Government Next: NIC Presentation

government next gov’t services in the 2.0 era

me.

who am I?

i’m a good citizen

what is web 2.0?

what is web 2.0 has changed?

branding.

authenticity.

commercial pursuits.

social pursuits.

competition.

collaboration.

copyright.

copy-left.

delivery of data.

file sharing.

security.

privacy.

public & proud.

one way portals.

multi-directional apis.

moving from...

• controlled messages/branding

• commercial pursuits

• competition

• copyright

• delivery of data

• individuality

• corporate secrecy & spying

• security & privacy

• one-way portals

• centralization

• authenticity

• social pursuits

• collaboration

• copy-left

• person to person file sharing

• independence

• corporate openness & sharing

• public & proud

• multi-directional apis

• decentralization

trust works both ways.

what is web 2.0?

it’s not about technology

it’s an era

it’s a combination of technology + attitude

but what came first?

the attitude?

the technology?

(my money is on the chicken)

but enough about poultry...

3 themes

•openness

•collaboration

•community

openness

openness means...open access to the information or material resources needed for a diverse range of users/producers/contributors to contribute to projects.

wikipedia.org

transparency.

one simple way to achieve transparency:

publish everything openly.

blogging.

blogging 101

• what to blog about:

• talk about what the department is working on/thinking about

• post meeting summaries

• ask questions you need to find answers for

• post progress and announcements on services projects.

• interact with citizen blogs (post about interesting citizen initiatives, concerns and questions to get feedback)

• speak in a human voice, not as a press release

blogging 102

• self-hosted platforms I’d recommend:

• wordpress.org (open source + free + lots of great support and plugins + simple to install, skin and keep up) PHP

• drupal.org (open source + free + more ‘control’ over permissioning, etc., but not as simple to install or user friendly) PHP

• moveabletype.com (not free, but more control over permissioning and fairly simple to install) PERL

• silverstripe.com (free + open source, haven’t used, but it’s won some awards lately) PHP

wikis.

wiki 101

• what to use a wiki for:

• jotting down unfinished ideas/random thoughts

• collaborating on projects that need loads of input

• gathering random information and research

• create a public reference encyclopedia

wiki 102

• self hosted platforms I’d recommend

• MediaWiki.org (open source + free + extensible)

• confluence/atlassian.com (not free or open source, but enterprise grade)

• DocuWiki/wiki.splitbrain.org (open source + free + extensible)

• For more: http://www.wikimatrix.org

discussion groups.

discussion groups 101

• what to use discussion groups for:

• use it instead of emails with long cc’d lists. get everyone to join the mailing list and send EVERY SINGLE communication between members of that group on the topics covered.

• make it publicly viewable and allow anyone to join (you can set first posts to needing to be approved to prevent spam)

• link to these threads from blog, wiki and other correspondence

discussion groups 102

• software I would recommend:

• Google Groups - groups.google.com (free, hosted, excellent interface)

group chat.

group chat 101

• what to use group chat for:

• instant feedback and ongoing relationship building

• condition 1: people have to be in the chat room pretty constantly

• condition 2: the chat needs to be logged somewhere that people can go back and see the threads

• there are many times you will need the synchronous communication allowed by chat

group chat 102

• software I would recommend:

• Pibb.com (open source + free + loggable + embeddable in your website)

• Skype channels (free, but logging can be a pain)

• IRC (open source + free, but not as user friendly - good for developers. hint: bridges with Pibb)

• Tangler.com (free, logs as both a forum and a chat, threads discussion, but not currently embeddable)

• Meebo.com (free + embeddable, but doesn’t log)

other really cool tools

satisfaction.

twitter.

weather services.

twitterquake!

case study: san diego fires, a concerned citizen and Twitter

google docs.

and of course...

• for events: Upcoming.org and Eventful.com

• for photos: Flickr.com

• for general social networking: Facebook.com (great groups and events features there)

• for a different perspective altogether: Secondlife.com (if you need to have remote meetings, why not have them in second life rather than on conference call?)

• for licensing: CreativeCommons.org

collaboration

collaboration means...a process where two or more people work together toward a common goal by sharing knowledge, learning and building consensus.

wikipedia.org

why collaborate?

teams that work collaboratively can obtain greater resources, recognition and reward when facing competition for finite resources.

there are alot of citizens like me who are really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really...

really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really,

really eager to collaborate with you.

10 ways to encourage collaboration:

1. be a platform

A \"platform\" is a system that can be programmed and therefore customized by outside developers – users – and in that way, adapted to countless needs and niches that the platform's original developers could not have possibly contemplated, much less had time to accommodate.

–Marc Andreessen, http://blog.pmarca.com/2007/09/the-three-kinds.html

platforms 101

• sharing data is the most basic level of being a platform

• supply feeds in machine-readable formats: microformats, rss, opml, kml, etc.

• APIs

credit: Matt Biddulph, Dopplr (FOWA fall 2007)

what are microformats?

a better way to mark up your data

my information without microformats

Tara Hunt

San Francisco California

http://www.horsepigcow.com

my information w/o microformats, but with html

<div >

<span ><span ><span ><span >

</div>

Tara Hunt


<a href=”

</span>

</span></span>

</a>

http://www.horsepigcow.com”>

</span>

my information with microformats

Tara Hunt


<div class="vcard">

<span class="given-name"><span class="family-name">

<span class="locality”><span class="region">

<a class="url fn n" href=”

</span></span>

</span></span>

</a>

</div>

http://www.horsepigcow.com”>

so what is an API?

• an application programming interface (API) is a source code interface that an operating system or library provides to support requests for services to be made of it by computer programs.

