Want to make your local government more transparent and inclusive or connect with others giving it a try? Do you have specific questions about how to get started or improve Gov 2.0 in your community? Then pick up the phone next Wednesday, November 3 at 4 PM EDT and join Bonnie Shaw and Yasmin Fodil of BYO consulting and Jared Duval, author of Next Generation Democracy, for a conference call where they will answer your questions about Gov 2.0 and help you get started.

Join us! Register your interest here to receive call-in details.

First, what is Gov 2.0?

Gov 2.0 refers to increasing transparency, collaboration, and participation in government. It is a growing movement, with a large and active community throughout the federal, state, and local governments. Here at CommunityMatters, we are committed to fostering dialogue around Gov 2.0 and helping connect communities with innovative practices. Gov 2.0 conversations were threaded throughout the CM’10 conference, from a dedicated panel session to tools in the Sandbox, to FlashMobs that allowed people to experiment with some common tools - and we are looking forward to continuing the conversation.

We won’t take up this post defining Gov 2.0, as there are plenty of resources on the web, including the following definitive articles:

• Open Government Directive, Issued by the Office of Management and Budget, December 2009
• Government 2.0: If it’s not about the technology, then what’s it about?
• The Three Phases of Gov 2.0
• Gov 2.0 – the Promise of Innovation

We do want to highlight some of the successes in the field, explore some of the challenges you might face in implementation, and provide you with a few key lessons to keep in mind as you embark on this journey.

Where do I look for success?

Gov 2.0 has been embraced at the highest levels of government - from the White House to NASA. Yet its effects are often best leveraged at a local government level. Here are some examples of the best ways cities and towns are leveraging the power of Gov 2.0:

Manor, TX: Dustin Haisler, CTO of Manor, TX, spoke during CM’10 about making Manor a Gov 2.0-enabled town and the first “Beta City,” increasing transparency, collaboration, and participation for citizens and people throughout the world. Examples of their innovative projects include using QR codes, a partnership with SeeClickFix, and Manor Labs.

City of Golden, CO: Karlyn Tilley, Communications Manager/PIO for the City of Golden, CO, spoke at CM'10 about new communication demands like increased citizen participation, anytime access, multiple audiences, data management, and openness and transparency – challenges small towns often face when starting to engage with Gov 2.0. Golden is responding with a range of projects that combine offline community organizing with web-based tools, including experiments with social media, the i-neighbors platform, and a new mobile app.

E-Democracy.org: The CommunityMatters’10 conference and cities around the world use E-Democracy.org to, in their words, “build online public space in the heart of real democracy and community. Our mission is to harness the power of online tools to support participation in public life, strengthen communities, and build democracy.” Julia Opoti and Boa Lee spent time in the Community Sandbox at CM’10, demonstrating how the platform has enhanced connections between neighbors and civic engagement in the diverse immigrant neighborhoods of Minneapolis.

SeeClickFix: This platform allows any individual to go online, find a map of their local area, tag it to report a non-emergency issue like a pothole or graffiti, and in some cases even organize their own community to take action and fix it.

Participatory Budgeting, Porto Alegre, Brazil: The city of Porto Alegre in Brazil has implemented a participatory budgeting process that gives citizens decision making power over a portion of the city’s budget, leading to increased citizen engagement, improved service delivery, and more equitable distribution of city resources. Although not tech-enabled, it is a great example of what citizen collaboration can accomplish.

NYC BigApps 2010: the second annual NYC BigApps competition will reward $20,000 for the application that best shares city data with residents. This project gets right at the heart of transparency and collaboration in Gov 2.0: release city data, and incentivize the private sector to create innovative and low-costs solutions to information problems.

An Active Online Community: there are plenty of places to easily plug into the Gov 2.0 conversation online. You can follow #OpenGov and #Gov20 on Twitter for curated conversation, and just follow the CommunityMatters Gov. 2.0 Twitter list to see tweets by well-known personalities in this conversation.

