egovernment – Page 2 – Whitehall Webby

Us Now – go see

I was lucky enough to snag a ticket to go and see Us Now at the RSA on Wednesday night.

Us Now, by Ivo Gormley, is a film about the power of online collaboration and communities – and what that might mean for future government. Its very powerful, highlighting some excellent case studies and interviewing a range of experts (its worth seeing for Ed Miliband’s appearance alone I think).

Others have already written better reviews than I could so all I will say is – its fantastic, go and see it.

There’s another preview viewing next Wednesday evening in London and there are still (free) tickets available. If you’re around, I highly recommend going along. This is one hour of your life you won’t regret giving up.

Ticket details here.

Government barcamp – the sequel

People have been asking me almost since the end of the last one when the next government barcamp would be held.

I’ve been reluctant to be involved in planning or organising it, partly because I thought there were plenty of others who could take it on (and it was a lot of work to get off the ground), partly because I wasn’t sure why we needed to have another one (otherwise someone else would have organised it?).

Doing something to follow up the barcamp has been on my mind for some time and I’ve thrown out all sorts of ideas without any real conclusion to the discussions.

Anyway it just so happened that two days ago discussion about a follow up barcamp came up on three separate occasions. Over lunch with two of my fellow conspirators from the first barcamp I was persuaded encouraged by them that now is the right time to think about another event.

Why? Because so much has happened in the last year of egovernment. In January 2008 it was all about making connections, getting the network going, and thinking about the possibilities.

But a year on, there’s a lot to show for the energy generated by the barcamp. Great social media projects, brilliant initiatives to make better use of government data, excellent work to improve existing government websites, and a geek minister.

Its never easy for us all to get together to share what we’ve done, how we did it, what went well, what went not so well. What you’re planning next.

So, what are you doing on Saturday 31^st January 2009? Don’t know where it will be yet (but have a few ideas) or what will happen. But as I learnt to my cost last year, that’s all part of the fun. Hope you can make it.

Free legal web project barcamp

I seem to be permanently in a state of writing about things a week or so after they have happened at the moment and trying to play catchup.

This is a case in point. A week last Saturday (18th October) I went along to the Free Legal Web barcamp. The event was set up (and part sponsored) by Nick Holmes to bring together those intersested in creating an online service that pulls together legal texts (primary, secondary, rules. procedures, judgements etc) and commentary.

Its a brilliant idea. A small, but perfectly formed, group of 24 met at the RSA. It was a room of real enthusiasts – lawyers, hackers, civil servants – all more or less geeks with an interest in improving the availability and quality of legal information online.

I went along because my employer publishes a fair amount of information online that might be of interest to this project. But to be honest, much of what was discussed was over my head so I didn’t stay until the end.

However, it looks to me like the beginnings of an excellent and worthy project. With enough goodwill generated on the day to agree to meet again in mid-January.

You can find out more about the barcamp on the project blog, the email list, and the wiki if you want to follow its development or be part of it.

Happy birthday My Society

My Society celebrated their 5th birthday party in style on Tuesday night at The Hub in Kings Cross. There was a fantastic turnout of familiar faces there to support and congratulate the team of, mainly, volunteers who have produced such great online democratic tools as They Work For You and Fix My Street (to name but a few).

Tom Steinberg, My Society’s director, gave a short talk looking back on their achievements and ahead at the challenges facing both My Society and government online (you can read a summary of it here). It felt a bit like an end of term report, and was none the worse for that.

Tom expressed some frustration that things have not moved as quickly as they had wished and that their influence on change in government was not as strong as they wished. I think he overplayed the negative. My Society’s influence is immense and can only grow larger. For those us working on the inside of government working on web stuff they provide inspiration and a sanity check on some of our more outlandish ideas.

Frankly, I was quite surprised that they’ve only been going for five years given the impact they have made. They are certainly controversial – and probably liked and loathed in equal measure by those inside government whose work they impact on the most. But what you cannot deny is the brilliance and simplicity of the projects they have produced. No doubt they have more in the pipeline.

Happy birthday My Society. Roll on double figures.