What do you think would happen when you ask mobile gov innovators to pile into a coffeeshop with their laptops (and tablets) to share their smarts for the good of helping other agencies make gov available to citizens any time and any where? Well, we did just that. 
In late October, a handful of govies interested in citizen-facing mobile gathered at a coffee shop in D.C. to create content for the Making Mobile Gov Wiki.
We called this gathering a “Wikithon”–kind of like a hackathon for content. Our idea was to gather practitioners together and jump start documenting mobile practices and expertise in agencies and create useful content for the Making Mobile Gov wiki. The Wikithon was also an opportunity for attendees to learn how to use the wiki tool, network with other mobile government leaders and learn about new practices and resources for their own agencies.
Though we were not sure what to expect, we were blown away. When I arrived there were five people ready to get started. The first thing we did was have everyone create an account and get comfortable with using the wiki. We had put together a list of potential topics for folks to work on, but our intrepid Wikithoners came armed with their own ideas.
For instance, Doug Joubert from the National Institutes of Health wrote on mHealth or Mobile Health. Mike Pulsifer from the Department of Labor came in with a bunch of content, uploaded it and headed back to his office. Virtual attendees, like Ryan Day from GSA’s Office of the Chief Financial Officer in Kansas City, got in on the action. Altogether, we had a dozen attendees and created 20 pages of new wiki content.
Wikithon #1 was so successful–and so many people were so sad they missed it–we’re having Wikithon #2 on Monday, November 21st from 2:30-5:00 p.m., upstairs at the coffee shop at 237 Pennsylvania Ave SE Washington, D.C., sponsored by the Mobile Gov Community of Practice. Let me know if you’re interested in attending. We’ll even pick up your coffee!
–Jacob Parcell
Manager, Mobile Programs
**reposted from the Mobile Gov Blog from the Office of Citizen Services & Innovative Technologies at GSA**
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