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Creating Government 2.0 and Social Media
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Adriel Hampton is a journalist, Gov 2.0 and new media strategist, public servant, and licensed private investigator. Follow him on Twitter @adrielhampton

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Help Save My Friend's Daughter. Become a Marrow Donor Today.

Usually this is a blog about tech-enabled government reform. However, today my close friend's daughter is in the hospital, dying of leukemia after several rounds of chemotherapy gave her only a six-month reprieve from the disease. She URGENTLY needs a bone marrow donor match to live, and her most likely match will be found in the Asian community. You can find out more at Hope for Natalie. Thank you!

~ Adriel Hampton

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Posted 1 day ago by Adriel Hampton 

Want to Advance Gov 2.0? Your Input Needed. Plz RT.

Just like politics, all governance is local. And, as the Gov 2.0 movement grows from infancy to toddling around the country, we're seeing key concepts of openness, collaboration and tech-fueled government innovation and transformation make their way further into municipal and state agencies. Last weekend, Chicago hosted CityCamp, and coming Feb. 6, the west coast kicks off its first major Gov 2.0 conference, Gov 2.0 LA.
If you're interested in the future of Gov 2.0 there's something you can do right now to shape its road map: take this 15-30 minute survey designed by Antonio Oftelie of the Leadership for a Networked Word program at Harvard Kennedy School.
At Gov 2.0 LA, we'll be working with this survey, our speakers, and workshop participants to create a framework for tackling the near future of the Gov 2.0 movement, particularly online services, enterprise collaboration, and community collaboration. Is evolutionary change in government enough, or, like the radical shift shaking up the newsgathering industry, does the disintermediation of a networked society call for a full-scale re-creation of governance structures? Big questions, so sharpen your mouse pointer, and help us out by completing the Harvard survey.
Now, a little more about the Gov 2.0 LA event:
You can register (free, thanks to sponsors and lots of volunteer work) and check out the camp themes here. If you're coming, take a few minutes and vote for your favorite sessions - I did it last night, and there's some great content from great speakers to choose from. The camp will be announcing winning submissions, as well as keynotes and themed sessions, next week.
Logistics such as location, hotel and transportation are here. If you plan on attending an opening reception Friday night, Feb. 5, RSVP by e-mailing register@gov20la.org.
If you want an early look at speakers, check out this Twitter List. And network with speakers and other attendees with this List.
Along with sessions all day Saturday and early Sunday, attendees have extended invites to great pre- and post-session activities. Tracy Lee is putting on the "Gov 2.0 La Dishcrawl," a Saturday night tour of four dishes at four restaurants. If you can make it down early on Friday, Ted Nguyen of the Orange County Transportation Authority has invited social media practitioners to the Southern California Transit Forum.
Please share your thoughts, inputs and related events here in the comments and on Twitter using the hashtag #gov20la. I'll see you in LA!
Oh, and don't forget to complete the Harvard Gov 2.0 survey. Thanks!

~ Adriel Hampton is a San Francisco public servant, host of the Gov 2.0 Radio podcast, and a Gov 2.0 LA organizing committee member. Follow him on Twitter @adrielhampton.

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Posted 10 days ago by Adriel Hampton 

We Are All #Yeg'gers

Several weeks back, I noticed the prominence of a community-based Twitter hashtag in my network stream and made a few inquiries that led to a pair of well-read blog posts about the twitizens of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, and their energetic social media community. I'm happy to say that Edmonton - #yeg - continues to impress.
Since those posts:
I've virtually met the CIO of Edmonton and planned a face-to-face chat for his next S.F. Bay Area swing in April - CIO Chris J. Moore drives a car plated "YEGIT," FTW!;
Roma Sobieski made me an honorary Yegger;
and Edmonton firmly positioned itself as a local leader in the open gov/Gov 2.0 movement.
I guess you could say I'm yegstatic about Edmonton.

~ Adriel Hampton is a San Francisco public servant and host of the Gov 2.0 Radio podcast.

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Posted 12 days ago by Adriel Hampton 

#Gov20 For the People: Los Angeles. February.

In a 2008 year-end blog post about my fledgling Gov 2.0 advocacy efforts, I wrote, "In 2009, let's say we did it." And did we ever.
From the open data technologists in the Obama administration to grassroots-led barcamps to O'Reilly's Gov 2.0 Summit to the explosion of social media into the mainstream, a fledgling idea that back in 2007 required framing by pricey consultants has taken on a life of its own in the hearts and minds of thousand of everyday public sector workers.
I also think that the Government 2.0 movement is just now getting its sea legs. The ecosystem of govies, vendors, consultants and conference organizers is not far from the Wild West. Today, we face the challenges of how to make tech-based collaborative reforms real for more than just technocrats and the affluent urban young, and we need the energy to keep bashing up against bureaucratic and political barriers to change. We've got a long way to go, but I have great hope.
I hope for a Gov 2.0 that brings us back to Lincoln's ideal of an enduring people-focused government.
It's this hope that has me blogging away far past my bedtime to invite you to Gov 2.0 LA, the first major Gov 2.0 conference on the West Coast. The event is free thanks to sponsors like Microsoft and Rock Creek Strategic Marketing, and incredible work by You2Gov CEO Alan Silberberg, and I hope you'll sign up and make travel plans this weekend. At the hybrid event, we'll have structured panels as well as attendee-driven sessions and hands-on tech demos. We'll be building on the history of Gov 2.0 research to road map the past and future of implementation in the enterprise and in gov-citizen collaboration, and we'll be discussing democratization of the language we use to describe this movement.
I'm hopeful about the future, and I hope to see you in LA.

~ Adriel Hampton is a San Francisco public servant, host of the Gov 2.0 Radio podcast, and a Gov 2.0 LA organizing committee member. Follow him on Twitter @adrielhampton.

