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David Tallan

Gov 2.0 Camp: from the Twitterstream

Here's another one of my soon to be patented (:->) reports from a conference I didn't attend, brought to you through the benificence of the Twitterverse.

Unfortunately, it isn't as complete as I'd like. After TransparencyCamp, when I discovered that the Twitter Search runs out after 100 pages of history, I new I'd have to find a different solution for Gov 2.0 Camp. I expected this one to have a lot more tweets than the last. (And I was right!) My solution was to grab the RSS feed for the #gov20camp Twitter search and pipe it in to my Google reader. That way I wouldn't have to worry about tweets falling off the bottom of the Twitter Search.

It didn't work so well. I don't know why, but only a fraction of the tweets made it into the RSS feed. I realized something was up when I kept seeing retweets but not the original tweets. In the end, I think only 10-20% of the tweets made it over to Google reader. So the summary below is based on the bit from the RSS stream and about 120 pages of Titter Search history. A lot, especially from the first day, I never saw.

Below are the highlights of what I did see, this time organized thematically rather than chronologically. (Let me know in the comments if that works better for you. I think it's necessary for (un)conferences like this with concurrent sessions.) If you don't the tweet you are proud of, it's not because I didn't think it a highlight. It's because I didn't see it.

And if you were there and tweeted: Thanks!

