All of the presentations were very interesting and will all be online shortly. I will update you on their availability and provide a full report on the event in a subsequent post as soon as the remaining presentations go online.
In the meantime here is the presentation I gave on
‘Working with Web 2.0 (Social Software in the Workplace)’
The IPA (Institute of Public Administration- Ireland)
Is running a one day seminar in Dublin on 24th October.
The Speakers are David Osimo, Dr Paul Hodgkin, Dr James Munro, Derek Chambers ,Kieran Lenihan and myself.
Further details and the agenda are listed below.
This seminar seeks to:
• Give participants a clearer understanding of the Web 2.0 concept and its dramatic effect on online activity.
• Examine how the associated technologies are influencing the way in which public services are being delivered.
• Look at the technical and organisational opportunities and challenges that Web 2.0 applications present for public sector organisations
• Draw attention to practical ways that the new technologies have been applied in an Irish public sector context.
Agenda
24 October 2008 at the Institute of Public Administration
Seminar Schedule 9.00
Registration
9.30
Welcome and Overview
Kieran Lenihan
Specialist in Service Delivery and Information Technology
Institute of Public Administration
10.00
Towards meaningful citizen participation in government: Role of Web 2.0
David Osimo
David worked until July 2008 in the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission, where he coordinated research activities on e-government. He is author of the JRC report Web2.0 in Government: Why and How? (2008). Previously, he worked as advisor and project manager on innovation and information society policies in Milan, Brussels and Bologna. His current interests cover the impact of new technologies on future public services and more generally the role of government in the innovation system. He now works as an independent consultant.
10.50
Tea/Coffee
11.20
Implications of Web 2.0 for public service delivery
David Osimo
12.10
Case Study 1 -www.patientopinion.org.uk
Dr Paul Hodgkin, CEO Patient Opinion
A GP for 25 years in Sheffield, Paul is still practising. In the 90’s he co founded the Centre for Innovation in Primary Care in the UK and is a graduated of the Young Foundation for Social Entrepreneurs and is passionate about the developing role of social enterprises in solving the pressing problems of 21st century
Dr James Munro, Director of Informatics and Research James has a background in clinical medicine, public health and health research. Before joining Patient Opinion, he was director of health service research at Sheffield University school of Health and Related Research. For 20 years he was editor of Healthmatters, an independent magazine on healthcare and public health policy
13.00
Lunch
14.00
Working with Web 2.0 Technologies -The Challenges
Mark O Toole, IS Project Leader,
Kilkenny County Council
Mark is Editor of Rialtas.net (Government 2.0) and keenly interested in the potential for use of Web 2.0 technologies in providing government services. He has recently completed a Masters of Science at DCU focusing on Knowledge Management and Web 2.0 Technologies
15.00
Case Study 2 – Ireland www.bebo.com/yourmentalhealth
Derek Chambers
‘Your Mental Health’ Campaign Manager,
HSE National Office for Suicide Prevention
Derek (MA Sociology) has been working in the health sector for nearly ten years, primarily in the area of mental health. He is currently the Senior Research Officer and Deputy Head of the National Office for Suicide Prevention (NOSP) of the Health Service Executive. He was the project manager and main author of Reach Out, the national suicide prevention strategy (2005). More recently (2007) Derek managed the Your Mental Health national public awareness campaign which featured television, radio and outdoor advertising supported by a dedicated campaign website and a social networking platform on Bebo. His main interests include the development of public health approaches to suicide prevention.
I Have just finished attending an excellent symposium ‘Government 2.0 and Beyond…Harnessing Collective Intelligence’ which was hosted by the US Assistant Secretary of Defense (Networks and Information Integration) DOD Chief Information Officer and the Information Resources Management College, US National Defense University.
Government 2.0 Symposium in the IRM Government Center in Second Life
The Panelists were
• David Wennergren, Deputy DOD Chief Information Officer (Moderator)
• Bruce Klein, Director of Public Sector Group, Cisco
• Anthony Williams, VP New Paradigm and co-author of Wikinomics
• Mike Bradshaw, Director, Enterprise Federal, Google
The kenote speech was given by David Weinberger, Weinberger is a U.S. technologist, writer, and
Web 2.0 guru. He is the co-author of the “Cluetrain Manifesto”.
The Seminar took place in Washington DC, but through the wonders of technology I was able to attend the symposium at the IRMC Government Center in Second Life.. Second Life participants could view a video feed, chat and interact with each other and could also submit questions to the panelists.
The presentations started with a showing of Shift Happens (watch it if you haven’t already..)
Shift Happens
The presentations will all be available on the IRMC website shortly.Overall, some fascinating presentations, the event was attended by representatives of over 30 US universities, over 15 government agencies, and personnel from NASA and the Library of Congress and many more.
