Category Archives: Government 2.0

It’s FOSE Time Again

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The FOSE Conference & Expo is returning to Washington, DC, July 19-21 – are you planning to attend? I am, I can’t tell you how many times I have attended in recent years, as the conference circuit is quite a blur from one to the next. However, I always know when it is time for FOSE because it is THE biggest event in the Washington DC area for the Federal Government IT. As a US Army veteran and former consultant to the Government industry, this was a must do event every year for me. This year, I will be there again in support of Operation Gratitude and for my organization’s booth – AIIM International.

If you stop by our booth (number 505), you can ask Jesse Wilkins, who also will be speaking on Social Media Governance on the 20th at 1:30pm or myself about our Social Business Roadmap. In fact, if you head over to Jesse’s blog post about the event, you can enter to win a free full conference pass.

If you’ve never been to FOSE before, then make 2011 the year you attend! There’s a reason (several, actually) why it’s the top government IT event in the country. FOSE features a FREE Expo with education sessions and over 400 IT solution providers, including Blackberry, Canon and Dell. Another excellent reason to attend FOSE: Apple founder Steve Wozniak will be one of this year’s keynote speakers!

This year’s Conference features advanced level sessions and keynotes across 5 tracks, including:

 

Interested in attending FOSE? Register today at http://bit.ly/FOSE20Reg for a 20% discount off the full conference rate!

Government Social Business

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Since joining AIIM a month ago, I have been blessed to be able to expose my thoughts and tweets to a whole new community. I have noticed since using the #AIIM hashtag, I have been getting more ECM and E2.0 practitioners following me than ever before. My normal self-promotion of ideas and re-sharing of others content only gained me about 10 new users a week, this has easily doubled or more – and I am not in this for the followers, I am in this for the shared knowledge of the greater good.  With all that, I have not forgotten my roots of Government 2.0 and would like to address that community and what is coming up for Government Social Business, in my vision.

Government Social Business will be a strong focus for 2011 and I believe that was kicked off nicely at the Gov20LA event two weeks ago in Santa Monica. I led a session there called a Structured Brainjam (a term we borrowed from one of my online mentors – Chris Heuer of Social Media Club fame), in which I presented the attendees a chance to weigh in on a topic raised during the two day event. One of the points up for discussion was changing the name of calling what we do in the aspect of Government 2.0. I have been on the record that I do not like iterative numbering of programs or content.

We know something is going to change, everything changes. Garbage’s second album was Garbage’s s “Version 2.0” (probably their most successful and well known album mind you), but they did not go on to make their next album 3.0. That would be silly. So we should approach all 2.0 programs and ideas as what are we trying to achieve. Well for me, I am trying to achieve the education of Social Business processes and programs under my division, Systems of Engagement for AIIM.

On a much larger scale, I think what is known now as the larger Government 2.0 community, there are several thrusts of what groups are trying to achieve. Open Government being one, but for me and several others, we will be focusing on Government Social Business (GSB). GSB is the evolution of current Government processes with the inclusion of social media and social collaboration to meet constituent needs and transparency when warranted.  I mention when warranted, because there are several mitigating factors to consider with GSB to include, but not limited only as FOIA and Privacy, not to mention the daunting task of Records Management that will have to be re-evaluated with the evolution of data that is now being created out in the open.

I do plan to blog and continue the discussion about Government Social Business on my various blogging platforms and twitter (@immunity), if you care to share your opinions.  I look forward to the conversation.

All in all, there are just a few days left in February and my survey of collecting your top business problems. I appreciate your 2 minutes to help answer just 10 questions.

 

WIRe Conference 2010

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The World Intelligence Review (WIRe) will host its annual conference entitled, “Beyond Tools: Transforming Online Intelligence” on February 24-25, 2010 at the Gaylord National Hotel at the National Harbor, MD.

