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Engaging App Developers with Gov’t Data: A discussion with Mark Headd, an app developer and former govie, about civic apps. Mark Headd explains Open311 and accessing government services and lowering costs using Twitter, and gives ideas on how to engage developers around government civic apps contests.

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Related posts:

1. San Francisco’s Open Data Efforts On Display
2. SFPUC – Making a Social Media Splash
3. Talking Open Data with Socrata’s Kevin Merritt

There are certain governments that quickly come to mind as groundbreakers in the fledgling Gov 2.0 movement: State of Utah, City of San Francisco, City of DC, Manor, TX.

Edmonton, Alberta is making critical strides of awesomeness in joining that pack. From last week’s Open311 announcement to Saturday’s Open City Workshop, Edmonton – known on Twitter as Yeg in line with its airport code – is making huge moves to improve civic life through technology and community collaboration.

Yesterday, Edmonton CIO Chris J. Moore was widely quoted as telling attendees, “You are the strategy.” Moore is a pretty cool dude. His office has no desk, just couches and a laptop, so I’m told. (I’ll pin that and more rumors down when Moore visits SF in April.) Saturday, he announced several new “Open City” initiatives: a new app for reporting quality of life issues; a new partnership with Code for America on improving local technology; moving IT services to the cloud; and an app-building contest with a $50,000 kitty.

Edmonton has a vibrant social media community, which I’ve written about before. I’m excited to see what the future brings. I’ve also put together a list of folks on Twitter involved in the Open City discussion, and you can follow them here.

Related posts:

1. SeeClickFix and the City of Tucson
2. Gov 2.0 Radio Hot Links – August 12, 2010
3. Promo: Growing the Gov 2.0 Movement