Yearly Archives: 2009

Paradise Lost?

Michael Tiemann says that there is no Moore’s Law for software. We are in an economic paradise lost. According to Albert Einstien, the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. With global IT spending on the rise and 30% annual waste on bad software (I believeRead… Read more »

Gov 2 Summit – Rapid Fire

Everyblock – Pick your local area and feed of everything you know about that area. Records, public records. Been doing it for two years. Get data in two ways – screen scrapping from gov websites and going to city hall. -Making sites scraper-friendly is an easy win -Diffs not dumps -PDFs are not machine-readable -DescribeRead… Read more »

Doing it, DIO Style

Warranting a mini-post, Scott Heiferman of MeetUp fame just rocked the Rapid Fire session at the Gov 2.0 Summit. In short: Do It Ourselves – Do it DIO style Use the net to get off the net Build sustainable, built-to-last groups Have people with Roles, not people as audience alone Spark C2C – Do itRead… Read more »

Just Added NEW WMU Course “Video Bootcamp”

We wanted to let you know of a new course we’ve just added from Web Manager University: an INTENSE two-day “Video Bootcamp” class in Washington, DC October 13-14. Because the format and cost of this class is different from our regular classes, please be sure to read the details below carefully. Please also share thisRead… Read more »

Apps for Democracy vs. Wiki Editorial – Keys to Open Collaboration Success

In contrasting the collaborative project Apps for Democracy and the LA Times’ 2005 Wiki editorial experiment, Clay Shirky, highlights keys to success for open collaboration. 1. You’re engaging in open collaboration because of the possibilities. Don’t over manage the process and create too many rules. 2. Give participants space to participate and be as creativeRead… Read more »

Gov 2 Summit – FixMyStreet

mySociety group from UK…..does sites like FixMyStreet and WhatDoTheyKnow Report problems in your street. Fix rate is about 50% WhatDoTheyKnow – archives of FOIA requests and answers TheyWorkForYou – politicians, what they said, and what they do Lessons to look for – 1 – Combine services that normal people want with transparency even if theyRead… Read more »

From the Digital Commonwealth to the Digital Nation (Tim O’Reilly, Aneesh Chopra)

I’m listening to the nation’s first technology officer, Aneesh Chopra at the Gov 2.0 Summit. Mr. Chopra serves as an assistant to the President and he makes sure the President get the best advice about technology. He’s responsible for surfacing new ideas and making sure they’re brought to the table for discussion. He is responsibleRead… Read more »

Gov 2 Summit – Clay Johnson

Clay Johnson of Sunlight Labs: 47 Open Source Projects….10k, 5k, 2,500 prizes. Local spending – Uses HTML 5 to pick budget for area. Does it for local recovery as well. FBI Fugitive Concentration – Memory card game Flyontime.us – probability of how likely your flight will be delayed Data.gov timeline – plot of the timelineRead… Read more »

Gov 2 Summit – Clay Shirky

Telling story about LA Times, Apps for Democracy, and Fines…. LA Times had no space to adapt. Apps for Democracy. Understood motive of hackers. Encourage and support motives. Didn’t take credit until after apps were done. Contract to users has to be complete but not too complete. Users are motivated to do things you willRead… Read more »