• in other words: it is the way you bring data from one source to display it in another.

• this is the ‘magic’ behind cool mashups like:

chicago crime.

twittervision.

case study: an api, a couple of citizens and a desire to improve the Caltrain interface

platforms 101


• user identity is an excellent way to start sharing a person’s information between sites

• OpenID.net is user-centric identity and it is being adopted more widely: AOL, Moveable Type, Orange/France Telecom, Plaxo, and hundreds of other smaller sites are IDPs (identity providers)


platforms 101



• delegating authority is what needs to happen to allow 3rd party applications and mashups to use your data in cool ways

• OAuth is another community project that is working toward a standard protocol to use for delegating authority


platforms 101



• delegating authority is what needs to happen to allow 3rd party applications and mashups to use your data in cool ways

• then you can even make your own cool widgets and use your own api’s to build cool stuff


2. publish everything in open channels

i talked about this in regards to transparency.

the more information you put out there, the more opportunities you give for citizen engagement.

3. be available

publish all of the ways for someone to contact you...with a preference to more public forums

IM mecall me

email me

4. embrace the chaos

in other words...

you really must loosen the grips of control.

nobody wants to collaborate with a control freak.

5. provide clear goals & purpose

concentrate on desired outcomes

without an understanding of the desired outcome, how can anyone help?

and...what if your proposed solutions aren’t ideal to get you there?

6. reward collaborators

be careful to not change the reasons for why people are collaborating.

for those who contribute more, give them more trust and responsibility.

7. show progress

another advantage of being transparent...people will see you making progress along the way.

ways to report along the way

• display a countdown or a progress meter

• a public to-do list (crossing things off...or allowing others ‘to do’ the stuff for you and cross it off)

• twitter what you are doing right now

• post wireframes, mockups, photos of cocktail napkin sketches, etc. on Flickr

• add announcements to blog, notes to wiki, etc.

8. take simple steps first

tackle problems from the simplest to the hardest where you can.

9. reach out to people from different backgrounds &

industries

kind of like you’ve done with me. :)

10. be part of the community

interact with people as they use the services

use them yourself.

compare that experience to your most awesome customer experiences.

(there is this commonly opined theory that people that design transit systems have never rode a bus.)

11. view the public as a partner, not a recipient

empower. enable. hand over lots of responsibility.

the more agency you give others, the more responsible they will be.

introducing: barcamp

Ryanne Hodsen - “What the heck is Barcamp?”

case study: barcamp, a group of citizens and the desire to make the better way a better way (TransitCamp)

toronto transitcamp in the news

http://transitcamp.org/

12. run real open betas

how to encourage collaboration [summary]

1.be a platform

2.publish everything openly

3.be available

4.embrace the chaos

5.provide clear goals and purpose

6.reward contributors

7.show progress

8. take simple steps first

9.reach out to people from different backgrounds and industries

10.be part of the community

11.view the public as a partner, not a recipient

12.run real, open betas

community

community means...a social group...sharing an environment, normally with shared interests.

wikipedia.org

stuff that connects us:

• common goals

• common experiences

• common passions

• common enemies

we call this purpose

when you open yourself up to partnerships with the community, you find those purposeful points of connection.

how do you help people connect?

easy.

accelerate serendipity.

there are all sorts of ways to encourage serendipitous meetings.

simple things to accelerate serendipity

• the ability for people to leave comments on every announcement, article and information page



• DIGG for citizen issues/ideas




• a widget for ‘who is talking about this...’ on pages





• a Flickr photo gallery that pulls in everyone’s photos tagged properly





• a Flickr photo gallery that pulls in everyone’s photos tagged properly

• the menu item ‘Community’ actually show some community life in it

in summary...

web 2.0 is

an era

not the technology

openness, collaboration and community

technology can really spread those memes.

without it, none of this matters.

trust is at the heart of web 2.0

government 2.0 = partnering with engaged citizens

like me.

and Chris.

and Cal (iamcaltrain). http://flickr.com/photos/laughingsquid/108769433/

and Mark (transitcamp).http://flickr.com/photos/willpate/528996211/

and Nate (#sandiegofire).http://flickr.com/photos/chris_radcliff/362190770

government 2.0 = trust

http://www.slideshare.net/missrogue

About those rockin’ images• Many of them are purchased from iStockPhoto.com

• Those borrowed from Flickr are:

• Trust: http://www.flickr.com/photos/red_devil/51964471/

• Trust Drives Change: http://www.flickr.com/photos/michaelsphotos/288090300/

• locked.up: http://www.flickr.com/photos/impactmatt/298580376/

• Starbucks Cup: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mjb/118418786/

• Starbucks Globalism: http://www.flickr.com/photos/thorinside/55362248/

• Cal Henderson: http://flickr.com/photos/laughingsquid/108769433/

• I ♥ P2P: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jlmaral/356217080/

• Transparency: http://www.flickr.com/photos/laimagendelmundo/753794095/

• Beta Wallpaper: http://www.flickr.com/photos/tomstardust/246840641/

• Secret Wireframes: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jvree/1492369848/

• Transit Waiting Area: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mag/374819180/

• conehead puppy: http://www.flickr.com/photos/klapow/39693385/

sites of note:

• creativecommons.org

• wikipedia.org

• coworking.info

• barcamp.org

• getsatisfaction.com

• twitter.com

• microformats.org

• openid.net

• oauth.net

• dellideastorm.com

• flickr.com

• technorati.com

Tara Hunt

[email protected]

skype: tarahunt747

www.citizenagency.comwww.horsepigcow.com

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Government Next: NIC Presentation