Summaries:
Blogs and reports:
Videos/Slideshows from Sessions:
Quotable Quotes
  • krazykriz: Best introduction so far: "Let's do this!"
  • alecjr: maybe i don't get gov 2.0, but sure as hell would like gov 1.0 to work first
  • jfc3: you don't need policy for common sense.
  • dominiccampbell: Apparently social media ruined the stock exchange. Too much data and info exchange. Hmmm
  • technicalfault: @dominiccampbell soc med ruined stock exchange: Who on EARTH said that? Not a free marketeer. More info = more perfect market
  • sanford: Could developers be to the 21st Century which civil and mechanical engineers were to the 20th Century?
  • sabrak: Lots of discussions about trust. Methinks the issue at hand is more about control.
  • jack_holt: if you can develop it for Africa it will work in Iowa @noneck
  • KetyE: web 2.0 as a tool 2 truly address the question of diversity- 'Diverse perspectives, opinions & beliefs'
  • chrisheuer: one other insight I meant to share was "diversity matters, and it is required" get other voices diff then yours in the room
Accessibility
  • tjohns06: "We would love to stream every press conference but don't have the money to transcribe and caption everything that fast" @BevUSA
  • sarahebourne: Lisa Wolfisch Census has created FULLY accessible flash video player. Has testing lab with strict and thorough tester
  • sarahebourne: Problem: very little browser support for ARIA. So even if you follow the rules can still fail
  • sarahebourne: How much can we crowdsource? What's wrong w/ our sites? And get help like closed captioning?
  • sarahebourne: Tools available for captioning, see for instance wgbh.org
  • sarahebourne: Google Audio Indexing GAUDI http://labs.google.com/gaudi
  • sarahebourne: Twitter color schemes can fail contrasts- agencies need to take care
Blogging
  • jfranks03: On blogging: You need 10% neg comments to be credible as a gov blog. Are you ready to be credible?
  • lostonroute66: at USA.gov every single tweet must stand on it's own as a useful piece of information
  • web20blog: 18 yrs in USCG and he saw the blog. It was the first time he knew what the commandant was thinking and the purpose the assignments
  • dkrape: EPA blog concepts were based on State's Dipnote: http://blogs.state.gov
  • dkrape: Main reason to blog? Put a human face on a 17,000 people organization. [Heh, we're people too!] Also, what EPA does.
  • joelogon: @levyj413 - Usual blog fear is getting piled on in comments; real problem is no comments. Which is much worse.
  • dkrape: How did the EPA launch their blog? They started by faking it, with flat HTML and no comments. Later got Wordpress
  • dkrape: Q: How do you get bloggers? A: All volunteer, public affairs tries not to blog too much. Lots of follow-up with writers.
  • dkrape: Q: Do you get non-USG writers? A: Not yet next step. But keep a list of interesting people to engage. Env belongs to all
  • fantomplanet: @dkrape Find your "passionate" employees, and have them talk about what they know.
Consultation
  • NoelDickover: If govt agencies are not agile, they really can't take all this crowdsourced input and change things quickly.
  • sharontb: should we be narrowing our stakeholder input or just putting ourselves out there for the loudest voices
  • smburns: Wondering if wisdom of crowd ever gets crushed by the loudest (sometimes unwise) people in the crowd.
  • macurak: If Web 2.0 will solve public participation how do we engage older people, low-income people, people w/o Internet access?
Demographics
  • krazykriz: We need to have a training for older generations - not necessarily to show how to use (it's easy), but to raise awareness
  • krazykriz: My take: social media bridges the gen gap b/c we don't see age; only another human voice sharing ideas and collaborating
  • krazykriz: Parents to Kids - Q: Why don't you unlock YouTube ? A: b/c there's icky stuff there" That's THE Metaphor for dynamic NOW
Examples
  • ZachTumin: Well, @govloop and @cdorobek, I'm thinking we might need a Gov 2.0 "Oscars" - and a "Razzies" - awards program... :)
  • dkrape: Q: PD examples that really connect with people? May notes My Culture+My Culture=? video contest: http://exchanges.state.gov
  • justgrimes: Mentioned this earlier at #gov20camp but several people at UMD researching crisis tech http://www.cs.umd.edu/hcil/911gov/ #CrisisCamp, Illspread the word
  • noneck: http://government20bestpractices.pbwiki.com - int'l community on gov20
  • planetrussell: State Dept: Serious stuff in virtual worlds: conf's on human trafficking, security, language training, NGO collaboration.
  • kmcurry: Collecting twitter use cases here: http://tinyurl.com/czlee3
  • planetrussell: Now in Public Diplomacy & SoMe Session at #gov20camp tag = #pd20 State has its own socnet: http://connect.state.gov, launched 10/08
  • JuliaBeeBuzz: Example of "deep engagement" = enabling informed action - HumanServices.net - a gateway to an "Information Commons"
  • StevenAsher: CTO of Seattle- seattle.gov every fire truck dispatch is published to Google Maps w/in 60 seconds. Wow
  • markstencel: Seattle's Real-Time 911 Dispatch: http://is.gd/pqKB
  • mikel: Seattle.gov publishes real time fire dept map/data. DC has real time snow plow map. Dreaming of gov data flows
Gov 2.0 (the term)
  • immunity: This cute UK guy speaking now makes real value points about why they don't want to call it Government 2.0, its too geeky.
  • immunity: His point and accent make me want to be part of the EU (future gov networks vs. Government 2.0)
  • sarahebourne: Advocate for "open government" - may be less geeky, more meaningful to more people
IT
  • sabrak: Overheard three different conversations about "why does IT always say no?" Good question, I think.
  • rasiej: Macon Phillips being asked "Where are the CIOs?" by federal employees who are here hungry for new media to come to their agencies.
  • sabrak: Lack of mgmt oversight threatens mgrs. Fear of jobs becoming irrelevant. Gov tech model is turned upside down.
  • fantomplanet: @matthewburton Ask the WH ppl if they have to go thru security & an architecture review board 80 times.
  • lovisatalk: Need shorter lifecycles due to rapid changes in tech. Sustainabilty & rapid prototyping need to be considered
  • sabrak: No more long implementations, years of planning, policy, big budgets. Tools are free or cheap and easy to deploy.
  • minaah: Private vs public clouding. which is appropriate for your agency?
Lessons Learned
  • amandare: Always start with the mission. Mgmt shouldn't force a technology solution. Adopt what makes sense to your audience, even if 1.0
  • ariherzog: @AFPADude It is cliche to say 'content is king' so I prefer 'communication' or 'community' - without either, content is moot.
  • sabrak: Encouraging use of social media won't work unless people want to communicate. Online may be better venue for some managers.
  • beleita: @smburns are some staffers are afraid of a negative connotation of being too active (ie she doesnt have enough work to do)
  • bienko: champion soc media w/in your agency by helping employees know how new models will impact their jobs/roles, increases comfort lvl
  • csukach: Overheard: It's important to lead by example-by engaging and trying new tools. Find out what wrks for you.
  • lostonroute66: 9x problem: overvalue existing system by 3x. undervalue new system by 3x. need to show 9x potential value to initiate change.
