Reinvent will host Code for America Founder Jen Pahlka and O’Reilly Media Founder Tim O’Reilly on January 19 in San Francisco in a discussion on how civic-minded technologists should approach the ongoing reinvention of government in the Trump era.
City enthusiasts, innovators: Register for BRIDGE SF
San Francisco Bay Area city enthusiasts and innovators can now register for BRIDGE SF, “a collaboration of public, private, non-profit, and academic institutions coming together to challenge assumptions, develop skills, share best practices, and build partnerships that drive innovation for a better tomorrow.”
New online course: Agile for the government product owner
Agile Government Leadership has launched a new online course focused on the government product owner.
Free webinar: ‘Agile for the Government Project Manager’
Agile Government Leadership has created a AGL Academy to help public sector professionals (and their supporting vendors) learn more about agile development practices in the context of government.
Get 10% off Code for America Summit registration with GovFresh discount code
This year’s Code for America Summit is September 30 to October 2 in Oakland, California, and friends of GovFresh get a 10 percent discount.
RSVP: CivicMeet for Bay Area civic entrepreneurs
If you’re a Bay Area civic entrepreneur interested in connecting with your peers, we’re getting together for a CivicMeet in August. The format will be informal networking, happy hour style.
How you can get involved in the 2015 National Day of Civic Hacking
The 2015 National Day of Civic Hacking will be held on June 6. To date, more than 70 events around the world have been scheduled. The global hackathon, targeted to “urbanists, government staff, developers, designers, and activists,” is organized by Code for America and Second Muse.
New video roundtable series: ‘Transforming Government IT’
A new roundtable series focused on “Transforming Government IT” will bring together leaders in both the public and private sectors from Washington, D.C., to Silicon Valley, to discuss how the federal government can reinvent its approach to technology.
Register and learn how Salt Lake City is going agile
Join Agile Government Leadership tomorrow via Google Hangout on Air for a discussion on how Salt Lake City is implementing agile development.
Jan. 10: Celebrate your city on CityCamp Day
To celebrate the fifth anniversary of CityCamp, we’re encouraging cities across the world to celebrate CityCamp Day on January 10, 2015.
Join us at the 2014 Code for America Summit
The 2014 Code for America Summit is set for September 23-24 and registration is now open.
Reinventing government procurement
Reinventors is hosting a live, online government procurement roundtable with key nonprofit, business and media leaders on Thursday, July 31, 2014, at 11:00 a.m. PT.
Save the date (May 31-June 1) and hack your city
The goal of the annual event is to “bring together citizens, software developers, and entrepreneurs together to collaboratively create, build, and invent new solutions using publicly-released data, code and technology to improve our communities and the governments that serve them.”
NYC chief urban designer to speak at CivicMeet Oakland Nov. 7
NYC Chief Urban Designer Alex Washburn will share his insights at CivicMeet Oakland on November 7, 5:00 to 7:00 p.m., SoMar.
Civic leaders, technologists set to convene for 2013 Code for America Summit
Registration is still open for the 2013 Code for America Summit set for October 15 to 17 in San Francisco.
Civic accelerator Tumml to host ‘Urban Innovation and the Role of Government’ talk
Urban ventures accelerator Tumml will host a panel discussion, Uncharted Territory: Urban Innovation and the Role of Government, on January 28 from 5:30 to 7:00 p.m. at the Hatchery in San Francisco (Register here).
New monthly civic innovators meetup launches in San Francisco
CivicMeet is a new monthly meetup that brings together public and private sector innovators working to create a more open, engaged civil society.
Wrapping up Code for Oakland 2012
Today, I had the opportunity to attend Code for Oakland 2012 and, as always with events like this, walked away inspired by the work of good friends and the enthusiasm of citizens and public servants wanting to do more for their communities. Big kudos to all involved engaging, organizing and sponsoring a great event in a great city.
Oakland gets its code on
Code for Oakland will be held July 21 at the Kaiser Center in Oakland, Ca. Steve Spiker, OpenOakland Brigade Captain and Director of Research & Technology for Urban Strategies Council, discusses Oakland’s open data progress and what attendees can expect from the event.
Motivating developers to attend and make meaningful contributions at civic hackathons
Mark Headd has an interesting thought on how to encourage better participation at civic hackathons, suggesting perhaps a registration fee would encourage more reliable participation.
Reno readies for world’s biggest little hackathon
The world’s biggest little city is about to get its code on.
SF developers, journalists, civic activists kick off second Summer of Smart hackathon
It’s 9:15 on Friday night, and there are about 100 people milling around the GAAFTA headquarters.
