Kicking off day 2 with coffee and bagel. I’m early enough that I’ve snagged an IP address and hopefully I’ll keep it while I’m here. I’ll be updating the Gov20la Wave all day.

Megan Eskey, Web Manager at NASA/Ames Research Center presented her vision for what a more open NASA and open government in general could look like. The Obama Administration released the Open Government Directive in December (I had no idea) and all gov orgs are to have a /open site launched by this Monday! Not too shabby…NASA’s will be http://www.nasa.gov/open. You should be able to find it for any gov org with a web presence. I’m hoping this is the beginning of actual, easy access to the information that we technically own already. The goal for all of these sites is that they’ll facilitate collaboration, participation and openness.

NASA is using Life Ray (haven’t looked into that one) for their social platform. It’s open and should allow plenty of data sharing from NASA and from the public. I really hope this works out and the agencies keep the momentum on this. I can imagine there are more than a few gov’t officials who aren’t all that keen on openness and transparency. There are a few sites keeping track of the various efforts and, in fact, a Gov 2.0 LA attendee remote attendee (see Tim’s comment below) has used the tubes (and Yahoo pipes) to aggregate this info http://www.intellitics.com/blog/2010/02/06/opengov-open-feedback-firehose/.

Currently we can all visit http://people.opennasa.com for a glimpse of what’s available now..though, really, the nasa.gov/open site is up so perhaps the content has been duplicated.

If you work for a gov org (or any org I suppose) here’s a slide deck with steps for setting up your own open site: http://www.slideshare.net/meskey/opennasa-screenshots

If all of this is handled properly we (the people) should have our data available to us on any of our devices running any platform in perpetuity, across universes, etc…Of course, it’s up to us to keep the pressure on the folks we elected. We certainly can’t leave them to their own devices…we know what happens then.

I showed up at Blankspaces shortly after lunch and in the midst of the Language Standards lunch time presentation. I was mostly getting situated and couldn’t really get the gist of what was going on with this pres. Next up, Transforming Transportation with Ted Nguyen from the Orange County Transportation Authority.

He had some great things to say about how they’ve used social media tools to enhance the OCTA’s relationship with its riders. Twitter, Facebook, etc. The important point he made wasn’t that they were using these tools but that they were USING the tools. He may respond to a tweet at 11pm. Well after typical gov’t working hours. This touches a much bigger issue about our relationship with our work/jobs but the point is that the citizen doesn’t exist solely between 9a and 5p. Gov’t should be a 24/7 operation and it will take a major shift to make that happen.

In starting up with their usage of social tools Ted didn’t ask the OCTA if he could. He just did and then presented the results to the org in an effort to expand their use. It worked and that’s how it should work in any org. Individuals will be met with resistance in presenting new ideas but present results with the idea and you’ll have a better chance at changing how your org interfaces with the public/clients.

Unfortunately the whole hour was mostly about how the OCTA has had success with these tools. That’s good news but I was hoping for a more rounded and wider reaching discussion on improving public transpo especially in LA. Perhaps we could setup a whole unconference just for transportation issues…

It’s the end of day 1 of the first Gov 2.0 LA unconference and I must say the organizers did a great job of pulling various folks from various parts of the citizenry. I wasn’t sure exactly what to expect. Would it be just like a BarCamp? Would it be more like…oh, I dunno…any event with a bunch of politicians in a room? A pleasant blend of the two? Fortunately is was BarCampish with a set schedule and, as I mentioned, a great mix of people.

Unfortunately I couldn’t make it in the morning but I did catch the live stream (thanks TechZulu!) and I watched Cory Ondrejka deliver a great presentation on the necessity for organizations to be more nimble or face irrelevance. Aptly titled, Agile or Dead. When he gets his slides up I’ll link to them here.

I missed the second presentation as I was getting things done around the house but then it was time to hop the bus and head over to Blankspaces to take in the unconference action in person.

That was it for me today.  Had to split early so I missed the last couple of sessions.  I came back in time to have a beer, watch some Rock Band and listen in on the acoustic jam and then we got kicked out.  Hopefully the camp returns to BarCamp in the fall.

That’s right.  A presentation on presentations.  Right about now is when I kick myself for never, ever writing down the presenters name.  What kind of notes do I take?  Srsly.  This was a great talk on the basics of talking at a group of people.  And…GASP…he used no slides!  Which was awesome because the absolute reliance on OO.o/PowerPoint/Keynote/whatever slides that happens (not necessarily at BarCamp but EVERYWHERE) kind of drives me crazy.  Most presentations could be handed out and lose the speaker and you would get more out of it.  But I’m ranting…

Other things I jotted down:

Human to human communication

Make sure there’s 3 clear points

How not to say um, if you think of saying um, inhale (this works!)

A fun session on the history of the Aibo and a little overview of the existing Aibo community despite the fact that Sony discontinued the product.

Aibo’s come apart! They were originally envisioned to have modular parts

Aibo memory sticks are really hard to find (pink sticks which differ from traditional storage memory sticks)

Resources:

tekkotsu.org

aibopet.com

bbs.aibosite.com

iRobot makes a platform called Create (non-vaccuum roomba) which allows you to hack away at it and create other robots.  So, if you want to build your robot army, start with something like this.

Presented by Jonathan Strauss, UnClasses.org

Was setup to facilitate teaching/learning connections.  Everyone has something to teach and this provides a place to publicize and build a group of students.  Referred to as “Casual Learning” (or Casual Teaching I suppose)

Casual learning – everyone has something to teach

Unclasses.org will setup classes by metro area. You setup a class and then host it (in real life).  You can schedule a class and leave info as TBD to see if you have interest before committing a location.

Anyone can teach or learn

Instant knowledge share?

A cool presentation that generated a lot of discussion about Alternate Reality Games.  Discussed using them as marketing tools and talked about the challenges and nuances of running an intricate “game” without shattering the alternate reality or endangering the participants.

-websites used as mystery to drive discussion for traditional media

-Interesting discussion on setting up alternate realities, the boundaries you hit, the wildcards (users trying to break the game) and rewarding users just enough to keep them interested.

BarCampLA 7 has come and gone and I’m going to post my quick notes from the sessions.  They’re not at all in-depth enough to make you feel like you were there but they’re enough to help me remember what I attempted to learn.  Maybe you should come to the next one if my notes aren’t good enough for you.