Movie stars! Open Gov the Movie

“Open Gov the Movie” – from Delib from Delib on Vimeo.

Pretty cool documentary by my buddy Chris Q of Delib – Here’s what he says below..

Check it out here: http://www.delib.co.uk/opengov

We’re launching the documentary today – on the year anniversary of President Obama issuing the Open Government memorandum, giving an insight into the thinking behind the Open Gov memo and the subsequent changes in the way US government operates.

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“Open Gov the Movie” – background info

Open Gov the Movie is a short film documenting the year since President Obama’s Open Government memorandum.

The documentary was shot by Chris Quigley – founder of UK e-democracy company Delib – over November / December 2009 both on location in Washington DC and via Skype.

The 14 minute film is based around a series of interviews with key players involved in the Open Government initiative:
– Beth Noveck – Head of the White House Open Government programme
– Tim O’Reilly – Web2.0 commentator
– Dustin Haisler – CIO at Manor, Texas
– Lena Trudeau – Head of Collaboration at the National Academy of Public Administration (NAPA)
– Jeffrey Levy – Head of digital communications at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
– Jake Brewer – Sunlight Foundation
– Allan Holmes – Editor, NextGov.com
– Steve Lunceford – founder of GovTwit

Open Gov Movie launches on Thursday 21st January, on the year anniversary of President Obama issuing the Open Government memorandum, giving an insider’s perspective of how the Open Government initiative came about, what’s happened over the last 12 months and its effect on both Federal and Local government.

The idea Open Gov the Movie came about by accident as the film’s creator Chris Quigley was visiting Washington DC back in November 2009, meeting with various Open Gov insiders.

Chris was working in the Open Government scene in DC with his e-democracy company Delib, and recognised the marked excitement and impact that the Open Gov memorandum was having within government.

Being based out of London (UK), gave Chris an outsider’s perspective on the Open Government initiative, which he thought was worth capturing on film. So he did – armed with a DV cam and Final Cut!

As Chris put it “President Obama’s Open Government initiative is a significant move in how government works not only for the US, but for democracy around the world – and I wanted to capture this moment of change on film.”

“The impact that the Open Government manifesto has had on how UK government works has been particularly pronounced. It’s no coincidence that since Obama’s memorandum back in January 2009, both Gordon Brown and David Cameron have announced various schemes to make UK government more open, transparent and participative.”

“Government has been seen as a pretty closed-shop for a while now, and the Open Government initiative aims to counter this way of doing government. What think Open Gov the Movie does is open up the Open Gov process, giving greater insight into the workings of this movement to the wider public.”

Discussing the documentary itself, Chris says “The most interesting aspect of the film is seeing the full impact of Open Gov throughout government, seeing the perspectives of the White House (through Beth Noveck), through Federal departments (through Jeffrey Levy at the EPA) down to Local government (through Dustin Haisler from Manor, Texas).”

“Views from industry commentators outside government also give a good balance to the film. With Tim O’Reilly sharing his views on the future of government as “government as a platform” off which business can innovate in a way government could never do.”

“It’s also interesting to get a reality check as to how far Open Gov has effected Joe Public so far. A reality check we see at the end of the film where I’m chatting to a cab driver about Open Gov and he clearly hasn’t a clue what I’m talking about!”

“Jeffrey Levy, from the EPA, reaffirms this point by saying that “there’s too much naval-gazing within the Open Gov scene”, and what we need to see next is for Open Gov to reach the man of the street.”