Lots of people use buzz words all the time. Those in the so-called "Goverati" are using one in particular: "Gov 2.0." Some people are using it to exclude you and I. Others just use it because it sounds cool and is easier to say than "Government 2.0."
But what does this mean to you and I?
Granted some of you might say I am part of the "Goverati" since I founded Gov20LA and You2Gov. That might be true, depending on your view.
However the larger story is a combination of major societal forces that have collided together as if in a bumper car arena. Let's start with the most basic part of this: the human element. People. You and I. Several noted Gov 2.0 leaders have spoken, and written about the idea of Citizen 2.0, such as Adriel Hampton, Andrea Baker, and even myself.
Several others, such as Andrea Dimaio, have written about how technology is at the heart of this on-going, raging debate in Washington, DC and State Capitols across the U.S. as well as Foreign Capitols. Not to mention all the innovators out in the "sticks." Most of the Gov 2.0 innovation in fact occurs outside of the political capitols and inside technology and business circles.
I have written about it being the merger of Government 2.0 and Citizen 2.0. But what does this mean for you?
While others offer out the huge importance; that cannot be denied of opening data and data structures.
But already, I have veared from the point. As Bill Grundfest and I clearly laid out in February's Gov20LA Session we did on "Language in Government 2.0."
By using techno-jargon, I just lost some of you. So what is Gov 2.0? Is it getting that pothole fixed? Is it being able to do things online that you now have to do by standing in some long Government agency line with a whole bunch of other cranky citizens wondering where their tax money is going?
What does all this mean for you and I anyway? It means at the least, that there are lots of people across the country (remember I started with people?) who are working smart and working hard to bring massive societal change to you and I in how we interact with our government(s). It means that there is hope for broken and non transparent government systems and people.
But it also means the dark underbelly of governments get shown the light of day. This brings out defensive, cornered and scared people who see their very way of life disappearing in a digital "poof." The people who are embedded to the old ways of doing business are seeing this social wave of innovation driving both culture change inside government; and a business change outside of government, as a scary kind of revolution.
Indeed, it is a revolution. Only, it is the good kind.
This post is dedicated to a Gov 2.0 Revolutionary Thinker who passed away last month: Martin Bosworth.