opengov

First-ever Ignite government comes to a close. Selena Deckelmann and Deb Bryant thank speakers, sponsors and supporters.

It's not enough to simply open data and have an API. Government needs to get better at fostering communities around all of it's services. To do this it needs to divest itself of some control and invest in communities that are already working. Curating existing communities around data and services is critical for future success. Can we create a joiner government that supports civic participation at all levels?

Do electeds and lawmakers weigh the importance communication styles differently? What's the going rate for a tweet on the political communications market these days? Do you really know what kind of impact you're making with that petition or form letter? In an advocacy world where everyone's got an opinion to voice, few people know how much weigh is--and isn't-- given to different types of political advocacy. The human brain assigns levels of value to everything, even the communications from other humans. Find out in this Ignite talk where you should invest your voice.

Rami Kassab is the CEO and co-founder of Typethink, a creative web design and development firm located in the heart of Portland. Rami headed Typethink's initiative to expand into the municipal sector through their custom web application development services. Typethink has since contracted with the City of St. Helens to design and develop a new branded website offering a comprehensive set of services to their residents. Through their collaboration with St. Helens, Typethink has put together a partnership program in order to engage other cities for the multi-year development project.

Laws are a machine, and not a very smart one. Principles are living parts of your mind, and can adapt to new conditions. Accessing laws requires Expensive specialists, Principles are available to the understanding of all. Here we shall challenge the most basic idea of government, the Rule of Law. The goal is to replace the heavy handed mechanistic methods of the 17th century legal system with a simpler, practical, reflexive system of legal principles. These can be applied without obtuse, specialized expertise. The principle of Voluntary Association will be our test example. Open source government will be the affirmative proposition.

Technical and economic benefits of open source software are well documented within the IT world. However, these traits alone are not what has enabled open source to find a home within much of the government's massive enterprise system. This presentation will reveal some of the seldom discussed, yet essential tools and tactics that have directly lead to wide spread open source adoption within the US Department of Defense and Federal Government agencies.

The GovHub presentation will have an introduction to the general ideals of GovHub and what we hope it will be, and then use 3 roles or characters to describe the problems when governments and open source developers try to work together and how GovHub and other collaboration tools like it can help solve those problems. GovHub partners are Greg Lind, a web based software developer and architect, currently employed by Metro Regional Government in Portland, Oregon. John Miller formerly of Lewis and Clark College and Metro and Jarhid Brown from Metro and formerly the Department of Defense.

Skip Newberry serves as Economic Development Policy Advisor to Portland Mayor Sam Adams. A significant portion of Skip's work focuses on developing initiatives to support Portland's software and digital media industries. Last year, Skip's projects included helping to draft the City of Portland's open source procurement and open data policy, which was adopted by Portland City Council in September of 2009. Since then, he has been working with Portland's Bureau of Technology Services to launch Civic Apps for Greater Portland the nation's first regional open data and software application design contest. Other recent projects include contributing to the development of a community broadband strategy for Portland and identifying ways for local government to serve as a test market for new and innovative technology. Since Washington, DC, launched Apps for Democracy, the popularity of public sector open data initiatives and software application design contests has been on the rise at the State and local levels. Nevertheless, these initiatives face three major challenges, and all three relate to support and adoption: 1. support and adoption from public sector agencies, departments, bureaus, and elected officials; 2. support and adoption from software developers; and 3. support and adoption from the users of software apps and open data. In the near future, collaboration amongst different jurisdictions in standardizing data across local, county, state, and international boundaries will pose significant challenges. I do not think these are insurmountable. This presentation focuses on the regional nature of a modest open data and app design contest in the Portland area called Civic Apps for Greater Portland, and attempts to share lessons learned.

Abraham Hyatt is the production editor at the technology news site ReadWriteWeb. He was the creator of the Digital Journalism Portland conference in 2009, and previously worked as the managing editor at Oregon Business magazine. He can be found online at abrahamhyatt.com and @abrahamhyatt on Twitter. Abraham is one of the editors at the tech news site ReadWriteWeb. Last February something happened that made him suddenly realize that there are a significant number of people who are navigating the Web in ways they don't understand. This Ignite presentation is a unique case study -- sometimes funny, sometimes serious -- that illustrates that the problem is bigger than those of us who develop online tools, produce content and create user interfaces realize.

Deb Bryant introduces the first ever IgniteGov, and she invites the Gov community at-large to put on IgniteGov events. Selena Deckelmann, IgniteGov Chair, informs the audience about what to expect from an Ignite for those unfamiliar with the format.