Change we can believe in

Change // Reform // Collaboration

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Technology Champions of Change

Earlier this week, the Obama Administration celebrated 18 technology innovators as part of their “Champions of Change” initiative. White House Chief Technology Officer Aneesh Chopra, honoured these citizens for building applications on government data in order to improve life for their fellow citizens. The applications vary widely in scope, from helping citizens to solve local issues through collective dialog, through to informing parents of child-friendly destinations and helping asthma patients track the use of their medication.

The White House's website is hosting profiles of many of these innovators including:

Valerie Jarret, Senior Advisor to President Barack Obama, explained the Champions of Change initiative as 'highlighting Americans doing extraordinary things in their communities'.

For more, check Whitehouse.gov's series of blog posts from these champions:

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Obama - Change is Hard, but let's finish what we started

President Barack Obama's video message to the Netroots Nation 2010 convention in Las Vegas.

Change hasn't come fast enough for many Americans...

I'm asking you to keep making your voices heard.

To keep holding me accountable.

To keep up the fight.

Change is Hard, but if we've learned anything these past 18 months, it's that change is possible.

It's possible when folks like you remember the fundamental truth of our democracy.

That change doesn't come from the top down.

It comes from the bottom up.

It comes from the netroots/grassroots.

From every American who loves their country, and believes they can make a difference.

We've done it before. We can do it again.

Let's finish what we started.

(H/T techPresident)

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Gov 2.0 as an enabler of Transformative Change in the Public Sector

Earlier this year, Doug Hadden at FreeBalance and Martha Batorski at Grant Thornton published a white paper called ‘Embracing Government 2.0: Leading transformative change in the public sector’. The paper explores the skills and mindsets governments need to employ to achieve transformative change.

The paper argues that such change requires a dramatic increase in the transparency, participation and collaboration between governments and citizens through Web 2.0 and social networking technologies.

Embracing Government 2.0 Leading Trans Formative Change in the Public Sector

The report identifies some of the benefits of Gov 2.0 as:

  • Reduced cost of engagement through more productive tools and processes
  • Simplided knowledge creation and retention though usable applications
  • Easier knowledge sharing
  • Enhanced information discovery through transparency and data mashups
  • Effective cross-pollination through bottom-up social collaboration
  • Leveraging internal government and external “wisdom of crowds” to improve government results
  • Fostering of innovation, through the use of fexible tools.
  • Expanded engagement
  • Faster completion of review cycles
  • Improved citizen and employee satisfaction

The report concludes with:

Government 2.0, through the use of social collaboration tools, can and should represent real transformation. Social collaboration, and even electronic outreach that mirrors traditional processes, can make meaningful improvements in every part of every organization.

Relentless pressure to do more with less in the public sector will continue. To reduce costs, save time, improve results, and create value. To harness and share knowledge more cost effectively. To modernize management practices. All of these factors are creating the need to responsibly leverage new technologies enabling social collaboration. Implication: accelerated organizational transformation and change.

Government 2.0 requires leaders to embrace an enhanced set of change and risk management skills. It requires a paradigm shift from outside-to-inside networks, and right-sizing operational controls. It requires new skills in design thinking, trust, and change leadership. The future is here for public sector organizations, and its name is Government 2.0.

For more on the report, check http://www.freebalance.com/blog/?p=879

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The Power of the Pen

Omar Ahmad - an internet infrastructure maven and a member of the City Council for San Carlos, California - explains how to engage with politicians though handwritten letters. Ahmad shows why old-fashioned correspondence are more effective than email, phone or even writing a cheque -- and shares the four simple steps to writing a letter that works.

President Obama on the power of letters in keeping him in touch with the mood of the country. Each day he reads ten letters from the public in order to stay in tune with America's issues and concerns.

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