San Francisco’s aggressive open data efforts were on display this week, as civic and technology leaders took the stage at sf.govfresh, an event highlighting technology innovation in City government. City CIO Chris Vein (who also was recently interviewed by ideation solutions firm BrightIdea) and Department of Technology innovations manager Jay Nath explained how the City is leveraging innovators in and out of government to create a culture that creates valuable new applications at little to no cost. Jay’s presentation on Open 311 APIs is here.

The event on Wednesday night also features several local developers who’ve built mobile and Web applications using open data from San Francisco and other government agencies. These included Routsey, MomMaps, and Crimespotting. You can find the entire catalogue of apps built with SF data at the SF Innovations Showcase.

Lawrence Grodeska of SF Environment, explained efforts to create a common standard for apps focused on recycling information and called on local developers to submit proposals to develop the next generation of SF’s “EcoFinder.”

Event host Adobe livestreamed the event, and a replay is available here.

Also on Wednesday, I was on air for John Moore’s Social Ecosystem Lab podcast to talk about the SF City Attorney’s social media programs and broader open government efforts in San Francisco. You can listen to that interview here.

Related posts:

1. The Promise of Open Data
2. sf.govfresh – A ‘Don’t Miss’ Open Gov’t Event
3. Mark Headd – Engaging App Developers with Gov’t Data

Related posts:

1. San Francisco’s Open Data Efforts On Display
2. GovFresh at One
3. Promo: Growing the Gov 2.0 Movement

Listen

Episode

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.

Download episode.

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

Listen

Episode

The Future of Privacy: We discuss data privacy with Don McIntosh, director of marketing and product planning for Space-Time Research, a data transparency, visualization and privacy firm out of Australia.
Says Don:
“Many people, especially Gen Y, have the view that privacy is not an issue for them and to quote Eric Schmidt, ‘If you have something that you don’t want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn’t be doing it in the first place.’ I much prefer the view of Bruce Schneier, who is pretty much the world’s leading expert in information security, who points out in an excellent essay very clearly that people espousing that view ‘… accept the premise that privacy is about hiding a wrong. It’s not. Privacy is an inherent human right, and a requirement for maintaining the human condition with dignity and respect.’”

On Twitter: Space-Time Research; Gov 2.0 Radio; Gov 2.0 Radio chat

Related posts:

1. Space is the Place
2. NASA: Tweets from Space
3. Armed with Science, and a WSIS e-Gov Update

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

One of the important things to consider in any kind of activism and engagement is pop culture. One of this week’s guests, Sarah Granger, was much more on the ball than me, reminding that the Oscars are Sunday. So, we’ll be moving the live Gov 2.0 Radio tomorrow to 2 p.m. PT/5 p.m. I hope you’ll join us as we talk with Sarah and Luke Fretwell of Govfresh!

On this week’s podcast, we’ll be taking a 20,000-foot look at the Gov 2.0 movement. Sarah explains more:

“One thing I’ve been thinking about lately is the whole definition of gov 2.0, the semantics – e-gov, open gov, open data, etc. I was thinking about this before Gov 2.0 Camp LA, but the session with Billy Grundfest where he essentially came up with a summary statement really brought that home for me. We still are such a small movement when you step back and look at the whole of society and where they focus their energies (celebrity watching, reality TV, just making house payments, shuttling kids to and from school). Trying to get more people engaged in the discussion of where they want their government(s) to go in the future may sound obvious to those of us knee deep in it, but for everyone else, I think the novelty of transparency may still be lost.

“As I wrote in my post about breaking gender barriers, there are a lot of practical steps we can take to raise awareness and get more people involved. What are the best strategies for taking the movement itself to the next level in terms of awareness and communication?”

Related posts:

1. New podcast: Growing the Gov 2.0 Movement
2. #yeg: Critical Mass for Gov2 Awesomeness
3. OGI 2 – Open Government Grows Up