The goal of the 2010 WIRe conference is to propel the Intelligence Community (IC) beyond the static use of tools toward a more dynamic point of cultural transformation and repurposing of the ways that we utilize online intelligence. As we investigate the differences between how the IC and the rest of the world use social media, we will pinpoint best practices across the social networking spectrum and examine how constantly evolving Web and social media tools impact the intelligence mission.

Who Should Attend:
The 2010 WIRe conference will foster networking opportunities for members of the IC, Department of Defence (DoD), military, and academic communities, as well as Government contracting and industry representatives.

This event is completely unclassified.

Just announced: WIReCamp — a networking & open brainstorming session during the WIRe conference next week! Bring your fresh ideas 4 #gov20

This moderated networking event will take place during the conference between 12-5pm each day. I am looking forward to moderating the event. Hope you can come with your ideas.

I will be attending this event, always moving forward in making Government more efficient and less redundant.

I am also looking forward to seeing Dion Hinchcliffe and Marcia Conner speak as well as the progress for the Apps for the Army and IDEO presentations.

If you are in the United States Government, Contractor, or state or local… DHS included, please think about registering and attending. Its not too late.

Continuation on Communicating With Social Media

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Last Week, I spoke at the Potomac Forum’s session on “How to” in Social Media in Government. My presentation was on How to Write a Blog Post: The first steps of organizational blogging.

I have been blogging in some shape or form since 1999. I started blogging about concerts I attended and the occasional hi-jinks that ensued with my work as a music promoter. Over the years, I have transitioned to community management and supporting the Federal Government with Enterprise 2.0 best practices. Part of being a good community manager is to have a voice that can be heard above the rest of the noise of discussion in regards to presenting policy and guidelines, as well as mitigating wiki edit wars.

As such, I leverage my blog internally in my company and with the customers I support to organize the chaos. Blogs are an effective way to place a conversation or announcement you would normally send to a large email recipient list and can prevent those long chains of “reply all”.

This workshop is a follow-up to my previous talk at the last Potomac Forum I spoke at in August 2009, Hints for Communicating in Social Media.

To see the steps I have covered in my talk, please check out the wiki on GovCollab.

Blogs I contribute to on the open internet aside from this one:

I am also a guest blogger for ZDNet and Social Computing Journal on topics of Enterprise 2.0 and Government 2.0. Occasionally, I am also asked to guest post on blogs, which I consider an honor and will link on my website. If you would like me to be a guest blogger on your site you can contact me via twitter (@immunity) to connect for more details.

Communicating Through Social Media

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Occasionally, I will speak in public, in groups at happy hours, or with customers in the office about Social Media and how to effectively use social software, specifically free and open sourced software when applicable. At the Potomac Forum Government Leadership event at the Reagan Building, I will be semi-formalizing this talk to suggest “Hints for Communicating through Social Media”

During my talk, I will be asking the following questions to those in the audience to think about:

  • What is your mission?
  • Who is your target audience?
  • How do you communicate now?
  • What social media tools are right for you?
What is the Difference in all this 2.0 Stuff?

What is the Difference in all this 2.0 Stuff?

Internal vs. External Communication

Excusing my crappy excuse for drawing on a flipchart, you can see from my “illustration” above what the difference with all the buzzwords that are floating around. This is the main focus of my talk that I give when talking to people who are interested in knowing more, have heard the buzz and think they need “Facebook” or “Twitter” as their answer. But it may not be that simple. I previously discussed this back in April on a guest post on ZDNet, “You Were Never 1.0, but Get Ready for Enterprise 2.0“. Fortunately what I wrote then still holds true months later.

My aim is to prepare organizations, be it business or Government to make a knowledgeable transition into effective communication and workflow using Software as a Service or other Web 2.0 applications in an Enterprise manner. While there is much good being done by Social Media/Web evangelists — myself included, those intrigued should not get caught in the glamour and glitz of something new for new sake, but strategically plan around what the problem is that an organization is trying to solve. The “Jeopardy Method”, of giving the answer then ask the question/dilemma seems to be how things are getting done now. When the case should be — the question/dilemma is “Our Organization is Having a Problem Communicating externally, internally, capturing workflow, answering requests for information, etc… and we need to fix that by?” Identifying the problems, in detail before you have a solution in mind will help you choose the right tool for the job.

