Government

What innovations can change America’s voting rates?

What innovations can change America’s voting rates?

People often ask me about various innovative efforts to change America’s voting rates, habits, or options. There is a ton of interesting experimentation happening here, from TurboVote to ElectNext to Americans Elect. I haven’t dug in deeply to any of these projects, but it’s clear they are offering some new thinking to a deep and important problem. » Read more

1 CommentPosted 22 May 2012 by Jennifer Pahlka

Does hosting an innovation summit mean you're innovative?

Does hosting an innovation summit mean you're innovative?

Last January, the City of Raleigh partnered with the Raleigh Chamber of Commerce, North Carolina State University, and local businesses to host the inaugural Innovation Summit. The purpose of the summit was to bring business leaders, entrepreneurs, marketers, investors, city officials, and thought leaders together for an afternoon of discovery. Open source was at the heart of how the organizers were looking to achieve consensus from those invited to participate.

There were four main topics organizers focused on to kick off this initiative: funding, partnerships, branding, and space for an innovation center. The summit started with two keynote speakers that helped set the stage for the day. » Read more

0 CommentsPosted 21 May 2012 by Jason Hibbets (Red Hat)

Mainstreaming the Gov 2.0 message in the Canadian Public Service

Mainstreaming the Gov 2.0 message in the Canadian Public Service

A couple of years ago I wrote a Globe Op-Ed "A Click Heard Across the Public Service" that outlined the significance of the clerk using GCPEDIA to communicate with public servants. It was a message - or even more importantly - an action to affirm his commitment to change how government works. For those unfamiliar, the Clerk of the Privy Council is the head of the public service for the federal government, a crude analogy would be he is the CEO and the Prime Minister is the Chairman (yes, I know that analogy is going to get me in trouble with people...) » Read more

0 CommentsPosted 17 May 2012 by David Eaves

Can government agencies be innovative?

Can government agencies be innovative?

Six reasons why government is not more innovative

Steve Denning recently wrote a great post titled How To Make Government Innovative Again. In his post Denning asks the following:

Why isn’t the Government generally more agile? Why isn’t innovation part of everything government does? Denning’s answer to these questions are: "Simple. The constraints on talented people who work in government agencies are enormous." Denning lists six reasons why government is not more innovative. » Read more

3 CommentsPosted 15 May 2012 by Paul Wolf

The next generation of open source software procurement models

The next generation of open source software procurement models

Swedish Framework Agreement Overcomes FUD, Inertia, Risks and Other Barriers

One year ago, the new Swedish framework agreement for the procurement of open source became active. Five suppliers were contracted to provide software and services. Central government, the public educational sector, all twenty county councils, and 225 out of the 290 Swedish municipalities are participating. They call off mini competitions for contracts the suppliers then have to battle for. This model differs from the recommendations made in the European 'Guideline on public procurement of Open Source Software', aiming to overcome current barriers and increase the use of open source.

» Read more
0 CommentsPosted 10 May 2012 by Adrian Offerman

Public policy: The big opportunity for health record data

Public policy: The big opportunity for health record data

A few weeks ago Colin Hansen - a politician in the governing party in British Columbia (BC) - penned an op-ed in the Vancouver Sun entitled Unlocking our data to save lives. It's a paper both the current government and opposition should read, as it is filled with some very promising ideas.

In it, he notes that BC has one of the best collections of health data anywhere in the world and that, data mining these records could yield patterns - like longitudinal adverse affects when drugs are combined or the correlations between diseases - that could save billions as well as improve health care outcomes. » Read more

0 CommentsPosted 9 May 2012 by David Eaves

Find civic engagement tools and their stories at Engagement Commons beta

Find civic engagement tools and their stories at Engagement Commons beta

With civic engagement becoming an increasingly critical component of successful governance in the 21st century, cities around the world are seeking to leverage technology as a tool for citizen participation, but civic leaders face real challenges finding, evaluating, and deploying the right tools in the absence of good information.That’s why earlier this year, we announced our plans to build Engagement Commons: a comprehensive and dynamic catalog of the tools available for civic engagement and the real-world stories of their deployments. » Read more

0 CommentsPosted 7 May 2012 by Lauren Dyson

Government and library open data using Creative Commons tools

Government and library open data using Creative Commons tools

The last few months has seen a growth in open data, particularly from governments and libraries. Among the more recent open data adopters are the Austrian government, Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research, Italian Chamber of Deputies, and Harvard Library. » Read more

0 CommentsPosted 3 May 2012 by Jane Park

History of open source in government

History of open source in government

It is difficult to imagine the Federal government moving in one well-coordinated direction on any matter, and so it has been with the adoption of open source software. Some agencies were early adopters, especially the academic and research communities. As it did in universities, open source adoption in the US government originated in research settings, where sharing and collaboration were already part of the culture of pedagogy. In this way, the government had been using and creating open source software even before it was called "open source." Other agencies and departments have been more conservative, for a variety of reasons, and are only just now bringing open source software into their operations. With this in mind, the history of open source in the US government is best understood as a series of individual stories that have collectively led to the pervasive adoption of open source we see today. » Read more

2 CommentsPosted 2 May 2012 by Gunnar Hellekson (Red Hat)

Sharing the open source journey with Kansas City

Sharing the open source journey with Kansas City

The first half of CityCamp Kansas City was productive, collaborative, and eye-opening. The morning was overflowing with open source knowledge, the sharing of ideas, and expert talks. The event started with 14 lighting talks–a ton of information crammed into a five-minute talk.

More than 150 attendees learned about the Google Fiber initiative, spatial city mapping, SeeClickFix, Bike Walk KC, Open Missouri, and much more. Then I got to share the open source stories from Raleigh, NC in my presentation, "How open source is changing citizen engagement." [PDF] Based on the initial feedback from a few folks, it was inspiring and "sparked the individual/collective imagination." » Read more

0 CommentsPosted 28 Apr 2012 by Jason Hibbets (Red Hat)