On Friday night, a packed room of eager potential entrepreneurs, developers and curious citizens watched US CTO Todd Park and Bill Eggers kick off Startup Weekend DC in Microsoft’s offices in Chevy Chase, Maryland. Watching @ZacharyCohn kick off @StartupWeekend in DC. @wdeggers & @todd_park on deck. instagr.am/p/L6bff4JyBd/ — Alex Howard (@digiphile) June 15, 2012 Park [...]
This week, New York Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman launched NYOpenGovernment.com, a new website that his office touts as a means for “voters, the media and government watchdogs hold state government accountable” by providing the public online access to government data on campaign contributions, lobbying, and state contracts. “Secrecy breeds corruption, while transparency generates confidence,” [...]
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, [...]
As TechnicallyPhilly reported this morning, the city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania has joined the ranks of municipalities putting more public data onto the Internet. “Transparency is a cornerstone of good governance, and it is vital for the City to be open and available to our citizens,” said Mayor Michael Nutter in a statement posted to the [...]
Since I heard that last year’s Gov 2.0 and Open Government Events Calendar was useful to the broader community, here’s this year’s version. There will be many other places around the globe for people to gather, talk and learn about Gov 2.0 in 2012 — just take a look through the many Govloop event listings. [...]
If you’re following the intersection of citizens, technology and cities in the United States in 2012, the story of Chicago is already on your radar, as are the efforts of Code for America. This month, Code for America rolled out its brigades to start coding across America, including the Windy City. These “brigades” are an [...]
Data from a new study on the use of Twitter by U.S. Senator and Representatives by public relations giant Edelman strongly suggests that the Grand Old Party has opened up a grand old lead in its use of the popular microblogging platform in just about every metric. On Twitter’s 6th birthday, there’s more political speech [...]
To paraphrase President Kennedy: Ask not what your country can code for you — ask what you can code to help your country. If you’re a developer, consider empowering your fellow citizens help the homeless veterans in your community. The Departments of Housing and Urban Development, Health and Human Services, and the Jon Bon Jovi [...]
Out in California, Tina Lee asked about the best definition for civic innovation. As someone who has served as a fellow in the City of San Francisco’s Department of Technology Services, Lee has some personal context and interest. According her tweets, she wants to distill the various definitions available online down to one working definition [...]
[View the story "#SXSWi 2012 through the lens of my iPhone 4, Twitter and Instagram" on Storify]
Alexander B. Howard is Radar's Government 2.0 Correspondent for O’Reilly Media, where he reports on technology, open government and online civics.
