movement in government when the city approved the nation’s first open source software policy. Now, another movement — labor may be getting behind this effort. I have been asked to speak with Local 21 of Professional & Technical Engineers (IFPTE/AFL-CIO) today about Gov 2.0 initiatives I helped lead for Newsom and why unions should embrace open source technology.

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Colorado Chief Data Officer discusses new role and open data

Colorado’s newly-appointed Chief Data Officer Micheline Casey shares on thoughts on her new job and all things open data with Government Technology‘s GTtv. (HT @adrielhampton)

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The opposite of open government

There has been some pretty good discussion lately going around the Interwebs about what Gov 2.0 and open government looks like. I can’t say that I agree with everything that has been thrown out there with a Gov 2.0 label on it, but I can say without equivocation that this is the opposite of OpenGov and Gov 2.0.

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GOSCON10, October 27-28, Portland, Oregon

GOSCON10 (Government Open Source Conference) will be held October 27-28, 2010, at The Nines Hotel in Portland, OR. Details and conference email updates can be found at the GOSCON10 website.

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Minneapolis gives citizens free Internet access, 117 ways to get online

Minneapolis now offers citizens free Internet access from 117 “Wireless Minneapolis” hotspots under contract with USI Wireless.

Sites were selected based on “where people already gather and use computers, and places where free wireless access would encourage people to gather, including parks, plazas, schools and businesses.” Locations will be indicated with signs that say, “Free Wireless Minneapolis Hotspot Courtesy: City of Minneapolis USI Wireless.” A list of hotspots can be found at www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us/wirelessminneapolis.

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Don’t mess with new Texas.gov

The official Texas government Website, Texas.gov, has a new makeover, including prominent search powered by Google, 24/7 live help, activity stream, open datasets, subscription notifications, social media directory, crowd-sourced customer service powered by GetSatisfaction and a mobile-accessible version. The site was developed “without tax funds through a public-private partnership” between the state and NICUSA.

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Michigan’s Calhoun County Road Commission gets a GovFresh makeover

Why government should go beta

In the spirit of innovation, we are happy to announce the launch of the City of Manor in open beta. Manor launched in alpha in March of 1913, and has been operating as such for the last 97 years.

What does open beta mean?

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What’s missing from Gov 2.0?

What missing from Gov 2.0?

The answer: Education.

Like most agencies, we have done a significant amount of research at the City of Manor to determine how we could best use new technologies to interact and engage our citizens. In the process, we have discovered that there is one element that is quite often overlooked within the Gov 2.0 movement- education. Citizen and employee education is critical to the adoption of new technologies because the technology will not be used if it is misunderstood.

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Reno 2.0: How Reno.gov is going Gov 2.0

The year is 2007, and all you can do on the City of Reno, Nevada, website (then cityofreno.com) is pay a parking ticket, when the payment system works. About the only other interactive feature is the animated gif of the flaming building on our fire department’s homepage.

Fast forward to present day, and Reno has transformed its online presence and is embracing Gov 2.0 to connect with citizens and put meaningful services online.

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Sooner the better: Gov 2.0a brings open government to Oklahoma

Oklahoma City will play host to the Gov 2.0a Conference, May 6-7. Participating Oklahoma public officials include Lieutenant Governor Jari Askins, CIO Alex Pettit, State Representatives Ryan Kiesel and Jason Murphey, OK.Gov manager Mark Mitchell and Oklahoma City Creative Director Zach Nash. City of Manor, TX, CIO Dustin Haisler will also present, as will other industry-related executives.

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Poll: What dates work best for you for manor.govfresh event?

We’re taking a poll on what dates work best for you on our manor.govfresh event.

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manor.govfresh: Big ideas for small-town America

When GovFresh first started, I got an email from Dustin Haisler, CIO of Manor, TX, who shared with me all the work they were doing there. At that point in time, I was new to ‘Gov 2.0′ and what could be considered ‘government innovation.’ I was skeptical. I never really thought government could innovate itself out of a paper bag. To think a small-town Texas could do it was completely laughable.

Was this guy for real?

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TrackDC opens up DC government operations to the public

TrackDC is an open government effort by the District of Columbia to make budget, data, contact and other government information accessible to citizens and the media.

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Government 2.0: An Empire State of Mind

Video of New York State Senate Director of Technology Innovation Noel Hidaldo’s (@noneck) IgniteNYC presentation, ‘Government 2.0: An Empire State of Mind.’

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SF launches PolicySF to help governments share ideas

The City of San Francisco has launched PolicySF, a Website to ‘help communities share good ideas with one another.’ The site provides ‘policy toolkits’ with FAQs, processes, sample policy documents and ordinances on SF-specific initiatives. Other governments can also share their ideas.

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Kundra, SF officials promote Open311 API

Here’s video from yesterday’s Open311 press conference in San Francisco, including Vivek Kundra, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, SF CIO Chris Vein and O’Reilly Media’s Tim O’Reilly.

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Open government means open analytics

While there’s a push for citizen ideas using collaboration tools, the trend towards open analytics should be just as important, because it exposes what information real users want and where the agency should focus more of its attention. This should be standard practice for all Web/IT departments, so making this information public is as simple as posting it to the agency blog.

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Gov 2.0 Hero: Mike Rupert

Mike Rupert, Communications Manager for the Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs (DCRA) in Washington, DC. Mike also recently started localgovchat.com and Twitter chat #localgovchat to unite local government communications professionals to share ideas.

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