  • kpkfusion: Completely disagree with recommendation on using pilots. Sets agency up for failure as old world thwarts new world.
  • smburns: Must read for #gov20camp RT @GovTwit: Survey results of 370 govt professionals re: #Gov20 barriers/lessons: http://bit.ly/IoGAl
  • smburns: One fear/barrier to gov20 that I hadn't heard much until now is "there is no archiving of info. in social media"
  • HeidiPage: Great Tip in using Wiki's, install the bells and whisles carefully. http://tinyurl.com/6ezp8k
  • coinsight: A "new media" / marketing focus is very different from an e-participation / engagement perspective. We need both.
  • cheeky_geeky: RECOMMEND: More crowdSOURCING, less crowdSTORMING.
  • sarahebourne: British Gov has taxonomy for issues. Very useful. Do we have one? We should
  • CheriSigmon: (mobile) http://tinyurl.com/c8p68j "6 Val Attrib" Authenticity, Transparency, Immediacy, Participation, Connectedness, Accountability
Privacy
  • mixtmedia: Our culture is becoming increasingly open and casual. Privacy is becoming extremely loose. Pros and cons here.
  • amzam: @thedrake notes we should be more freaked out by all personal data private sector has on us than govt does. scary truth.
ROI
  • minaah: what is the roi for social media?-- questions to be asking: what is your mission, who are you trying to reach?
  • krazykriz: Participants: Just posted 2 sets of slides on my blog that deal with Social Media 101 and ROI: http://bit.ly/n6Zuf
  • guyma: Social media investment - 'It doesn't take a lot to do a lot' - great point!
  • mixtmedia: How do you measure the value of a conversation? (@sradick) What is the value of a relationship?
  • smburns: Smithsonian puts human face on blog stats to get support; talk about people engaged not just "hits and comments"
  • NoelDickover: Metric for citizen engagement. Did the citizen engagement change the decisions made in govt or outputs from govt?
  • NoelDickover: Metrics for citizen engagement should also include qualitative metrics - did it change the organization operations?
  • mecredy: feedback on metrics for success? : Peoples time is most valuable commodity. Time on URL one example
  • jmanecke: long-range success measure: citizens believe they influence their gov more than paid actors. Transparancy lets them see that.
  • planetrussell: Perceived risks of social media adoption often illusory, and outweighed by risks of *not* adopting it, as @sradick says
  • annagabbert: @Cureton, NASA CIO: Security risks are the same as talking on the phone or leaving something on the train. Just be mindful.
  • cdorobek: Recommendation: Good to define the REAL risk - in the end, these are low cost tools
  • gwynnek: It's simply WRONG to have multiple agencies negotiating and renegotiating TOS with private sector. Waste of resources
Tools
  • infoevp: Check out wikimatrix.org to find a tool that works for you in moving to web 2.0 in Agency.
  • webtechman: Using Wikis for Government 2.0 Social Media Platform. Adoption? See http://wikipatterns.com
  • primerano: wow there are a lot of internal government wikis. I have an extension that might help with PII. http://tinyurl.com/dkd5m5
  • Gov20brad: UNDP guy: "maybe govt agencies should work together on open-source solutions and share the development cost" Excellent idea!
  • JeanMiller: Add your best practices here Social Media Subcouncil http://govsocmed.pbwiki.com/Web-2-0-Governance-Policies-and-Best-Pr...
  • levyj413: Gov't Social Media Subcouncil presence on the web: http://govsocmed.pbwiki.com/Contact-Us
  • kmallwein: @sradick best site I've seen on graphical notetaking "writing on the walls-visual journalism that sticks" http://is.gd/ppxo
  • webtechman: http://dev.gov would be awesome! How can web developers help implement social media in Government 2.0
  • krazykriz: For those who attended levj413's #gov20camp workshop on #epablog, see this @mikekujawski slide deck on gov blogging: http://bit.ly/Sz1lh
Transparency
  • davidcjames: Five benefits of transparency: http://tinyurl.com/d64ysq
  • wormlady: Making data available through govt app vs. making data available for mashups - two diff things
  • sradick: "When will the gov't understand that if they open their data, the PEOPLE will create the filters" - Sunlight Labs
  • dismalscience: Very true: gov't data tends to be structured in a way that reflects the organization/funding source, not the public need
  • amzam: Biggest question of conference so far - gov agencies poised to put ton more data online, but are asking WHAT/HOW we want it.
  • dismalscience: Says @cjoh: Problem w/ gov't data is less the availability, and more the language and presentation of the data
  • ahoppin: how should gov't data be published? open-format machine-readable (ATOM etc.), RESTful API, possibly very light schema
  • kolpeterson: Interoperable data formats (eg. XML) enable exchange like rail road tracks enabled commerce.
  • JonGarfunkel: @sarahebourne not just data, but live data - http://bit.ly/SHI-feeds
  • amzam: Andrew Turner: iterative process: pub data, develop data, track use, evaluate usage in determining how to pub data.
  • SageMcGreen: @BevUSA [Bev Godwin] Trust in govt. means more transparency http://www.usa.gov/webcontent/technology/other_tech.shtml
  • govwiki: Road Map for Financial Recovery: Radical Transparency Now! http://is.gd/pfgS
  • sarahebourne: epiphany from poster in classroom "Once you break a trust the damage is hard to repair" Gov2.0=repairing trust in govt
  • KetyE: 'transparency, participatory, collaborative' refer to end state & process to get there as well.
  • cwolz: in session on "limits of transparency". ie should public have access to names/addresses of political donors? eg prop 8 in CA
  • sarahebourne: Important to control not to keep secrets but to be SURE it's true. Cannot distribute bad data b/c it will spread
  • sarahebourne: Need to avoid creating secondary crisis, so need to flow info. Parents rushing in, blocking ambulances for instance
White House QA session with Bev Godwin and Macon Phillips
  • matthewburton: Wow. Open For Questions was implemented in 8 DAYS.
  • quepol: Whitehouse.gov "Open for Government" (using Google Moderator) took 8 days to implement, using free & open source tools.
  • cdorobek: Seattle Mayor Nichols will have a 'ask the mayor' based on WH program
  • sarahebourne: How to support this active community? a: WH can't be primary support mech for this. Web Mgrs Cncl, Orgs, st/local govt
  • cdorobek: Macon Phillips: As we do things and they don't blow up, we can do other things
  • You2Gov: White House New Media Dir.: "We are starting in WH; successful projects will then be rolled out in other agencies."
  • svenburg: @macon "We can get a lot of work done by setting an example"
  • dannyallenjr: Don't rely on the WH to fight your battles. Use them as an example to help make your case.
  • smburns: Macon Phillips of WH New Media: "Power is from people finding each other not from going through some central point", Amen!
  • ivoivo: head of new media, @macon encouraging gov innovation outside whitehouse, 'we are not the hub' very encouraging
  • jedsundwall: @macon: Online engagement is not just public. It involves engaging the people inside the building as well.
  • smburns: Great idea: Could we have an unconference / camp on how to fix our economy, create new jobs, etc.?
If you have anything to add, that's what comments are for!

