My thoughts on Government as a Dialogue, not as a platform.
So far I feel like I am just a fly on the wall. well OK I am. I am sitting in the overflow room where we can chillax and watch on the big screen, with what seems more of the local Gov 2.0 heroes to DC. I mean if Mr. GovLoop himself is here, it must be the right place. I don’t even feel like we are being talked AT, where is the participation?
So please read the article. Share what you think? How can we engage and have a dialogue? What do we do once all the data is out the door?
Day 2…up early in the morning. Lots of rapid fire information yesterday. My sense is that once the data is out the door that data.gov should have a community manager spreading the word and engaging in the way Twitter/Facebook and other platforms have similar folks. Also believe there will be some cool projects right away but a lot of the really amazing projects will take time to unfold.
Government 2.0 doesn’t belong just to Washington DC, but it seems like a fitting place for such a movement to be centered.
Extracting this sentence from the end of your piece, I ask you if DC is the best geographical location. If the goal is to innovate (or teach) beltway govies, then the Summit worked. But like you say, government exists beyond the White House. if the goal is to bring people together and collaboratively network and learn on current programs and what-if scenarios, DC is not the right place but I’m unsure where is. Maybe a traveling show?
Also, as I commented to Laurel Ruma after the Summit ended, I sought more content beyond the United States. It was great there was amazing content (mostly at the Expo Showcase) from California, Utah, Arkansas, and Alabama, but what about other countries? In fact, other than Tom Steinberg’s presentation of mySociety on Wednesday, there were no panels/presentations devoted outside the US.
Cylinders of excellence, indeed.