Topic: Government
There's a lot of talk about the use of open source in government, but oftentimes during procurement, the idea isn't taken seriously. Bryan Sivak, Chief Technical Officer of the District of Columbia, celebrates a 20% Linux data center, the Design for Democracy competitions, and the introduction of secure online absentee voting. He also makes frank observations on why open source is not yet viable in some government applications, and talks about the future announcement of "Code for America".
Jamillah Knowles and Chris Vallance tease out the strands of the Wikileaks story so far and chat with experts on the real meaning of cyberwar and the future of leaked documents. Oh - and there's a great song about maths too.
Cross-sector collaborations are increasingly being seen as a means to foster innovation and solve entrenched social problems. In this audio lecture, Andrew Wolk, CEO of Root Cause, argues that the time has come for what he calls social impact markets. They would focus on single issues within specific geographic areas, and foster ties among government institutions, nonprofits, and businesses.
DigitalGlobe fills the need for fast and accurate geospatial information, which has become ubiquitous in today's always-on environment. Walter Scott demonstrates the latest innovations in satellite imaging technology and web solutions. New developments set the pace for a revolution in GPS and GIS-based lifestyles. DigitalGlobe has over a billion square kilometers of imagery in their archive--close to collecting the land surface of the planet seven times over.
Data transparency is not enough; danah boyd powerfully argues that the character of data depends on its interpretation and states her case for data literacy. If people are ignorant about how data is generated, selected and interpreted, power accrues to those who can 'spin' the data to support their opinions and biases. Using the example of publicly available sex offender data, released under Megan's Law, boyd shows that understanding the complexity of data is just as important as making it transparent.
As educational leaders, how much time do we spend on political and policy issues? That question frames this 2010 NewSchools Summit session, which features an accomplished panel of educational reformers who provide insight on how to be politically savvy in the broader landscape. Focusing on the operational is not enough to drive impact and results to advance educational progress - leaders create systems of change when they devote energy and resources in political action and advocacy.
Open government data is being used to increase civic participation in a variety of ways. This series of Rapid Fire talks from the Gov 2.0 Summit shows how companies can transform government data for customers, how online tools can help citizens organize themselves, and how openness in software can provide huge returns on investment.
An open API for all government functions would be a transformative achievement, and Tim O'Reilly and Chris Vein have been working to make it a reality. In this free-flowing Q and A format, Chris Vein shares his experience as CIO for San Fransisco, building IT as a platform for the 21st century city. Vein and O'Reilly discuss their front line experiences in government data with an audience of location-based developers.
Dr. Moira Gunn catches up with author and columnist, David Duncan, to hear about the US Judge who has ruled against President Obama's stem cell policy.
Dean Halstead of the Microsoft SharePoint Product Design Team talks about social networking within government organizations in this Gov 2.0 presentation. He describes how SharePoint's out-of-the-box Gov 2.0 kit meets many social networking objectives within the operational constraints of government organizations. Halstead provides several examples of successful government social networking solutions, and a view of future SharePoint capabilities.
