Open Source Government

On February 19 and 20, 2009, IPAC in collaboration with MASS LBP, the British Council and Deloitte will be hosting the Canadian Premiere of Us Now -a new British documentary about the power of mass collaboration, government and the Internet.

Join us to discuss how the internet and new collaborative tools will change how government interacts with the public and how policy development will change. This phenomena is here to stay and is part of the move to "open source" government, where the collective intelligence of citizens is mobilized to develop solutions to societal issues.

We must move away from the closed policy development methodology to one that connects with citizens.

The documentary will be screened in 4 locations across Canada:


Ottawa – February 19, 2009 from 10:30 to 12:30
Canada School of Public Service & the University of Ottawa

Toronto – February 19, 2009 from 19:00 to 21:00
Hart House & the School of Public Policy & Governance at the University of Toronto

Calgary - February 20, 2009 from 12:00 to 14:00
Alberta College of Art & Design & the School of Policy Studies at the University of Calgary

Vancouver - February 20, 2009 from 19:00 to 21:00
The Tyee, Simon Fraser Unversity’s Centre for Dialogue and Junxion Strategy

Join director Ivo Gormley and distinguished guest panels to view and discuss this landmark documentary and the state of collaborative government.


To register (it's free) go to: http://www.masslbp.com/journal_detail.php?id=56

Open Source Government - Faceless Book

You may have heard that a number of governments have banned or restricted access to Facebook for their employees. I wrote about this in the last issue of our magazine – Public Sector Management. You can read the article on-line by going here http://www.ipac.ca/PSMEditorial_Dec2007 . I won’t repeat all my arguments here.

Governments have done this in the mistaken belief that employees will waste time going on Facebook. It is not as if employees who want to waste time don’t have any other options, right? How about surfing the net, or talking on the phone, or reading a newspaper or a book, or talking with colleagues? If you have a productivity issue with certain employees, deal with it! Don’t ban what could be a tremendous collaborative tool. There is the potential for Facebook like collaborative tools to be used to really connect with citizens and to leverage the intellectual capacity of society to solve issues. We should be embracing this technology.

Given that in the traditional understanding of public service, public servants are supposed to be faceless, I have come up with the idea of creating a new networking tool for public servants across Canada. They will thus be able to network with their peers and with ordinary citizens. This tool can help in the development of policy and in finding solutions to societal issues. I call this “Faceless Book”. So what do you think? Would you join Faceless Book?