As the Founder of both Gov20LA and You2Gov, it is interesting to me to sit back for a minute and watch another gathering without participating directly. I learn a lot just by watching sometimes. The warp speed of the Gov 2.0 space is rapidly turning it into "an industry."
For this year's Tim O'Reilly sponsored "G2E" it seems like a large international contingent; as well as some unusual suspects twittering about #G2E, as it is called on Twitter. As usual, there are also lots of fancy words flying around Washington, DC at the Government 2.0, "Gov 2.0" love-fest aka Gov2Expo. Many of my fellow innovators and entrepreneurs are there -- showing the latest tools, apps, widgets and sharing lots of Gov Geek Love.
Congrats to Tim for another successful conference.
But forgive me, Tim and everyone gathered.
Look at this list:
What do you see? What is missing from this list? What is missing from flowcharts and fancy graphics?
You. Me. Tim. Every Government worker and consultant at every level of Government. For without people, it is hardly a movement, let alone a "Good Revolution" as I have called it.
Without people, there is no technology that works beyond a few days or so; without people, data has no meaning; without people, methodologies are meaningless; without people, Open Source is empty; without people, platforms fall down; without people there is no mobility.
The gravity of the situation rests now and will always rest with the people. Otherwise, all the other parts simply become cards in a fragile stack. But engage the people, involve them, educate them and demonstrate how these key words above affect them through Gov 2.0 - now you are building a solid foundation without flimsy walls.
In the charge to open the data and transform the services Government renders, I posit one basic question: How are you planning on executing on your goals if the people are not front and center in every step of this process?
Not as an afterthought or footnote. But as one of the prime cores of Gov 2.0, Gov 3.0 and beyond.
Follow Alan W. Silberberg on Twitter: www.twitter.com/AlanWSilberberg
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Government of the people, for the people, and by the people is not the same thing as Gov 2.0.
The very concept of Gov 2.0 does not contain people -- ordinary users of various types -- because the entire concept is an elitist concoction created in Silicon Valley by Obama campaign bundlers.
We've seen how atrocious these opensource gambits have been in being less user-friendly, w closed comment sections, and far less accountability than before this Gov 2.0 invasion.
Congress - the elected people of the United States -- never had knowledge or buy-in to this entire Gov 2.0 consultants' invasion because the entire concept of these arrogant tekkies was to do an end-run around representative democracy, wiring everything from the President's secret Blackberry (when will the archives of *that* be disclosed to the American people?) to the White House Office of Technology which first creates a completely sanitized and controlled comments system for very prefabricated and pre-selected proposals, and then closes even that off.
Alan, you are looking in the mirror. Opensource, contrary to its hippie free sounding name, is anti-people. Because it is irresponsible, not user-driven but geek-controlled, and doesn't have the layer of accountability that proprietary software is forced to develop in consumer care when people PAY for the coders' time properly.
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There was no shortage of people as focus talk both in session and in the corridors, but as you will already be aware, these events have a tendency to be flashy and showy when vendors get their hand in and talk about their "amazing technology" that will "solve all your problems". I've got no time for those talks.
I have plans when I return to Australia (tonight, actually), to begin planning an Australian-focussed Gov 2.0 conference that gives the technology only a minor place. There are several who'll be helping me. We will be concentrating on case studies, success stories and even failures.
It's all about the people. It drives me nuts when someone thinks we can throw a wiki up and magic will happen.
People are literally at the heart - and without this focus, Gov 2.0 just becomes another Y2K - something to deal with and get over as soon as possible - rather than the broad societal change agent it is already.