Sounds a little old school right? It should — using social media is just a new way of doing old business. Now project costs are lower because the software is not dependent of End User Licenses and pricey volume purchases. Now, you can find the best fit to solve the problem and then customize it yourself, or with a company that specializes in customization of known solution like Mantech and Jive‘s software. For example, Jive Software develops and provides the software  platform that Mantech customizes and supports onsite for their customers. The result, “A-Space”, a social networking and productivity site for the US Intelligence Community.

So I am sorry for the late night post, but I was just told tonight that C-Span will be recording and covering live the conference at the Reagan Building, I am a little nervous and definitely will be coloring my hair tonight. After my presentation, I will publish my slides (which I normally don’t do slides), for review. Addtionally, I will add, I do have a finished White Paper on “Enterprise 2.0 for Government” available by request.

Protected: Ignite DC #2 and SxSW Interactive

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Starting Over, Yet Again

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And no its not that book that is in the self help aisle that Charlotte was looking for in the “Sex in the City” tv show, but its about the newest chapter in my life as a Government Consultant. Last month was my last day as a full time wiki Gardener/Digital Curator for Intellipedia and other social software tools for the Intelligence Community. I am still doing project management for the contract as my/our vested interest of Navstar and Enterprise 2.0 work, in the bigger picture of Government 2.0.

When one does consultant work, especially in the Federal Government, as I do, you tend to rotate to new contracts on occasion. I’ve been on some contracts for years, others for months depending on the work. Sometimes I have been on a contract from inception, others I have taken to a close. But with each one, I learn so much and gain new friends and colleagues.

In fact, since I have been consulting in the same field since I left the Army in 1998, I keep running into the same familiar names and faces. Some even go back to those days when I wore BDUs.  I have worked with several kinds of contracting companies, from Small to Medium to Large. So now, with all this time under my belt, I can tell you my best experience so far has been with the small female owned company by Joanna Alexis, Navstar, Inc.

With Navstar, I have been growing up a lot. When I first joined I was still doing work as a billable employee as a Developer (I even learned a bit of Ruby on Rails). Even though I had previously done work as a Project Manager and even a small venture as an Independent Contractor. Over my time here at Navstar, I have pulled away from being just a developer and back into Project Management and Business Development.

As my mission to continuously grow the Enterprise 2.0 division of work, I have been scouting fine talent inside and outside of the Federal Government to work towards and more Open and Transparent ethos inside and out. Not only have I been recruiting great minds to our team, but I have been growing this business in the same breaths. Which brings me to where I am today and the subject of this post.

A few weeks ago now, back fresh from a mini beach vacation in Ocean City, I started back with the organization I was formerly a developer, in an Agile project management role. The team I join has a stellar background in delivering innovative work with the use of new technologies and agile business development.

Yesterday I spent some time in an Agile Refresher “talk” that was tailored to my work I will be doing with the team as a Project Manager. While in the “talk”, I realized that Agile falls right into some of the rethinking your mind and fits into what I am trying to evangelize when I am talking Enterprise 2.o to my customers. My role now as a PM is not only to be a liaison between the developers and the website owner and stakeholders, but it is also to innovate an agency, if not a community into bigger and better ways to achieve our over all mission. Because, its the mission that is the focus, not just the tools.

So today, I am opening my mind even more by attending Blog Potomac #blogpotomac in Falls Church, right down the street from Navstar Headquarters. And in two weeks, I am looking forward to meeting some of the Enterprise 2.0 luminaries at Enterprise 2.0 Conference in Boston. #e2conf

But no matter what the case, I promise I will still be a rockstar, realist, and edgerider to deliver quality work to my Government customers.