Social Congress and the 21st century legislator
How is it possible, in the 21st century, that I can Skype with friends in China, keep up with my friends across the country via Facebook and exchange messages with the CEO of a startup I admire on Twitter, but yet when I try to communicate with my members of Congress, it seems like everything I do is swallowed up by the black abyss?
SF developers, public servants pitch their civic tents at CityCampSF
If there’s one lesson that’s inherent to CityCampSF, it’s that crowdsourcing will save the world.
CityCamp founder Kevin Curry on CityCampSF
CityCamp founder Kevin Curry on how CityCamp San Francisco fits in and stands out.
Tropo’s Mark Headd on hackathons and open government
Tropo’s Mark Headd discusses the impact of hackathons on the open government movement and how developers can get involved.
Open government keeps its heart in San Francisco with (second) CityCampSF
CityCampSF 2011 will be held this Saturday, June 18, 2011, and feature municipal employees, journalists, developers and neighborhood leaders “working on solutions for better communities and government.”
OpenGovDC, ‘open source tools for open government’ and Q&A with Phase2 CEO Jeff Walpole
Federal government open source and open government practitioners will convene for a one-day conference, OpenGovDC, June 14 at Woolly Mammoth Theatre in Washington, DC.
OpenGov Camp hits the Big Apple
Photo via Wikipedia
New York open government advocates and civic techs will gather this weekend to build on its past and current efforts at OpenGov Camp. The event is this Sunday, June 5, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., at the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism. Register here.
Organizer Noel Hidalgo of Reinvent Albany discusses the event’s objectives and what he hopes will come of it.
What is OpenGovNYC and who should attend?
OpenGov NYC is for the “DO’er,” the entrepreneur, the thinker, the academic AND the government worker. For the past few years, our friends up and down the eastern seaboard and across the NYC metro area AND up in Albany have been doing a great opening the doors of government. In many of these cases, it has been a partnership of participation. This is why we have Reinvent Albany – an advocacy group, Personal Democracy Forum – a network of journalists, and Digital Democracy – an on the ground “do tank”. This event follows in the tradition of creating a safe space for conversation and a platform for collaboration.
Give us your take on what’s happening in NYC open government.
Open government in NYC and in Albany is in a very precious location. No longer is about an experiment, but how to maximize an investment of tax dollars. From the SAGE commission in Albany to NYC’s digital future report, NY’s leaders know that there are smart people who have the knowledge to outline the problems. The real problem is if we have the political will to take on those problems and apply a logical, fiscally responsible solution. The only way to do this is to remove the blinders and openly talk about the problems.
In Albany, Governor Cuomo has a policy playbook filled with program outlines and sample operational structure to create a team that will open NY.
Here in NYC, the Council, the Administration and good government advocates are trying to advance several pieces of legislation that would embolden the great work the city has done and point it in the proper direction for the 21st century. It’s a struggle because some in the Administration get it and some don’t. This isn’t unique to open government; we see the same stubbornness in the advocacy for car-free transportation alternatives.
What do you want attendees to take away from OpenGovNYC and any longer-term objectives?
At OpenGov Camp, attendees will leave knowing that they have friends in and out of government. Our work is too precious for advocates to fight against the system. We want to work hand-in-hand through the tough, confusing and archaic thinking to create a City and state State home to the most innovative ideas, the social entrepreneurs and the “developers”. Together, we can have a double bottom line that helps out “Main Street” and “City Hall”.
Register for OpenGov Camp and follow the latest news on Twitter at @OpenNYforum and the hashtag #OGCamp.
San Francisco mayoral candidates to share their open government ideas at SFOpen 2011
Today is a big day for open government everywhere, especially San Francisco.
I’m pleased to announce that eight major San Francisco mayoral candidates will participate in SFOpen 2011, a townhall forum focused specifically on open government, citizen engagement and leveraging technology to build better government. The event will be held June 16 at Automattic (home of WordPress) and will be moderated by tech legend Mitch Kapor.
Participating candidates include Michela Alioto-Pier, David Chiu, Bevan Dufty, Tony Hall, Dennis Herrera, Joanna Rees, Phil Ting and Leland Yee.
As part of this announcement:
- Candidates will begin blogging their ideas on the newly-launched sf.govfresh, where fellow candidates and citizens will have the opportunity to engage with them openly and directly.
- We’ve started an idea platform, SFIdeas, so that citizens can share their ideas for San Francisco.
At a time when government needs to leverage the power of collaboration, this is an excellent opportunity for candidates to show their commitment to the principles of open government. It’s an opportunity for open government to be a major discussion topic right at the beginning of the political process. Hopefully it will serve as a model for candidates and open government advocates everywhere.
This wouldn’t have happened without the great work of Brian Purchia and the support of Change.org, Automattic, Third Thursdays SF, Gov 2.0 Radio and CityCampSF.
