Government 2010: agenda

Government 2010 kicks off in London in a couple of hours, and it’s going to be all-liveblogging, courtesy of Davepress and Timetric, all the time this morning.

Here’s the agenda:

  • 9.00am – 9.15am Opening Remarks: Jeffrey Peel, Government 2010
  • 9.15am – 9.30am Keynote Address: Peter Kellner, President, YouGov
  • 9.30am – 10.15am Panel Discussion: Digital Engagement is Everyone’s Job: Formal and Informal Consultation on the Web: Chair: Harry Metcalfe; Panel: Tom Watson MP; David Price, Debategraph; Neil Williams, DBIS
  • 10.30am – 11.15am Panel Discussion: Blogging, Social Media and New Media; Chair: Iain Dale, Panel: Mick Fealty, Daily Telegraph Blogger and Slugger O’Toole; Stephen Tall, LibDem Voice; Craig Elder, Conservative Party; Adam Parker, CEO, Realwire
  • 11.15am – 12.00 Panel Discussion: Government Service in a Web 2.0 Era: Chair: Jeffrey Peel, Government 2010; Panel: Gordon McKenzie, Microsoft; Tanya Oliver, Kent County Council; Michael Juer, Northamptonshire County Council
  • 12.00pm – 12.15pm Government and Innovation, Adam Afriyie MP
  • 12.15pm – 12.30pm Technology and Citizens, Tom Steinberg mySociety.org
  • 1:15pm – 2.00pm Identity Management, William Heath/Q&A, Founder, Ctrl-Shift
  • 2.00pm – 2.45pm Panel Discussion: Government & The Internet, Chair: Dominique Lazanski; Panel: Jim Killock, Executive Director, Open Rights Group; Philip Virgo, Secretary General, EURIM; Phil Kingsland from Nominet (TBC); Speaker from Google (TBC)
  • 3.00 – 3.30pm SOCITM – The Web Channel and Local Government – Martin Greenwood
  • 3.30 pm – 4.15 pm Panel Discussion: The Internet and Social Inclusion Chair: Tony Collins; Panel: Stephen Hilton, Bristol City Council; John Shewell, Brighton & Hove City Council; Anthony Zacharzewski, Democratic Society
  • 4.15pm – 5.15pm Panel Discussion: Open Data, Mash-Ups and Government Web, Chair: Ewan McIntosh, Channel 4/4ip; Panel: Chris Taggart, OpenlyLocal; Stuart McRae, IBM; Paul Canning, Consultant, SOCITM; Colm Hayden, Anaeko

    So it’s going to be a pretty full day. But I could use your help! If you’ve got any questions you want to pass on to the speakers, or anything in particular you want covered, let me know in the comments or over on Twitter and I’ll do my best to find out for you.

Bookmarks for October 18th through October 21st

Awesomeness off of the internet for October 18th to October 21st:

  • Soup – Publish, collect, share. – "Soup is a tumblelog, a super-easy blog that can do more than just text: post links, quotes, videos, audio, files, reviews and events."
  • The power of social innovation: interview with Director of Social Innovation Camp, Anna Maybank – "While gov20, transparency and campaigning are all beginning to revolutionise the relationship between government and its citizens in profound ways, the fantastic work of organisations such as the Sunlight Foundation and MySociety is very much focused on improving the status quo, a much maligned and mistrusted status quo."
  • FutureGov » Features » ePetitions data standards – get involved! – "Are you interested in ePetitions? Perhaps you run electronic petitioning tools for a local council, or are involved in analysing the results? Do you build tools for governments to use to help citizens petition it more effectively? Or maybe you’re a keen hacker who wants to see these tools built in transparent and effective ways?"
  • Local Electronic Petitions Set To Become Mandatory – "A Bill requiring councils in England and Wales to provide local residents with a facility to lodge electronic petitions, and to respond to such petitions, is set to be passed into law after moving to what is likely to become its final Parliamentary stage last week."
  • A post bureaucratic Barnet? : Matthew Taylor’s blog – "The council aims to develop a much deeper and more nuanced understanding not only through conventional methods of public engagement such as a citizens’ panel and customer forums, but through ethnographic research into the day to day lives of its most needy citizens. "
  • County Hall’s credit union to see off loan sharks – "Established by Kent County Council, the Kent Savers service will provide an alternative to unscrupulous loan sharks and lenders who take advantage of desperate residents by charging exorbitant interest rates."

Kindling

My Kindle arrived today.

I can haz Kindle

For those that don’t know, it’s Amazon’s own e-reader, a portable device that can hold around 1,500 books in its memory which can be read by turning pages using the buttons.

Even though I knew the screen was 6 inches, it still seemed smaller than I was expecting. The device is also a lot thinner than I thought it would be:

Thindle

The screen is really weird, it’s like nothing you’ve looked at before – other than the page of a book. Very odd.

Another interesting thing is the wireless – the Kindle uses the cell network, the cost of which is covered by Amazon and is presumably a part of the cost of the device.

Anyway, I can buy and download books from Amazon.com – not from the UK store yet (which may mean spelling issues…), or add books or documents from my computer. This can be done either by plugging the Kindle into my computer with the supplied USB cable (also my only way of charging it, since the plug supplied is US only too), or by sending a file by email to a special address, which is pretty neat.

You can also use the keyboard to add annotations to documents or books, so this could be really useful for students.

As well as established e-readers like the Sony Reader, the Kindle also has competition from Barnes and Nobles’ new Nook. Crunchgear has a useful comparison chart.

Government 2010: “I’m afraid, Dave, you can’t do that.”

Hello! I’m Andrew Walkingshaw, and I’m going to be deputising for Dave at the Government 2010 conference tomorrow. I’ll be liveblogging the event for you all, both here and as @walkingshaw on Twitter.

I’m the business guy at Timetric. We’re on a mission to get the world’s statistics to you in a form which you can use, and a lot of those numbers start their lives in local and national governments. So, I’m especially looking forward to the Open Data session, chaired by 4iP‘s Ewan Mackintosh, towards the end of the conference. (On that note, if you’re in the business of making data available, we’d love to hear from you. Okay, enough of the sales pitch!). The entire conference looks fantastic, though: I’ll do my best to keep you in touch with what’s going on if you’re not able to follow the live stream.

Anyhow, keep in touch with me throughout the day on Twitter and on here. See you all tomorrow!

Local e-petitions

Headstar reported the other day about the progress of the piece of legislation that will mandate local authorities to set up systems allowing residents to create e-petitions, and to respond to such petitions.

Under the ‘Local democracy, economic development and construction Bill’ (http://bit.ly/1nEC4Z), councils will be obliged to provide an e-petition facility and publish schemes for both electronic and traditional petitions, to acknowledge any petition to its organiser, and to offer a response, all of which should be published online.

I’ve got quite a bit of interest in e-petitions, not least as a result of spending time helping moderate them for Number 10 during my time there. I’ve seen how these things can work, and how they can be frustrating.

Learning Pool have been keeping an eye on the development of the need for e-petitioning by councils, and already have an e-petitions platform in development which we will soon be looking to engage local authorities in testing. As always with Learning Pool’s stuff, it will be based on open source technology and will be easy to use and very cost effective. If you’re interested, please do get in touch.

In a related development, Andy Gibson is going to be working with Dominic and Fraser to develop a data standard for e-petitions.

From next year, it’s probable that all local councils will be required to provide electronic petitioning tools to their citizens, and we want to make sure they all do it the right way, and in a form that means they can all talk to each other.

I’ve put my name down to get involved, and will ensure that Learning Pool’s e-petitions system fits in with any agreed open standards.

Load more posts!