Monthly Archives: April 2012

Make Conversations Possible: What Open Standards and Open Source means to government and citizens

Over the past week, we have been inundated with articles surfacing in response to the UK government’s first open standards roundtable discussion hosted by the Cabinet Office that was held on the 4th of April. It was described as “a resounding call to scrap the government’s policy on open standards“, as Mark Ballard from ComputerRead… Read more »

Chicago-Based CrowdSpring Powers Free Creative Work For Nonprofits

Mark Drapeau (Washington, DC) — Even when a successful nonprofit takes in a lot of money, much of it is earmarked for carrying out their main mission. Things like advertising, design work, and other activities, while valuable, are expendable if funds are limited. Now, a creative services company is helping them, pro bono. Crowdspring– aRead… Read more »

NASA space hackathon (in Vancouver) this weekend

So, many, many things I’d like to blog upon at the moment. I’m in Brasilia at the Open Government Partnership meeting, so obviously lots to talk about there, and, of course, Canada Post has completely lost it and is suing a company over postal code data but it’s been twenty hour days and those postRead… Read more »

ACBI Broadband Apps Day 2012 in Sydney

I’ve just been let know that the Australian Centre for Broadband Innovation (ACBI) is hosting a Broadband Apps Day at Australian Technology Park in Sydney on Friday 27 April. As their summary about the event states, Apps – simple, useful applications that run on smart phones and tablets – are becoming increasingly popular, but whereRead… Read more »

We Need Public Financing Of Elections

Political campaigns are where power and cash meet. Politicians need lot’s of money to run for office. People seeking jobs or government business provide the money politicians need. The current campaign process truly is a “pay to play” system in that the best way to get a politicians attention is by donating money to theirRead… Read more »

Frequently Asked Questions for Gov 2.0: How do we manage the resourcing requirements of engaging online?

Another question I get asked regularly is “How do we manage the resourcing requirements of engaging online?” This is an interesting ‘length of string’ question as the resourcing requirements of social media vary dramatically depending on why and how an organisation chooses to use social media. Generally the more engaging your participation the higher theRead… Read more »

HelpMeConsult: Independent Guide to Formal E-Consultation

Also announced today was HelpMeConsult, another online resource for online consultations. From the blog post: The second lanch is a solo project. It’s called ‘HelpMeConsult‘ and is an independent guide to (formal) eConsultation. It contains details of the various solutions, legal matters and tips/tactics. So, just another data push? Wrong! We’re adding a premium contentRead… Read more »

Training – Online, In-Person, Blended — What works and What doesn’t?

When it comes to training there are a whole bunch of different philosophies: webinars, online and in-person. But one thing is certain government workers need to be in a culture of continual learning. But tight budgets, baby boomers retiring and the GSA conference scandal mean trainings are under more scrutiny than ever. Now there isRead… Read more »