Blogging for the [Government] Enterprise at WordCampMid-Atlantic

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Whether you work for the Government or a public business, it is very important for you to approach your blog content as a professional and with an established brand. Today (this afternoon) I am presenting my thoughts at WordCamp Mid-Atlantic about Enterprise Blogging, especially with regards to the recent efforts of Government 2.0. 

The day is energetic for a bunch of nerds to get up early on a Saturday morning with so much going on today in the area. We have the Preakness just up the road, the Joint Service Open House at Andrews Air Force Base, and right next door, one of my alma mater’s “University of Phoenix” is graduating next door, amongst the many other institutions that are holding their commencement ceremonies. 

But back on topic, today since I have been moved from the User Track to the Technical Track of the schedule, I want to focus a little on both. So I have prepared remarks about the technical needs of the Enterprise when it comes to blogging. My points are strongly specific to the Government 2.0 aspect of the Enterprise. 

The first aspect I want to touch on is culture – the User side of the story. When it comes to the culture part of the story, there is much to address when it comes to the behavior of how we share information. Recently I had published a lengthy guest editorial at ZDNet about the mindset of “You Were Never 1.0“. While not all of my Enterprise 2.0 colleagues agree with all my points, I believe strongly in the bottom line of my message. You need to practice your game before you step on to the court.

Anil Dash seemed to echo this sentiment about blogging in general. He mentioned that when he looked back on his earlier blogs (he and I both started blogging 10 years ago), he can see how much he has grown as a blogger. This is why I think just getting your foot in the door and blogging internally is a great way to practice your tone, demeanor and message. Once you have practiced a bit behind the firewall, you can almost anticipate the reaction and how you react. 

The second aspect is the technical nature. There is much to discuss when it comes to where the Enterprise will go with new Web 2.0 and blog widgets, I briefly touched on this earlier this year in an interview with Executive Biz. 

So I hope that my presentation today is more of a conversation, what we have learned in Enterprise blogging and what can the open community, especially the mid-altantic can do to help move ahead the blogging force of Government 2.0, inside and outside of the firewall.

I’m up against a big hitter this afternoon, so if you are at the camp today, I hope I can steal your attention away from the big dogs to have a robust dialogue. 

2:30-3:15 Twitter, Friendfeed and Social Tools: Extending the blog beyond the blog – Dan Zarrella [BC-AUD] Blogging in Government – Andrea Baker [BC-143]

Government 2.0 Camp Reprise

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Catching up on some blogging w/@robotchampion. Photo by Planetrussell

That’s me on the right in the green scarf, catching up on some blogging w/@robotchampion.
Photo by Planetrussell

On day one we started off with your name, who are you with, and three words that described you or the name of a session you would like to propose. My three words: Geek Girl Supreme as recently dubbed by Adriel Hampton on the Government 2.0 show on Blog Talk Radio.

I spent most of the two days working as the Blog Coordinator for the event. And for the sessions I did attend, I tried to keep to some light housekeeping in which to make sure the presenter instructions where followed and the sponsors were thanked. I did manage to find time to actually moderate a session on Citizen 2.0. I didn’t want to be the focus of the session to be on me, since there were a lot of great minds in attendance. I have touched on Citizen 2.0 in the past and from the session at Government 2.0 camp there seems to be many ideas of what an individual defines for this moniker.

Now there have been a multitude of blog posts already by my colleagues and friends and new faces in the past couple weeks. I took my time to post this reprise because I wanted to make sure it didn’t get lost in the fold. As this is not so much about the content, but about the event itself, the best practices and lessons learned going forward.

