My first blog of 2010 is to let you know about what is bound to be one of the big events of the year in the digital government world. I’ve been fortunate enough to be asked to be a part of the Programme Committee for the second installment of Gov 2.0 Expo in Washington DC, a much expanded, more diverse and more global committee compared to the 2009 edition.
If you are interested in sharing your Gov20/digital engagement story (read more about the event tracks here) the deadline for submissions is 6th January (ie THIS Wednesday - I know, sorry!) [read more]

At the end of last year I did a post about Ivo Gormley’s seminal film, Us Now. The film had such an impact that since then (as promised) FutureGov has been working with Ivo to screen the film both in the UK and further afield. The reaction at these screenings was so positive that we’re working with Ivo to launch the film online in association with the British Council think tank Counterpoint.

Two weeks ago now (wow how time flies!) I was lucky enough to spend a few days in Washington DC at the eDemocracy camp and the Politics Online Conference. Hosted and organised by the Institute for Politics, Democracy and the Internet (IPDI), I headed to the events eager to see how things had changed since my trip over last year given Obama’s intervening election. And they were again an honour to be part of, with the mood clearly having changed from excitement about all the possibilities ahead to enthusiasm for the reality of delivering the open government directive.

This weekend I’ll be flying to Washington DC to attend the Politics Online Conference. The line-up for the two day event looks fantastic! I’m especially happy to be there to support the screening of Us Now, which is a UK film about mass participation and collaboration directed by Ivo Gromley.

The FutureGov team organised an event for Zach Tumin and Stephen Goldsmith from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University to meet with several movers and shakers in the social innovation sphere.

Having enjoyed co-hosting the Public Services 2.0 event over in Brussels last week with David Osimo and Lee Bryant (video of the event now available), this week Justin and I will be heading out to Washington DC to reprezent for the UK GovWeb scene at Government 2.0 Camp, a 500 (yes 500) strong BarCamp event for US GovWeb geeks and policy wonks.

So we’re just one week away from the Public Services 2.0: how to implement and promote user-driven open innovation in public services event in Brussels, put together by FutureGov, Euro guru David Osimo and social computing consultancy Headshift.

A couple of weeks ago I agreed to take part in the Parity Podcasts series, aimed at interviews with technical and business people working in the area of Collaborative Information Management and Web 2.0. In the podcasts the people share their knowledge and experiences of developing and deploying systems and solutions.

Hot on the heels of the weekend’s successful UK GovWeb BarCamp event in London, FutureGov and its event partners Euro guru David Osimo and social computing consultancy Headshift are proud to announce that Public Services 2.0 is next up on the govweb events calendar.

So while it has taken me a couple of weeks to knock out this post, I did think it would be good form to actually read the book first so I had something reasonably interesting to say (uh oh, I’ve raised expectations now haven’t I?).