David Weinberger’s speech was a little marred for Second Life attendees as his lapel mike was malfunctioning and it was a little difficult to hear everything he was saying but essentially he outlined how for big organisations, change is hard, but then in time, a big ‘shift happens’ and that this shift provides a ‘moment of opportunity’ where change is made easier for organisations if they can only surf the wave of enthusiasm and excitement that is felt by the public during these shifts, and that government organisations internationally currently have this opportunity..
Anthony Williams (author of Wikinomics) spoke about rethinking public services and urged government organisations to open channels for feedback, engagement and collaboration , he gave the examples of ChicagoCrime.org and Fix MyStreet
Williams also discussed the problems that exist around the ‘complex machinery of government’ arguing that there are too many levels in government, and too many agencies, and explained that this was no one’s fault having grown organically over the centuries, but that now ‘knowledge must flow horizontally’ as an example of this new type of structure he outlined the Intellipedia project,
Another key issue for Williams was that of restoring trust in democracy, in his view democracy internationally has suffered in recent years, the ‘broadcast’ model of politics is dead, he said. It is time to invite participation and to rethink the division of labour, harnessing mass collaboration to engage people in the creation of a better society. ‘ It is important to remember’, he highlighted, ‘that Web 2.0 (and Government 2.0) is not about technology, it is about connecting PEOPLE’.
Next up was Bruce Klein of Cisco who also outlined his view that Web 2.0 is not about technology but rather it is about ‘culture’ and ‘process’ he also spoke of the urgent need to move towards collaborative and teamwork based organisations. In his opinion the biggest issues are the leadership and the organisational culture. The leaders need to be willing to change and to adapt to these new structures. He explained how in Cisco the leaders who couldn’t ‘get this’ were invited to choose another role..
Last up was Mike Bradshaw, Google’s Director for Government Services, who also spoke extensively about Generation Y / The Net-Gen and the difficulties in attracting them to work in government agencies and the need to open up the enterprise to these new social tools..
The Presentations will be available here.. they are well worth watching, very focused on a collaborative future, and delivered with a real sense of urgency…
A free seminar organised by the Hansard Society to discuss eDemocracy in Scotland.
Speakers will be Dr Laura Miller (Senior Researcher, eDemocracy Programme, Hansard Society), Navraj Singh Ghaleigh (Lecturer in Public Law, University of Edinburgh), Aileen Campbell MSP (Scottish National Party MSP for South of Scotland), Fergus Cochrane (Clerk to the Public Petitions Committee, Scottish Parliament).
“There is an increasing desire amongst governments to engage with citizens and many are pointing to the internet as a tool for managing this engagement. The Hansard Society has undertaken extensive research to identify what forms of online engagement are effective and when. In this event an invited panel will explore the different characteristics of online engagement, focusing not simply on the technology but also discussing the impact of organizational culture and the broader context of citizen disenfranchisement.”
30 September 2008, Croke Park Conference Centre, Dublin.
The eSymposium will provide public sector professionals, from both central and local government, with a forum for the exchange of visions, ideas, practice, results and experience.
Advancing eGovernment: The Next Challenge
Conference Chair - John Bowman Agenda
9.00am: Registrations and Coffee 9.45am: Opening Address - Maeve Kneafsey, Managing Director, Elucidate
Keynote Presentations: 9.50am: Building a Better Future – Bill McCluggage, Director of the Delivery & Innovation Division, Department of Finance & Personnel, Northern Ireland
Mr. McCluggage outlines how we can work together to build a better future for all, delivering new citizen channels and examines the role that technology and new working methods play in that. 10.20am: eParticipation in the Era of Web 2.0 – Dr. Julia Glidden, Non-Executive Director, AIDC European Centre of Excellence Are you considering how Web 2.0 truly is revolutionising eGovernment and eParticipation? Dr. Julia Glidden offers an insight into how changing citizen expectations of government service delivery has dramatically affected our lives and in ways politicians and policymakers have not even begun to grasp. 10.50am: Improving Local eGovernment Policies – Katja Kaunismaa, Project Director, The Baltic Institute of Finland
Would you like to learn from the results of a European-wide, 3 year project? Katja Kaunismaa outlines the experience gathered and lessons learnt from the implementation of eCitizen services across Finland, Denmark, the Baltic States, Russia, Italy and the UK. This session will look at the cultural issues involved as well as how technology can improve local policy. 11.20am: Q&A 11.30am: BREAK 11.50am: The Power of Information – Alex Butler, Director of Transformational Strategy, Central Office of Information, UK
How can governments use web 2.0 to open up and share information with citizens? These are just some of the issues dealt with by Alex Butler who will present on the UK Government’s evolving strategy for government online. This will include the way in which the UK is embracing new technology including web 2.0, and the ‘Power of Information’ strategy which encourages both the opening up of government data to online reuse and better partnerships with online communities. 12.20pm: The European eRegion – Case Study on Estonia – Hannes Astok, Member of the Estonian Parliament
Estonia, often considered the leading e-technology region in Europe, has implemented eGovernment services since 1994. Hannes Astok illustrates the initiatives that have been conducted to enable electronic transactions in all areas of public life and how this has facilitated collaboration both between the public sector and private enterprise but also between central and local government. 12.50pm: Q&A 1pm – 2pm: LUNCH Breakout Sessions: 2pm - 4.30pm: Three breakout sessions will be run in the afternoon from 2pm to 4.30pm. Each breakout session will last 45 minutes and will be repeated 3 times giving all delegates a chance to sit in on all the sessions. The session will comprise of a panel of experts and is designed to be interactive and facilitate participants’ questions. The sessions will include a short presentation by the panellists and then be open to the floor for discussion. The topics and panellists are:
Online Marketing
Damian Ryan, Results International Group (Chair);
Margaret McElroy, Marketing Manager, Revenue Online;
Sharon Donnery, Head of Consumer Info, Financial Regulator.