I think I would break up my review of the event in some pros and cons:

Pros

  • So many sponsors – it made the event free for attending, provided food, provided the venue
  • Parking – I got great spots both days. The first day I parked in a two-hour zone and did not get a ticket (musta been luck – because every time I am in Old Town Alexandria, I get a ticket)
  • So many attendees – so much interest. Really gives me the fire in my belly that its not just those of us in the Beltway that want to change our aging institutions.
  • Kick off of the Government 2.0 club – for those of you that bravely stayed until the long at last end, on day two we crowdsourced our charter.
  • Networking – I finally got to meet Chris Dorobek and Jeffrey Levy in person because of this event. We all thought bringing us together in the same room would never happen and be a sure sign of the end of the world.
  • Knowledge Capture – while we didn’t get it all, this was the first unconference that I had seen that was completely transparent and information was going up as it happened, rather than later in the night. For 48 hours and weeks to follow, information is still being generated about sessions and the event itself.

Cons

  • Credit to the unsung volunteers – I am not discounting anything Mark, Maxine, Jeffrey, and Peter have done to get this effort underway. But there was a group of us over a dozen that made all the logistics happen and helped the event run smoothly. Everyone had a role and if I new everyone’s name I would list them. They made sure there was water, wifi, pizza, candy, the works. If you thought something was nice about the amenities of Gov20Camp, it was because of one of them. In so many of the post-publications I had not seen a mention of a hat-tip to those volunteers. So here’s to you (imagine me singing the bud light real American hero tribute to you)
  • Unfocused – Government 2.0 is a big big subject as so many of us define it so many different ways.
  • Large Participation – so many people made it hard to effectively network
  • Too many sessions – with what seemed to be over 100 sessions over the two days there was so much to choose to participate it was just as bad as going to a conference like SxSW Interactive. The schedule was overpacked. It was also repetitive. We could have used the first hour sessions to really modify the schedule even more and narrow down the rooms. Some topics repeated, which is good and bad. I did like that on day two, we learned from day 1 and made the gallery an “open room” for ad hoc discussions. This is something I initiated at WIReICES last fall. Having an open room during our conference. I admit I got the idea from the open sessions I had seen at Web 2.0 expo in San Francisco in 2008.
  • Knowledge capture – even with prior planning from lessons learned at other events, the moderators and presenters in some rooms failed to heed instructions on the yellow note we gave to them. I know this was an unconference, but some protocol does work. We had a wiki, a blog, google forums. There was just so much information spread throughout that was not interconnected. I have been trying in the weeks since to help bridge that gap.
  • Too Much Web 2.0 and not enough Enterprise 2.0 – I took a break from my normal push of Enterprise 2.0 discussions except for the Wikis in room 205. I know I know my stuff when it comes to wikis and the Enterprise, so I tried to be more of a listener. I did end up participating more in that session and I am glad I did. Great connections. But again, I purposefully took a step back from talking about the Enterprise, because I didn’t want to come off as a vendor or someone selling a solution. However, I kinda regret not pushing for that in the end because I saw much about external facing solutions and not enough internal solutions for communication, collaboration, and transparency. This drives me even more to have the specific Enterprise 2.0 Conference for Government this fall as I have previously talked about. I am also looking forward to the Government 2.0 summit in September.

I have been both a participant and an organizer of BarCamps and Unconferences before. This way by far the biggest one I had been too, but IMO wasn’t really the first unGovernment unconference. I have to believe outside of the ones I had organized and participated with some of my Government customers (on a smaller scale), that some where else, some other Government organization had tried something like this.

I think we could definitely do this event again. It should be yearly and not just DC centric. Although this area is the Mecca for Government. I would be interesting in knowing if anyone would want to see this be hosted in other cities. So if we do it again next year in March, who would be the host city? What would you like to see different?

Government 2.0 Camp Venue Announced

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The Pre-Camp Field Guide video. It can be found here:

http://www.government20club.org/2009/02/government-20-camp-pre-camp-field-manual/

Event: Government 2.0 Camp

Date: Friday, March 27, 2009 at 8:00 AM – Saturday, March 28, 2009 at 6:00 PM (ET)

YES THIS IS A FULL TWO DAY EVENT

Location:
Duke Ellington School of Arts
3500 R St NW
Washington, DC 20007

For more information click here: Government 2.0 Camp