Food for Thought From #Gov2.0LA

I am going to be honest. No one is twisting my arm this weekend to attend Gov2.0LA. With a backdrop like this, and temperatures in the mid-70s, life is good. Not to mention the rampant ideas and energy-rich conversations going on with a room full of experts dedicated to making government better.

Despite my sun-induced coma, here are 10 facts/pieces of food for thought brought up over the last few days that I find particularly interesting.

Thanks to all speakers for the stimulation.

1. Technologists are the new urban planners.

2. Mobile is not just about phones. Example: MIT’s Coppenhagen Wheel (fascinating)

3. When trying to communicate via social media channels, listen first, know who your audience is, tell your story effectively, make your story human, and realize like any other form of communication, you are in showbiz.

4. In LA, only 10% of pothole notifications are made by citizens.

5. Wouldn’t people feel differently about the government if it had a Disney approach? Example: you go to Disney World and you can ask any rep to help you with any problem, and rather than bumping it to another person to address, they help you fix it right then and there, or direct you to someone who can address it.

6. Understanding data is becoming increasingly more important in our open data world. How better to educate our upcoming generation of kids about data but by introducing it into the K-12 curriculum? This is exactly what Data.gov is doing…launching a K-12 data campaign…helping kids understand what data means, how to look at it, what is correlation vs. causation…pretty cool! Want to learn more about this? Tweet the Chief Knowledge Architect at NASA Jeanne Holm.

7. Big problems can be solved with a little effort by a lot of people, and a government that listens.

8. In last 90 days on the government procurement site FedBizOpps, there were 180 RFPs with “social media” in search terms. Proof this is happening. Pretty cool.

9. Here’s a way to really inspire people: tell a story of how a neighborhood/organization/person/situation transforms: use a brief video, with animated cartoon or emotional clips, and tell in a humorous, accurate way. For example, let’s say you have a plot of land in an economically depressed neighborhood. Tell a story of how the plot is cleaned up, local farmers set up a simple farmers market, and the neighborhood is transformed into a thriving space, with happy people.

10. A lot of traffic in major cities is caused by people driving around looking for parking. This new iPhone app locates parking spots in Hollywood to cut down on traffic and improve quality of life.