Rock Creek Roundup (September 11 Edition)

Posted by: Meagen Ryan, Director of Strategy Sep 11, 2009 0 Comments

This week’s Rock Creek Roundup features news from the Gov 2.0 Summit and more. From a new Army-hosted competition, to discussions led by Aneesh Chopra and Macon Phillips, to the launch of a new government page on Facebook, the Gov 2.0 world has had a busy week:

• At this week’s Gov 2.0 Summit, Army representatives announced that it will soon launch the Apps for the Army competition. Drawing inspiration from the Sunlight Foundation’s successful Apps for America program, the Army contest aims to streamline software budgets and promote innovation throughout the ranks. Users will be able to vote on the applications that they find the most promising, helping decide the contest’s outcome. We’ll be keeping an eye on Forge.mil to see how the contest is going once it gets started.
• Also at the Gov 2.0 Summit, Federal CTO Aneesh Chopra announced that the administration’s open government directive was within weeks of coming to fruition. Describing the initiative as one that aimed to change the way that government is hardwired, rather than serve as an superficial change tied to the current administration. Chopra also expressed the importance of agencies bringing machine readable data online rather than locking their online data into PDFs that cannot be as easily used and manipulated by others.
• White House Director of New Media Macon Phillips understands the benefits of connecting with internal stakeholders, as evidenced by a discussion he had at the Gov 2.0 Summit. Speaking on-stage with public radio personality Kojo Nnamdi, Phillips talked candidly about the need to ensure that even people from ‘inside the building’ find the administration’s online initiatives relevant and helpful. But as government initiatives achieve success, Phillips believes that the culture will shift, and resistance of technology using the “security” rationale will lessen.
• As Tim Sparapani from Facebook announced, Facebook launched a new page aimed at helping government agencies get the most out of their Facebook accounts. Featuring best practices, a list of agencies, and a host of links to additional information, the page promises to be an ever-growing resource for government agencies on the federal, state, and local levels.
• Finally, my favorite quote from the Gov 2.0 Summit came from Michele Weslander Quaid, CTO at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI). She advised those working to implement change and collaboration in government to be persistent in overcoming objections, saying “You can’t accept a ‘no’ from someone who can’t give you a ‘yes’ in the first place.”

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Meagen Ryan

Director of Strategy

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