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Posted 28 days ago by Adriel Hampton 

Hashtags as a Global Language

Over the past few weeks, I've stepped up efforts to connect with Gov 2.0 types outside of the U.S. Looking at the Twitter community in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, helped in this, as did tweets in Japanese about Gov 2.0 Camp LA. Monday, I learned about a mature and vibrant Gov 2.0-oriented community in the Netherlands, and event got a little lesson in Dutch.
Now, I'd already connected through the U.S.-based GovLoop with like minds in the U.K, Australia, and New Zealand, but as Twitter grows internationally, I'm struck by the universal nature of hashtags. Not just a fun semantic tool or event aggregator, issue tags easily cross language barriers that are more limiting on static sites. See, I had no idea that ambtenaar + civil servant, but when I see #gov20 pop up in tweets I can't read, it's plenty easy to run that message through an online translator. Connection established.
Now please excuse me, I'm off to read Ambtenaar20.nl.

~ Adriel Hampton is a San Francisco public servant and host of the Gov 2.0 Radio podcast. Follow him on Twitter @adrielhampton.


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Posted 1 month ago by Adriel Hampton 

Twitter is Work - A Quick Thought About Lists

I like Twitter Lists, a lot. Since their inception, I've been slowly adding to groups that I think are pretty good uses of the tool. I've also been added to a good number. But what strikes me is that out of all the public lists out there, very few people are following lists compiled by others.
Only five of the lists I'm on have more than 50 followers - compilations by Cheth, Alonis, Tweetprogress (automated list), BuzzEdition, and Kim. Of the top lists on Listorious.com (great site, by the way), only 25 have more than 1,000 followers.
I've written a fair bit about why I like lists, but these low numbers show that few have the free attention to click and follow lists compiled by others, let alone track those streams. Social pro Chris Brogan wrote recently about how sometimes it looks from outside like he's chilling out, but he's really working. That's what I think about Twitter for meaningful use - you get out of it what you put in. Lists are a great tool, but you've got to work them.

~ Adriel Hampton is a San Francisco public servant and host of the Gov 2.0 Radio podcast. Follow him on Twitter @adrielhampton.


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Posted 1 month ago by Adriel Hampton 

Politicians, Officials Will Find Twitter Friendlier Than Facebook

Do other people's tweets show up on my page? That's a common first question from officials contemplating Twitter.

And the 'no' answer is why, as social media use by politicians, officials and agencies goes increasingly mainstream, Twitter will beat out Facebook as platform of choice. This will hold true especially for official use, as public records concerns, takeover by critics, and complexity continue to plague Facebook adopters.

From the perspective of Gov 2.0 advocates, this may be a regressive trend, as it is easier on Twitter to dodge engagement. But the beauty of Twitter is control of one's presence, without any overt need for filters. If you've got a wide open Facebook page and somebody wants to spam you all day long, you need a strategy to deal with that. Left alone, it's going to muck up your page.

But with Twitter, it's easy to ignore hostile or spammy comments. And your active Twitter users have grown used to creating their own filtering systems. Your challenge on Twitter is to be noticed, not to dodge activity that ends up on your page. Full control of a Twitter stream also allows for pure broadcasting, and it remains to be seen whether that will be enough to please a majority of the public.

~ Adriel Hampton is a San Francisco public servant and host of the Gov 2.0 Radio podcast. Follow him on Twitter @adrielhampton.

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Posted 1 month ago by Adriel Hampton 

If you're not on Twitter, you don't exist

Discuss.

~ Adriel Hampton is a San Francisco public servant and host of the Gov 2.0 Radio podcast. Follow him on Twitter @adrielhampton.

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Posted 1 month ago by Adriel Hampton 

CrowdCampaign turns Twitter into a Crowdsourcing Engine

I recently wrote about giving your suggestion box a 2.0 twist with low-cost online collaboration and voting technologies. Crowdsourcing from stakeholders and front-line employees is one of the key areas where Web 2.0 technologies can help government, and last week I had the opportunity to talk with Clinton Bonner about CrowdCampaign, a Twitter app that allows users to quickly assemble branded crowdsourcing contests.
In addition to Twitter voting, the tool can also be used in conjunction with internal panels, ensuring that deep analysis goes into the mix with the viral social media components. The tool has been used for calls for speakers and papers, and can easily be adapted for just about any kind of crowdsourcing effort. I'm looking forward to an opportunity to try the free demo.

~ Adriel Hampton is a San Francisco public servant and host of the Gov 2.0 Radio podcast. Follow him on Twitter @adrielhampton.

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Posted 1 month ago by Adriel Hampton 

Diabetes Fighters Win GovLoop Charity Contest

I want to give a quick shout out to GovLoop and Adventures for the Cure. GovLoop, the "Facebook for Government," wound down a great year with a charity contest that used crowdsourcing tech to allow members to nominate and vote for charities and to raise money by inviting friends and completing challenges. The contest ended up with more than 100 charities in the running, and 3,000 votes.
Thanks to new members and four stalwarts who completed the challenge, GovLoop donated $1,789 to Adventure for the Cure, a charity startup (also a cycling team!) created by two Gen Y govies that funds diabetes camps for kids in U.S. and Kenya. GovLoop members are also raising money for developing country entrepreneurs through our own Kiva lending team.
If your a government employee or contractor and haven't yet joined GovLoop, hopefully 2010 will be your year. The community is also discussing opening up the site more to non-members, making it easier to share great news and share best practices from inside local, state and federal government.

~ Adriel Hampton is a San Francisco public servant and host of the Gov 2.0 Radio podcast. Follow him on Twitter @adrielhampton.

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Posted 1 month ago by Adriel Hampton