Views: 5

Tags: 2.0, Gov, IT, ROI, Tools, Transparency, accessibility, blogging, blogs, cloud, More…communications, conferences, consultation, crisis, demographics, examples, house, learned, lessons, privacy, twitter, white

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Joy Fulton Comment by Joy Fulton on April 3, 2009 at 4:17pm
Great Job! I posted a huge list of blogs that reported on the Gov 2.0 camp, in a recap/news style on my personal blog at joyrenee.wordpress.com You are wlecome to cut & paste them here if you like. Cheers!
Chris Sukach Comment by Chris Sukach on April 2, 2009 at 8:49pm
This is great! Thanks for taking the time to consolidate all this info for everyone!

Say...you don't happen to have an effective method for organizing basic desk clutter do you?! :)

Thanks again!
Patrick Svenburg Comment by Patrick Svenburg on April 2, 2009 at 12:14am
Well done!
Dave Witzel Comment by Dave Witzel on April 1, 2009 at 9:06pm
Nice work David! David James worked some Ruby magic and captured most (i don't know if that is "all") tweets -- over 5500. We've posted the dataset and some visualizations at http://personaldemocracy.com/blog-entry/collective-sense-making-gov20-camp.

I confess, we didn't actually "read" all the posts though. Yours is a valiant and valuable effort.
Noel Dickover Comment by Noel Dickover on March 31, 2009 at 10:09pm
David, what an absolutely awesome, incredibly comprehensive summary!!!! This post is an absolute treat to read! Thanks so much to taking the time to put this altogether!
Sarah Bourne Comment by Sarah Bourne on March 31, 2009 at 9:39pm
Thanks for doing this - what a great resource! BTW, Google reports "3,420 from twitter.com over the past week for gov20camp". Since Google doesn't offer an RSS for searches, it would take a truly compulsive person, but it's conceivable that all the tagged tweets could be recovered. Andrea, you'll be relived to know that you tweeted about more than @dominiccampbell :-)
GovLoop Comment by GovLoop on March 31, 2009 at 6:28pm
Wow - what a resource. Hopefully you can attend the next Gov20Camp....
Andrea Baker Comment by Andrea Baker on March 31, 2009 at 6:19pm
Wow, yes thank you. I almost wish I knew you were doing this in advance so I could have had you help in piping the tweets into the corresponding blog posts on the government20club.org website.

Also I LOL'ed for real when I saw the only tweets from me where about @dominiccampbell , but his points were valid.

I didn't tweet much during the event as I would have done normally at an event. I spent way more time on the blog.
Andrew Krzmarzick Comment by Andrew Krzmarzick on March 31, 2009 at 4:39pm
Wow - what an account of the weekend, David - nice work! Did you pull all of these individual tweets for this post? That's a labor of love!!!

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