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he government of the province of Quebec today released the Gautrin Report, which covers Web 2.0 and government transformation related to technology.  It includes ideas such as a provincial open data site and improved internal collaboration for government employees.  In the press conference I also heard mention of a dashboard for government IT projects (with reference to the dashboard created by the US CIO).

Rufus Pollock, co-founder of the Open Knowledge Foundation, was interviewed at the Open Government Partnership conference (OGP) in Brasilia, Brazil in April 2012. In the video embedded above, Pollock talks about his involvement with OGP and how civil society will be involved in holding government accountable. He also explains what open data means to him, including a definition and how it relates to traditional open government goals of transparency and accountability. Pollock recommends the Open Data Handbook as a resource to learn more and put data to work in the service of better government.

An informal group of CIOs from seven of the largest cities are launching their first project: a website that will house standardized data from each city, making it easier for them to share applications.

 Two recent announcements from Canada prompt my mood this morning: Canada Joins International Open Government Partnership Conservative Cuts put half of Statscan jobs at risk A government can simultaneously be the most secretive, controlling Canadian government in recent memory and be welcomed into the club of "open government". The announcements highlight a few problems with the "open data movement" (Wikipedia page): It's not a movement, at least in any reasonable political or cultural sense of the word, It's doing nothing for transparency and accountability in government, It's co-opting the language of progressive change in pursuit of what turns out to be a small-government-focused subsidy for industry. In short, the open data movement is a joke. Those who are on the political left who lend their support to it have some hard decisions to make.

While I was thinking about this post, I have seen Tom Slee's one titled "Why the Open Data Movement is a Joke", which has raised some discussion and understandable outrage in the open government circles. Tom's argument starts from underlying an inherent conflict between the Canadian government's decision to join the Open Government Partnerships (see my earlier post) and some of its behaviors. Then he postulated that the Open Data Movement is more focused on formats, digitally-accessible data sets, free access to postal codes, and so on than it is focused on actual government transparency around issues that matter. It's a movement that has had no impact on government accountability

Plusieurs conférenciers au colloque Printemps des réseaux sociaux des 3 et 4 avril 2012 à Québec n'ont pas manqué de rappeler l'engouement que soulèvent chez nous et ailleurs sur la planète les Facebook, Twitter et autres plateformes communautaires. Pressant les organisations de se faire voir sur ces plateformes - l'internaute d'aujourd'hui est Social Local Mobile, n'est-ce pas?-, les « cracks » des RS n'en conditionnent pas moins la « construction » de cette présence à une réflexion de base en communication:

A task force exploring ways that open governance can be brought to public administration in Quebec has produced a welcome report that represents a step in the right direction. The report lays out an impressive series of recommendations on how to improve public accountability in real time, as well as facilitate more citizen input on the design of government policy. It rightly takes the view that more openness is the key to restoring public trust in government, something currently in sparse supply in this province.

A report calling for more government transparency and citizen participation through the use of technology made 32 recommendations to make Quebec an open administration. Here are selected highlights.

MONTREAL - The Quebec government has pledged to increase transparency and turn citizens into decision makers by using the latest online tools and embracing a new culture of openness. In Wednesday's release of a long-awaited report into how to bring open governance to Quebec - billed as "historic" by advocates of open governance - the government said that by next month, it will launch a web portal that will make public data easily accessible. Another website, to be created later, will gather public opinion on how the government is run.

Open government initiatives are either aimed at providing greater transparency, usually as a reaction to an accusation or perception of excessive secrecy, or at engaging citizens in specific problem solution as well as service delivery. It is probably fair to say that the US federal initiatives are closer to the former, while UK initiatives are closer to the latter. In both cases, though, there is a fundamental lack of confidence - or blatant distrust - in the government workforce. This is rooted in a mixture of reality and perception: laziness, risk aversion, self-preservation, lack of incentives, low salaries, a culture of job security, and so forth, do not contribute to creating a pretty picture of government employees. In countries that are struggling with their finances and economy, civil servants are seen as a cost to be reduced in order to recover resources that should help reignite the economy. At the same time many agree that the retirement or dismissal of experienced government workers may make the situation even worse in areas where government services will be in greater demand going forward (think about education, social care, health care, public safety).

Change is here. It is happening everywhere. I have been fortunate in the last few months to speak and also do a tremendous amount of listening and asking pertinent questions of minister level officials in 5 national capitals, on 4 continents. The pace of change in government use and implementation of social media, gov 2.0, open gov, egov and various other monikers is extremely rapid, in some countries it is breakneck.

One of the challenges that continually surfaces in Government 2.0 initiatives is what I call the tool syndrome. People get stuck on the tools. Should we use Facebook or Twitter? Do we need a blog or a wiki? Come on, admit it. We've all been there. I know I have.

The Open Data Census 2012 will monitor the current status of open data across the globe. The primary focus of the Census is data. Policies are crucial, but as Chris Taggart's analysis of corporate data demonstrates, actual practice can be very different. Focussing on data will also allow us to keep the census very concrete. Analysing policy or even law is a complex process; whether a dataset is 'open' or not is usually a clear yes or no answer.

Today, President Obama issued a presidential memorandum on building a 21st century digital government. In this memorandum, the president directs each major federal agency in the United States to make two key services that American citizens depend upon available on mobile devices within the next 12 months and to make "applicable" government information open and machine-readable by default. President Obama directed federal agencies to do two specific things: comply with the elements of the strategy by May 23, 2013 and to create a "/developer" page on ever major federal agency's website. 

City governments, faced with decreased resources after the Great Recession and rising citizen demand for services with increased urbanization, must be able to make better decisions that are informed by data. To put it another way, in 2012, mayors need to start playing Moneyball in government with evidence-based analysis.

"A new pilot project is allowing citizens to see local service information such as planning applications and food hygiene ratings of cafes projected live onto images or videos of their local area using "augmented reality" (AR) software. Data can be seen overlaid live onto locations by pointing a smartphone or tablet computer with a camera running AR software at a building or area. "

With all the good advice out there about dealing with negative comments you'd think managing negativity would be no big deal. (Um...that would be "no.") What's frustrating for communicators is that we're usually dying to get out there and communicate. Even when the organization has made mistakes we know: 1. Being there first, fast, and fluently is the way to defuse a crisis early on. 2. Not dealing with it means that people think you're guilty. 3. People thinking you're guilty means they read negative meaning into everything you say. 4. Once trust is lost, even when you listen, the audience doesn't trust you and so accuses you of being Big Brotheresque. 5. Real criticism left un-dealt with can easily turn into hate writing either organically or because it's exploited. If the organization really, really, really can't respond....then something is really, really, really wrong.

If government work weren't challenging enough with the upcoming elections, continuing resolutions instead of federal budgets and the threat of sequestration in January, federal agencies just reached a milestone of sorts by having launched more than 200 IT challenge and prize competitions, according to DigitalGov's Challenge.gov. In addition, more than 16,000 citizen "solvers" have taken part in the Challenge.gov competitions since the platform was launched Sept. 7, 2010.