Category: All Posts

December 2, 2010

Hamish Nicklin on Thinking Digital First

Recently Hamish Nicklin of Google presented at the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office in London. The presentation was requested in order to explain these tools and more importantly how they could be useful in the world of Foreign Affairs and Service.

One of his main themes is rather than creating something and then figuring out how do we make this digital, instead think digital first and you may come up with an entirely different process and approach. Extending this thought further, because of the growing ubiquity of phones and now smartphones we should begin by thinking mobile digital first!

It’s a rather long video but I think quite useful in getting the point home that because of the combination of digital, social and mobile, the digital genie is now fully out of the bottle and being integrated today as just one more part of our everyday environment and society. And by thinking first of mobile and digital when developing processes and projects we will be much more likely to deliver better solutions and services to those we serve.

Please share this post with your colleagues and do comment below and even share your own ideas on other valuable uses across all aspects of public service.

Jeff Ashcroft

December 2, 2010

Demonstrating Leadership with Web 2.0

Since the advent of Web 2.0 we have witnessed the increased speed and ease with which we can use the Internet and our IT networks to connect with people and manage information. Now with the onset of utilizing these tools in a two-way interactive manner, the concepts of collaboration, transparency and knowledge transfer have taken up centre stage within most organizations and not surprisingly now inside the public sector as well.

However, a somewhat dubious chicken and egg scenario has seemingly developed around the use of these new technologies and concepts. On one hand collaboration, transparency and knowledge sharing are not new and have been factors in organizational efficiency and success for a long time. On the other hand, that the Internet has evolved to better serve and enable these approaches is really no surprise; after all, technology has always innovated in response to our needs (and certainly our business needs). Organisations seem to be spending a lot of time figuring out what should come first, adopting the technology or adopting the behaviours, when really the two must go hand in hand.

Having said that, the apparent reticence of organisational leaders to themselves adopt these low cost, low barrier technology enablers and embrace them as accepted organisational success factors is surprising.

The role of leadership in emphasizing behaviours that the organisation wants to see adopted has been stated, underlined and re-stated over the years (who can forget the much used “walk the talk” from the nineties business lexicon). If organisations do indeed want to see collaboration, transparency and knowledge exchange happen within their ranks, they need to also make it happen at the leadership level and for obvious reasons:

Senior-level collaboration breaks silos, increases policy relevance and compliance, reduces duplication and ensures more cohesive approaches to organisation-wide objectives
Senior-level transparency increases trust within the organisation and without; increases engagement and buy-in and contributes to the overall health of the organisation
Senior-level knowledge transfer increases organisational learning and efficiency; and safeguards knowledge capital. It also contributes to greater understanding throughout the organisation of the strategic thinking behind approaches, goals and objectives as well as a better understanding of the risks and challenges.

“Be the change you want to see”, we’ve heard it before and it’s all the more true in the Web 2.0 enabled workplace. Only now, it’s easier to do and what’s more it only takes true leadership for it to be demonstrated.

Suesan Danesh

November 30, 2010

Calling All Politicians: Stop Being Anti-Social! Be Social By Design!

What does the term “PC” mean to you? Politically correct? Wrong! “PC” means POLITICALLY CONNECTED! How connected are you to your constituents? The number one way to get real feedback and converse with the folks who elected you is through SOCIAL MEDIA!

The number one fail in political social media right now, and I don’t mean to be harsh, is @JoeManchinWV. The man who made me fall in love with politics isn’t following a soul on Twitter. I spoke with Senator Oliverio (Mike_Oliverio) last night, a future U.S. House of Reps member, and mentioned he might want to change his Facebook picture. Delegate Doug Skaff (dougskaff) asked me how much he should tweet.

With the youngest and sexiest United States Senator in office right now, West Virginia politicians need to know how to better utilize social media (or new media, whichever), to communicate with their constituents. Goodwin doesn’t even have a Twitter account.

The most recent political social media development in West Virginia, in my opinion, has been Speaker Thompson (@RT4WV) using his Facebook page to post statements regarding his views about what’s going on at the Legislature (@wvlegislature). Mannix Porterfield, a reporter, even asked the Speaker a question on his page and Thompson replied! He’s effectively using social media to communicate with both the media and constituents.

So all you politicians in the great state of West Virginia and across the United States, when you’re ready for my class on political social media, give me a call, 304.993.8464.

November 30, 2010

We Need Governmental Transparency, Now More Than Ever

“Openness will strengthen our democracy and promote efficiency and effectiveness in Government.” -President Obama, 1/21/09

After reading a past Charleston Gazette (@wvgazette) article by Kate Long, it is extremely evident that this openness is exactly what West Virginia government is lacking. House of Delegates (@wvhouse) member Nancy Peoples Guthrie (@nguthrie4me), who is the chairwoman of the House stimulus committee, said, “There’s no reason for this to be cloaked in secrecy… it’s gotten beyond the point where ‘trust us’ is a sufficient answer.” (See full article here: http://www.wvgazette.com/News/201008100756)

As an advocate of social media being a connection vehicle for politicians and their constituents, I’m alarmed I just might need to take my stilettos two steps back before taking another step forward. It appears elected officials from different branches of government need to be more social and communicative with each other. Long’s article clearly points out the lack of information sharing from the executive branch to the legislative branch.

November 26, 2010

Sir Bonar outlines the forthcoming UK Government ICT Strategy at the Institute for Government

Sir Bonar Neville-Kingdom addresses an invited audience at the Institute for Government on the occasion of the launch of the publication “The Twitters of Sir Bonar Neville-Kingdom”. He spoke about the G-Cloud and the proposed Government Apps Store. Sir Bonar is accompanied by his secretary Patricia.

Gov 2.0 will make the world of government ICT Faster, Cheaper and Greener!

