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.
In a new public service announcement from Code for America, Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, Twitter’s Biz Stone and Flickr/Hunch founder Caterina Fake pitch Code for America’s Fellows program, which aims to recruit developers and designers for public service-oriented development projects. The spot also features CfA Executive Director Jen Pahlka, U.S. Chief Technology Officer Aneesh Chopra and CfA Board member Tim O’Reilly.
A discussion with Mark Headd, an app developer and former govie, about civic apps. Headd explains Open311 and accessing government services and lowering costs using Twitter, and gives ideas on how to engage developers around government civic apps contests.
Gov 2.0 Hero Day is held annually on June 15 to celebrate citizens inside and outside government who go above and beyond the call of duty and creatively leverage technology to build a more open, transparent and collaborative democracy. These dedicated citizens are commonly referred to as Gov 2.0 Heroes.
Gadi Ben-Yehuda, Social Media Director for the Center for the Business of Government, shares his insights into how government can better leverage Twitter.
The Beltway is buzzing about Twitter’s new Government Liaison gig, and the excitement is shaking DC like a California earthquake. The aftershock has produced a smart post by Andrew Wilson (Top 10 Requests for the New Government Liaison at Twitter) that offers great ideas for Twitter as they comb through a stack of resumes bigger than a GPO print job.
Twitter’s plan to hire a government liaison (its first DC employee) has set off a a tweetstorm from the U.S. Capitol to London to Tokyo, and likely a flood of resumes into the Web 2.0 firm’s SoMa offices. Some of the Gov 2.0 community’s brightest have already offered great suggestions for how this new Twitter position can serve official government social media, and, with Facebook’s recent stumbles, the lighter social network may have a real opening here.I look forward to commenting and continuing the discussion on Twitter and on friend’s blogs (check out the hashtag #twitgov), but here I wanted to offer a few thoughts on the political side of the equation.
I occasionally post critical comments when government is operating outside my definition of ‘open’ and only do so when I believe it’s important for the community at large to consider it in context of their own actions. By and large, GovFresh posts are positive, educational and, at times, congratulatory pieces that highly offset the critiques.
I like making lists, so when GovFresh invited me to put together a list of women involved in government and technology efforts, I jumped at the chance. But although top ten lists are wildly popular, I’ve met so many incredible people working on Gov 2.0, open government, e-gov efforts that I thought the world needed a better glimpse of the breadth of involvement women have at all levels of government, in nonprofits, academia, conferences, media and the private sector. The hope is that this list will allow event organizers, members of the media, other list makers, etc. to easily build a diverse representation in their projects.
Because there isn’t a consistent strategy around government Twitter follow lists, I’ve been thinking more about how agencies and municipalities can better leverage this feature to support citizens.
Some government agencies/municipals follow only related agencies and departments within the agency, as well as elected leaders and appointed executive officials. Others appear to follow whomever might be affiliated with the person managing the account or, worse, whomever follows them. Following everyone that follows you isn’t scalable and could potentially be perceived as an endorsement of that person or company’s product and services.
Mark Drapeau, Director of Innovative Social Engagement, Microsoft, discusses Web 2.0 companies’ ownership of data, government’s use of these tools and related issues around this use.
When my son turned three, we got him a bike with training wheels. He did quite well, but when it came time to take off those training wheels, he violently refused. Even a three year-old knew that going from four wheels down to two would increase his chances of falling from zero to incredibly high. That’s because training wheels aren’t actually training wheels. They’re impeding wheels. They rob you of the chance to learn balance, which is the most important lesson in riding a bike. It doesn’t matter how good you can pedal or steer, you have little chance of success if you can’t balance.
LocalGovChat (@localgovchat) is a weekly Twitter chat to help local government communicators connect and learn from one another. Chats are held Wednesdays from 9-10 p.m. EST.
John Lisle, Public Information Officer for the District Department of Transportation (DDOT) in Washington, DC, shares his thoughts on leveraging social media and the value of using a little personality to connect with constituents.
Dominic Campbell, founder of FutureGov and TweetyHall, shares his thoughts on Gov 2.0., (is that what they call it?), in the UK.
What was your path to Gov 2.0?
I came to government straight out of university (I’d actually wanted to work in local government since I was 17, if can you believe it) where I was lucky enough to be given the opportunity to work my way around a local city council and poke, prod and challenge existing practice.
During this time, I was exposed to a wide range of public services and bodies and became very aware of the gap between image and reality surrounding people working in government. The vast majority are hard working, committed individuals who do it out of love and a real passion to change the world. But they are hindered all the way by bad management, poor leadership, a culture of risk aversion and blockers like awful IT systems that are made by robots for robots. I refused to believe things had to be this way.
Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mullen discuss the impact of social media on democratic freedom and how military can leverage it.
When I saw this article by Air Force General Craig McKinley (@ChiefNGB) about why he tweets, it got me thinking about military transparency. They are, after all, a huge part of the government — I should know, I grew up military, with a dad who’s still serving.
While I was visiting my parents over Thanksgiving, he was excited to show me a new recruiting video featuring some of his people, in a real-life scenario where they stop a piece of debris from colliding with a satellite. My dad doesn’t tweet, but the fact that he was excited about a video showing the real inner-workings of what we monitor in outer space suggested to me something beyond pride in his team. It dovetails with one of the reasons General McKinley gave for his tweeting habit.
Six simple ways to get GovFresh. Other ideas on how we can connect or work together? Contact us or email me at luke [at] govfresh [dot] com.
MC3 William Selby and DoD Public Affairs chief Price Floyd share tips on keeping you and your family safe when using social networking sites, such as Twitter and Facebook, and how personal activity can affect your reputation as well as operations security.
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Why Twitter’s government outreach is a big win for the Gov 2.0 movement
For at least that past two years, a tiny yet fast-growing group of folks who call themselves “Gov 2.0 advocates” has worked tirelessly to spread a message that emerging technologies, low-cost communications and digital culture can reshape government to be more collaborative, transparent, efficient and connected to its citizens.
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