By GovFresh · June 22, 2011
Photo by Ryan Resella
SFOpen 2011 brought together 9 of the major San Francisco mayoral candidates last week to discuss technology and government, but it also put on display the reason I love the open government community so much.
Friends from all around the Bay Area (and even the East Coast) came together at Automattic to support and watch the first ever mayoral forum on open government, civic technology and public innovation and, despite the political nature of the event, there was much love in the room.
Most of our interaction with government tends to be negative. We get taxed or ticketed. We fight it and complain about how broken it is. We see it as a faceless bureaucracy without realizing good people inside and out are doing something to change this.
Many of those people were in that room last week and were excited to see that a simple civic agenda based on empowering citizens and addressing the basic tenets of open government (transparency, collaboration, participation) will trump politics every time.
SFOpen would’ve never happened without Brian Purchia, Change.org, GAFFTA, Automattic and Code for America, all of whom helped make its execution flawless.
I’d like to especially thank our moderator Mitch Kapor and the candidates themselves for sharing their ideas and showing a willingness to learn about an area that’s new to many:
- Michela Alioto-Pier
- John Avalos
- David Chiu
- Bevan Dufty
- Tony Hall
- Dennis Herrera
- Joanna Rees
- Phil Ting
- Leland Yee
Thanks again to everyone who supported and was excited about SFOpen from the beginning. I’ve said this already, but I especially appreciate Brian Purchia’s leadership and hope one day he himself runs for mayor.
I’m proud of San Francisco and its open government community, and I’m hopeful this may be the beginning of a new conversation in politics, not just here, but everywhere.
Press
- SFist: SFist Attends: Last Night's SF Mayoral Open Government Forum
- TechPresident: Tonight, a Mayoral Debate on Open Government in San Francisco
- SFAppeal: Mayoral Candidates Cordial During Debate On Best Ways To Use Tech To Improve SF
- San Francisco Examiner: LIVE COVERAGE: San Francisco mayoral candidate debate
- SF Gate: Mayoral candidates: Internet access for everyone!
- Huffington Post: Open for Government: San Francisco Mayoral Candidates to Debate Tech and Transparency
- SF Gate: Open season
- Politico: OPEN GOVERNMENT MOVEMENT GOES LOCAL
- TechPresident: In San Francisco, Open Government Becomes a Campaign Issue
Gov 2.0 Radio
Post-SFOpen interview I did with Adriel Hampton and Allison Hornery:
[audio:http://www.blogtalkradio.com/gov20/2011/06/20/civic-technology-issues-explode-onto-the-sf-scene]
Video
Recorded livestream:
Elsewhere
- SFOpen 2011 Flickr pool
- #sfopen hashtag on Twitter