You can also join GovLoop, commonly known as the Facebook for Government, to connect with other government officials across the country, get feedback on challenges, and share successes and best practices with other practitioners.

What are the challenges?

Citizens are increasingly expecting a greater and more participatory role in community decision making. This creates great opportunities, but also brings great challenges. When a movement that prides itself on openness, citizen participation and collaboration begins to take hold, it begins to appear that agencies who don’t take up the mantle have something to hide, or are against collaboration. And with so many low cost tools available out there to citizens to feed collaboration, it is surely better to harness this desire for participation rather than ignore or fight against it.

But it is not always an easy road.

At the Federal Level, government agencies must contend with federal rulemaking laws, comment archiving requirements, cyber-security concerns, and technology terms of service agreements that are not suitable for government agencies to sign. Local governments often face similar obstacles, and must understand the political, legal, and policy barriers that may challenge the success of Gov 2.0 efforts.

Furthermore, opening up a government institution to public feedback requires that the agency do something with that information. If you ask your citizens to collaborate on a project with you, you better believe they will want to know how their feedback has impacted decisions.

At CM’10, Bonnie Shaw of BYO consulting described the ecosystem of engagement that is critical to understand before undergoing any significant Gov 2.0 engagement project.

Lessons to Remember

1. Understand Your Ecosystem: Understand your capabilities and limitations, define clear goals for engagement and know the audience you are trying to reach. Be clear about what you want them to do, why you want them to do it, and how you are going to integrate their contributions into meaningful change. Food for thought: The BYO Digital Engagement Readiness Guide can help to determine your readiness to engage with technology.

2. Cost Effective Doesn’t Mean Free: Many common Gov 2.0 tools are very cost effective, but that doesn’t mean it’s free to go Gov 2.0. To be successful, you will need a clear strategy and a commitment to allocate staff and budget. Remember, Gov 2.0 is like a conversation. If your community speaks to you, you should be prepared to listen and respond. Food for thought: BetaCities is a great place to start to look for cost effective tools and discussion on the best ways to implement them.

3. Share Responsibility: Think of citizens as your partners in making your town even better. Collaborate with them and encourage them to innovate. Encourage accountability, reward them for their efforts, and you will be rewarded with success. Food for thought: Next Generation Democracy, the new book by Jared Duval, describes how a new approach to complex problems that draws on vast networks of citizens.

4. Experiment With Success: Look around for successful projects to learn from. Each place and community is different, so use what works and craft creative solutions with your community. Share the results and learn together. Food for thought: The GSA’s Timeline of Social Media Use in Government is an engaging graphic visualization of successful social media and Gov 2.0 projects in government.

5. Learn in Public: Gov 2.0 is about transparency and openness. Open up your processes and share your data. People will be able to use the data for things you may have never imagined and applaud you for being so transparent. Food for thought: When the FCC wanted to reform the agency, they looked to the public for guidance through their website FCC Reboot. 

6. Engage Internally First: You’ll need your agencies and government officials on-board with the philosophy behind Gov 2.0 in order to make it work. One way to do that is to run an internal engagement project first. Your employees will appreciate being asked for their feedback, probably have some good ideas, and help champion your cause when you most need it. Food for thought: At CM'10, Dustin Haisler highlighted another great example of Gov 2.0 collaboration at work – Manor, TX first created an internal engagement program to get local government folks engaged  before opening up to the public.

7. Play well with others: Make some new friends! Engage in the Gov 2.0 conversations online, ask for help, and seek out collaborations and partnerships. Food for thought: Code For America is building partnerships across America - in their words they help “…city governments become more transparent, connected and efficient by connecting the talents of cutting-edge web developers with people who deliver city services and want to embrace the transformative power of the web to achieve more impact with less money.”

Let's the keep the conversation going!

Pick up the phone next Wednesday November 3 and join Bonnie Shaw and Yasmin Fodil of BYO consulting and Jared Duval, author of Next Generation Democracy for a conference call to help you get started or improve your work in Gov 2.0. Join us! Register your interest here to receive call-in details.