Open Affairs Television

Dugan Petty, Oregon State CIO took a few minutes at the 2010 Government Open Source Conference to talk with Deb Bryant, Public Sector Communities Manager and GOSCON conference Chair with Oregon State University's Open Source Lab. Petty was on-hand to participate in the opening session, an executive panel on the state of open data, which had concluded just prior to Petty's interview. Petty shared his excitement over a recent grade of B+ on the Digital States Survey, conducted by the Center for Digital Government. The survey examines IT practices in all 50 states, and Oregon's performance ranks it in the top 25% of the country. The grade indicates Oregon is strongly trending upward. "Oregon had previously not event been on the radar" Petty says, and he attributes it to the State identifying and playing to it's strengths. To see more information on the Digital States Report, visit http://www.centerdigitalgov.com/. Petty also went on to comment on efforts to participate in the opening of government data amongst the State government, as well as their local and federal partners. He gave some examples including an initiative on http://data.oregon.gov/ to make improve access to state data. Dugan Petty's service as CIO of the State of Oregon began in 2006, where he has led the creation and execution of Oregon’s enterprise-level Information Resource Strategy aimed at reducing costly duplication of efforts and resources. He serves as Vice-President of the National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO), co-chairs the NASCIO Enterprise Architecture and Governance Committee. and chaired the Greening of IT Committee. He is a member of the Oregon Broadband Advisory Council, Oregon State Interoperability Executive Council, and the newly created Transparency Oregon Advisory Commission.

Sarah Schacht, Executive Director of Knowledge As Power, joined Nate DiNiro of Open Affairs Television to talk about the mission of the organization and other details about her career path and the ongoing open government movement. KAP helps citizens become informed and effective in the legislative process with online tools that help citizens track legislation and at the same time helps governments open up their process and data to engage citizens. Sara shares some details about her experiences, which led to her position as a resource for governments seeking to create more transparency, as well as some practical advice about sustaining the hard won ground which the open government movement has gained. Sarah also shares details of a crowd funded usability study led by KAP which helped the City of Seattle staff justify a reorganization of the City's website, stories of helping 10 Downing street, and how her activities as a student body representative to State government helped shaper her involvement in open government.

John Weathersby, Executive Director of Open Source Software Institute joins Nate DiNiro to share some of the details about the mission of his organization, which is to promote the adoption of open source in federal, state and local government. OSSI helps government stakeholders identify and facilitate open source software solutions as a viable business opportunity. While most of OSSI's experience is in defense and the intelligence community, with recent growth in Homeland Security, John shares an example of a situation where the Government was able to spin out the IP of a Federal workflow management system, known as the "Open Source Corporate Management Information System", and successfully structure the legal status to create a open source project which can benefit other agencies and safe government dollars.

Allan explains the conditions which sparked the formation of ForgeRock, largely thanks to the purchase of Sun Microsystems by Oracle Corporation. Allan speaks in depth about the effects the purchase has had on endangering several open source projects and communities, as well as the effect the purchase has had on enterprises that have adopted and rely on various open source technologies formerly shepherded by Sun Microsystems. Allan also talks about some of the projects which have come out of ForgeRock in response to the potential vacuum that the purchase has made.

First-ever Ignite government comes to a close. Selena Deckelmann and Deb Bryant thank speakers, sponsors and supporters.

It's not enough to simply open data and have an API. Government needs to get better at fostering communities around all of it's services. To do this it needs to divest itself of some control and invest in communities that are already working. Curating existing communities around data and services is critical for future success. Can we create a joiner government that supports civic participation at all levels?

In this talk Zack describes a number of official and improvised uses of mobile and urban computing technology he's observed in urban India, especially Bangalore. In some cases a lack of traditional hard urban infrastructure directs people to create informational workarounds, in other cases emerging technology drives non-traditional user patterns which play our very differently than in an American city or context. What lessons can we learn from the way institutions and individuals use Urban Informatics in Bangalore?

Do electeds and lawmakers weigh the importance communication styles differently? What's the going rate for a tweet on the political communications market these days? Do you really know what kind of impact you're making with that petition or form letter? In an advocacy world where everyone's got an opinion to voice, few people know how much weigh is--and isn't-- given to different types of political advocacy. The human brain assigns levels of value to everything, even the communications from other humans. Find out in this Ignite talk where you should invest your voice.

Rami Kassab is the CEO and co-founder of Typethink, a creative web design and development firm located in the heart of Portland. Rami headed Typethink's initiative to expand into the municipal sector through their custom web application development services. Typethink has since contracted with the City of St. Helens to design and develop a new branded website offering a comprehensive set of services to their residents. Through their collaboration with St. Helens, Typethink has put together a partnership program in order to engage other cities for the multi-year development project.

Laws are a machine, and not a very smart one. Principles are living parts of your mind, and can adapt to new conditions. Accessing laws requires Expensive specialists, Principles are available to the understanding of all. Here we shall challenge the most basic idea of government, the Rule of Law. The goal is to replace the heavy handed mechanistic methods of the 17th century legal system with a simpler, practical, reflexive system of legal principles. These can be applied without obtuse, specialized expertise. The principle of Voluntary Association will be our test example. Open source government will be the affirmative proposition.