A bit more about Sir Bonar and his book according to Ideal Government: “The British civil service has taken to social networking like a duck to water, a new book to be launched this week proves. In another world first for British public-sector ICT, Permanent Secretary at Large Sir Bonar-Neville-Kingdom has allowed a year’s worth of his office’s output to the social networking site Twitter to be published in book form at lulu.com.

Formerly HM Government’s technology outreach Czar, Neville-Kingdom is currently data sharing Czar. He was also a former Ideal Government contributor, becoming in the process the first serving Permanent Secretary to blog in an open forum, before taking to Twitter in July 2009. He now has close to 1000 followers, including many women of a certain age with unusual names and a taste for lingerie.

His book has received a mixed reception. Internal research suggests it has an approval rating of 147% among Cabinet Office staff. And former Minister Tom Watson says that “understanding his mindset is among the most important tasks facing the British Government” Meanwhile Yes Minister author Antony Jay, whose latest play is currently touring, says Sir Humphrey would have envied the immense powers technology has put at Sir Bonar’s disposal, but appears to doubt whether the latter is able to use them wisely.”

PSleader

November 26, 2010

Event Review: GW’s Gov 2.0 Startup Lab

George Washington University’s School of Media and Public Affairs hosted the Gov 2.0 Startup Lab on Friday, November 19, 2010. The free event was built around stimulating innovation and ideas around Gov 2.0, described by organizer Peter Corbett of iStrategyLabs as “a new methodology for governance and civic engagement based on transparency, open data, and citizen-driven innovation.”

After Corbett’s opening remarks came two Ignite-style presentations on competitions aimed at increasing development for open data:

The World Bank’s Gail Davenport discussed the Apps for Development competition, which challenges the public to create new software applications to help solve some of the world’s most pressing issues, as defined by the Millennium Development Goals.

John Rollins presented The George Washington University Business Plan Competition, that will award students a total of $50,000 in cash prizes. The competition is open to business plans of all types, though part of the stated goal of Gov 2.0 Startup Lab was to inspire business plans around citizen engagement goals. Link to full post on GovWin site.

November 26, 2010

Video Highlights from 2nd Annual Adobe Government Assembly

Government employees and contractors gathered for the second annual Adobe Government Assembly on November 3rd to discuss the challenges and opportunities of implementing new technologies for open government. The theme for the event was Engage America and attended by roughly 450 people.

Please find below a listing and links to all of the other presentation videos from this event.

Morning Keynote – Shantanu Narayen, Adobe.
Blue Ribbon Panel – Alan Cohn, DHS; Tom Davis, Deloitte; Craig Kaucher, DoD; Gwynne Kostin, GSA.
Mobile Devices – Kevin Brownstein, McAfee; Andy Blumenthal, ATF; John Landwehr, Adobe. (spotty audio due to equipment issues)
Cloud – Thomson Nguy, Amazon; Avi Bender, U.S. Census Bureau; Mitch Nelson, Adobe; Marion Royal, Data.Gov.
Maximizing Your Web Presence – Loni Kao Stark, Adobe; Selene Dalecky, GPO; Ronnie Levine, DOI; Steven Webster, Adobe; Andrew Wilson, HHS.
Social Media – Bobby Caudill, Adobe; Wayne Moses Burke, Open Forum Foundation; Megan Kenny, DHS; Kay Morrison, EPA.
Afternoon Keynote & Awards – Barry Leffew, Adobe; David Plouffe, Author, The Audacity to Win, and Campaign Manager, Obama for President, 2008

Hope you find all of these interesting especially those focused on the web presence, social media, mobile and cloud aspects of Gov 2.0 deployment and citizen engagement.

November 24, 2010

Open Gov West Recap: Change, Connect, Contribute

This week I took some time off and headed out to Victoria British Columbia so I could be a part of Open Gov West BC.

It was an absolutely amazing experience

I had the privilege of sharing the opening keynote with friend Walter Schwabe. Walter and I have an excellent rapport and wanted to shake things up a little bit, we wanted to try something different, we wanted to inspire immediate action. We didn’t just sit at the front of the room and talk down to audience from the riser. We walked among the crowd, armed with microphones, iPads, and a surprise.

Under the cover of darkness a few nights before the conference we created a group blog and invited everyone in the room, and those watching remotely to engage right now by changing, connecting, and contributing. We drove the theme home by telling everyone why we thought these things were so incredibly important.

November 24, 2010

Introducing No Labels – Not Left. Not Right. Forward.

A new political movement called No Labels is preparing for launch in the United States.

Put the Labels Aside. Do What’s Best for America.

We are Democrats, Republicans, and Independents who are united in the belief that we do not have to give up our labels, merely put them aside to do what’s best for America.

Here’s a link to the No Labels website

Seems to bear resemblance to some of the ideas Ken Dryden is putting forward in his new book Becoming Canada…maybe there’s a No Labels North in the cards?

And below we have posted the No Labels Declaration

November 24, 2010

Governments listening to what you say, and how you feel

Image by williamcho via Flickr

In many countries you vote as a method of expressing your opinion on your leaders, and on certain key issues. In some countries surveys, ideation platforms, and other methods are used to understand opinions without the requirement of implementing changes, simply as a tool to hear what citizens are thinking.

Singapore, however, is launching an effort to mine sentiment from social media, using tools developed by IBM.

This will enable the government of Singapore to gain a deeper understanding of how people feel about various topics through passive listening. Of course, it is important to remember that automated sentiment analysis is imperfect, but so too are manual surveys. It is also important to fully understand the demographic being monitored as it may not represent the right cross-section of citizens, and manual surveys may still be required.

However, it’s a good first step and certainly something that, balanced with other solutions, should help governments better understand how citizens feel about key issues.

John F. Moore

Government in the Lab