Mobile Technology
Philip O’Reilly, Head of IT, Department of Agriculture
Local Government
Dr Eileen O’Leary, Webmaster, Cork City Council.
Dr. John Donovan, Head of Enterprise & Research Development Services (ICT, Arts and Media), Dublin Institute of Technology
mashup* events have a couple of 10 minute top quality speakers, followed by an hour long panel and audience debate - followed by drinks.
On average over 200 professionals and entrepreneurs attend from the following disciplines: Internet, web2.0, mobile, telcoms, IT, media, broadcast, advertising, agency, PR, legal, regulatory, accounting, venture, banking, private equity, design and consulting. Typically representing CxO’s, senior exec and founders from blue chip, enterprise, government and startups.
The focus of this event is on use (and abuse) of information, it is not about voting, ID cards, wisdom of crowds for policy formulation or any other deep political agenda. The theme is aimed at:-
how to improve the access to information for the public using web technologies
developing innovation and being able to introduce it into the Government
should Government endorse use of its raw data and how should it make it available
Should the public have access to the data in order to define what should be visible to outside angencies and what should not. How could this be done.
if the output of the innovation shows a different metric to Government interruption - should there be controls?
Should commercial companies be able to sell this data and the analysis and should the government be party to the profits (or even sell access) outside of normal tax’s.
How much of our personal data held by the Government should be available (and to who and on what terms)
Co-hosted by CDC’s National Center for Health Marketing, Division of eHealth Marketing and WestEd. This online discussion will focus on Social Networks, Blogs, and other Web 2.0 applications and their uses in health marketing and public health. Participants will share examples of how they have used these applications and hear from others about ways of using these new channels of communication. The dialogue will open at 9:00 a.m. and remain open until 7:00 p.m. (EDT), however you will be welcome to log in and log off and join in the discussion as your schedule permits.
Agenda
Tuesday, September 16 : Web 2.0 and Health Marketing
CDC’s National Center for Health Marketing is committed to communicating relevant, timely, and action-oriented health information by making CDC content, tools, and services available when, where, and how users want them. We are building our inventory of interactive channels, Web 2.0, where communication is a two-way exchange. The importance of social networks, blogs, media sharing sites, mobile devices, and other Web 2.0 technology is growing rapidly and is central to building online communities and networks. Interactivity is essential to facilitating meaningful information sharing, collaboration, and creativity.
Confirmed speakers include Simon Dickson, Ross Ferguson, Iain Henderson and Stewart Kirkpatrick.
The seminar is hosted by Edinburgh University, and is supported by BT and is targeted at all those interested in learning about Web 2.0, from practitioners,to government and business users.
An informal, bar camp style event allowing participants to listen, network and share experiences with those who have designed and are managing Web 2 services.
Speakers and workshop leaders from Health, Business, Web design, Colleges and Universities, Social Enterprises, Social Media, Journalism, Government and Civic Society.
European eGovernment Services Conference: IDABC and beyond
Halfway into the IDABC programme, the European Commission has decided to organise, together with the Slovenian Presidency of the European Union, a mid-term IDABC conference, European eGovernment Services Conference: IDABC and beyond, on 12 and 13 February 2008 in Brdo, Slovenia.
The mid-term IDABC conference is a part of the eGovernment days (11 to 13 February 2008) organised jointly by the Slovenian Government and the European Commission. eGovernment days will feature two main events:
* 11 February 2008: eGovernment conference ‘Alliance with Users’
* 12 – 13 February 2008: the mid-term IDABC conference ‘European eGovernment Services Conference: IDABC and beyond’
“Countries that score high on public-sector openness, efficiency and eGovernment readiness are also top on the economic performance and competitiveness scoreboards. This strong link between national competitiveness, innovation strength and the quality of public administrations means that in the global economy better government is a competitive must”
states the Commission’s Communication i2010 eGovernment Action Plan.
