Open government; resilient state: Innovating for government in NSW

If you work for government – or with government – whether federal, state or local, this one-day forum is for you.
 
GovCamp for you

This GovCamp “unconference” is simply a space to open up the public sphere conversation - to create a comfortable place where new thinking becomes possible and enables new outcomes.  There are no long presentations and the topics are yours - you get to create the agenda.

So this GovCamp is about how government works, as well as how it works for citizens.  It's about the pressures of needing to do better government with less; about meeting growing public needs and expectations within an increasingly transparent and stretched public space.

It's also about leverage points for innovation in NSW, such as connective technologies and open data.  We hope to hear some big-picture policy ideas and some pragmatic new-ways-of-working.

GovCampNSW is about the power of ideas and conversation. It aspires to build upon the gov-tech / 2.0 focus and look beyond to shaping innovation in government in NSW.

Discussion will include:

• Cultural change leading to open government.
• Social technologies and service delivery.
• Policy 2.0: Why do apps have all the fun? 

For more info on the program and format OR to suggest topics you'd be interested in discussing on the day, please visit the GovCampNSW website at www.govcampnsw.info.

GovCamp is for people like you

Public sector practitioners, advisers and leaders who are excited by these challenges, who seek to better understand the risks and opportunities within emerging trends. 

There are no clever corporate games; just dialogue and an open exchange of ideas.  It's a Saturday. It's free time, casual and as "off-the-record" as you need.  And because it's shared conversation, you'll take away even more than you contribute.

 

 

For my part, a recurring Gov 2.0 theme for me is social innovation and the role of the non-profit sector in service delivery. So I hope to see a good mix of government people, agitators for change (like me), engaged citizens and also the non-profit sector at this first GovCamp for NSW.

BTW I'll be helping out, co-facilitating the conversation cafe and maybe a presentation.

Created with local and regional governments in mind, although I'm sure it has broader application, this toolkit is the outcome of a partnership between two European design firms and Design Flanders.

You need to buy the toolkit, but they have made some posters and templates available for download.

Hat tip to the Putting People First blog.

It is much more usual for local government to operate from a position of, at best, indifference, or at worst active opposition to unregistered street gardens.

Yarra council, by contrast, had the prescience to totally reverse its negative stance (with the help of some popular opposition to help them change their minds), and to come out in support not merely of a single garden but of guerilla gardens across the municipality.

I've had this story about guerilla gardening sitting open for a while on my computer. What I like about it is that as much as its win for the guerilla gardeners, its also a win for all kinds of civic 'hackers' (like the GovHack'ers). I think it also says that, and speaking from the relative comfort of Australia, that perhaps what we need in this country isn't so much open government in its most radical sense, but just some 'reasonable government' that won't block innovation, experimentation and volunteer action without a really good reason. Then interesting things can happen.

Hat tip to David Gravina.

I recently became the proud owner of a Flip Mino and while catching up with Diana Mounter, who is Design and Development Coordinator for the Local Government and Shires Associations of NSW (LGSA), I managed to convince her to be my first "Flip" victim interview. I asked her to tell me about the upcoming Local Government Web Network Conference.