Local U.S municipalities have embraced mobile and GPS technology in an attempt to allow local taxpayers to report problems to the city government in a speedy and convenient manner.  CNN has a great article discussing the concept of Gov 2.0 and some of the related applications that are currently in the marketplace.

What is Gov 2.0?   The definitions vary, but in a Forbes article Tim O’ Reilly provides the following definition of Gov 2.0 that I think sums it up well:
“…with the proliferation of issues and not enough resources to address them all, many government leaders recognize the opportunities inherent in harnessing a highly motivated and diverse population not just to help them get elected, but to help them do a better job. By analogy, many are calling this movement "Government 2.0”." 

Further in his article, O’Reilly states, “Rather than licensing government data to a few select "value added" providers, who then license the data downstream, the federal government (and many state and local governments) are beginning to provide an open platform that enables anyone with a good idea to build innovative services that connect government to citizens, give citizens visibility into the actions of government and even allow citizens to participate directly in policy-making.”

In other words, Gov 2.0 is the concept of presenting government data as an open platform that allows not only government employees access, but, and most importantly, non-government employees to access the data as well.

What would non-government employees do with the data?  Here are a few great examples of how Gov 2.0 is being implemented: 

·      SeeClickFix allows users to take photos and send them to the San Francisco city hall along with GPS coordinates.

·      DC 311 allows residents of DC to take photos of potholes or graffiti and send them to the city to fix.  

·      Are You Safe leverages municipal crime data to inform residents of Atlanta about the crime history in their immediate vicinity.

These are just a few of the applications that are currently in the marketplace, and the good news is that many Gov 2.0 apps are free at the moment.  Check out the gov2summit website below to see additional examples and initiatives currently taking place.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/12/28/government.web.apps/index.html

http://www.forbes.com/2009/08/10/government-internet-software-technology-breakthroughs-oreilly.html

http://www.gov2summit.com/

Posted on: Tuesday, December 29, 2009