So, learn more about SFOpen 2011, the candidates, start sharing your ideas for new San Francisco and stay tuned for a great discussion on the future of one of the world’s leading open cities.
Integrated, Open, Inspiring – Let’s Do It SF!
The San Francisco’s City Attorney’s Office (where I work) has launched an anti-blight initiative that wraps consumer tech, city services and a local-global approach to volunteerism in a multi-channel social media package.
Video highlights from TransportationCamp West
Video highlights from the recent TransportationCamp West held in San Francisco are now available thanks to StreetFilms.
Free open data webinar: ‘Build Your Own Data.Gov Site in 30 Days’
Open data start-up Socrata will host a free webinar, Build Your Own Data.Gov Site in 30 Days, tomorrow, January 19, 11:00 a.m. PST. Founder and CEO Kevin Merritt will demo how goverment can leverage Socrata platform to to build their own open government data initiatives.
Government goes open source, GOSCONit!
Government technologists and open source advocates will have a meeting of the minds at next week’s Government Open Source Conference (GOSCON) in Portland, OR, October 27-28. The conference features a great program and speaker line-up (including our main man Gunnar Hellekson) and GovFresh is proud to support their great work.
Small(town) is beautiful and the manor.govfresh wrap-up
E.F. Schumacher’s Small is Beautiful neatly summarizes my beliefs on how society should work and provides the most appropriate slogan for the way I approach much of my life.
‘Small is beautiful’ best describes manor.govfresh, held this past Sept 20-21, in Manor, TX, and exemplifies where I believe we can have the most impact on changing how government works and where the open government community should turn its focus. The theme around manor.govfresh was government and technology, but the underlying premise was learning how we can strengthen community at its most local. So much is discussed at the federal, state and major metropolitan levels that we see small-town America as an after-thought. It’s not sexy, but it’s where change can happen faster and have a more immediate impact on citizens.
Fresh wrap: sf.govfresh
Public servants, developers and entrepreneurs gathered together to discuss and learn about the civic value of open data and how the City of San Francisco and private citizens are leveraging this opportunity at sf.govfresh, Sept. 1, at Adobe Systems’ San Francisco offices. Speakers included San Francisco Chief Information Officer Chris Vein, Mom Maps Founder & CEO Jill Seman, San Francisco Department of Technology Director of Innovation Jay Nath, Stamen Partner Michal Migurski, Routesy Founder Steven Peterson and SF Environment Internet Communications Coordinator Lawrence Grodeska.
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.
London Camping: CityCampLDN on for Oct. 8-10
The CityCamp World Tour kicks off in London at CityCampLDN, October 8-10. See the official site for complete details. You can also follow on Twitter at @CityCampLDN.
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.
Win a free ticket to Next Generation of Government Summit
We’re giving away one free ticket to next week’s Next Generation of Government Summit in Arlington, VA, hosted by GovLoop.
National Association of Government Webmasters National Conference, St. Louis, MO, Sept. 22-24
The National Association of Government Webmasters will hold its 2010 National Conference at the Millennium Hotel in St. Louis, MO, Sept. 22-24. The event will focus on “the professional development of webmasters, programmers, designers, developers, managers, CIOs and other government technology professionals from the local, state and federal government, and Web development world in general.”
Next Generation of Government Summit, July 6-7, Arlington, Virginia
GovLoop and Young Government Leaders will host the Next Generation of Government Summit to “tackle issues the next generation is facing in their daily government lives.” The 2-day conference will be held July 6-7 at the Westin Arlington Gateway in Arlington, Virginia.
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.
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.
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?
Gov 2.0 Expo: Game on, baby
Gov 2.0 game on, baby.
Gov 2.0 Expo registration is officially open, and I’m feeling much better since my last post. With all this Open Government Directive stuff flying around, Feds are scrambling and no one here at the White House cares who tweets where anymore. This morning I saw a Secret Service guy on his smoke break DMing Willie Nelson (@willienelson) from the White House roof. Gigglegate really got things going, but Gov 2.0 Expo will …
Bring.
Down.
The.
(White) House.
Gov 2.0 goes Hollywood
Gov 2.0 LA, an ‘un-conference’ on social media and government, will be held Feb. 5-7. Registration is free to all attendees.
Sponsors include Microsoft, You2Gov, Rock Creek Strategic Marketing, Internet E-Business, O’Reilly Media, SeeClickFix and BLANKSPACES.
Free online Gov 2.0 conference Dec. 10
O’Reilly Media will host a free online Gov 2.0 conference, Facing Challenges and Winning: Five Government 2.0 Examples, December 10, 9:00 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. (Eastern).