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.