Photo by Paul Clarke

The whole concept of unconferences and participant-led events is just so mind-bogglingly amazing that it’s hard to put into words – just to see people coming together and start talking to each other who possibly wouldn’t have before… that’s why I do it, and that’s what touched me most about the day.

About Ann Kempster

Ann Kempster is Digital Communications Manager for the Government Communication Network based in the Cabinet Office. She has worked in the UK Civil Service for the past 7 years. She is also co-organiser of CommsCamp13, an unconference for professional communicators in government, with Dan Slee and Darren Caveney of Walsall Council and Comms2point0.

Ann blogs (not enough as she’d like) at www.annkempster.com.  You can also find her on Twitter at @annkempster

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Episode links and resources

• CommsCamp website
• UK Government Communication Network
• Comms2point0
• Blog post by Kate Bentham on her CommsCamp experience

60-second snapshots

On the role of digital in the comms mix:

On the power of unconferences:

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Jean-François Gauthier and Mario Asselin from Démocratie Ouverte discuss how they have been working with the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie (OIF) as well as their colleagues across the French speaking world to support Governments to broaden and deepen the opengov and open democracy movement.

About Jean-François Gauthier

Government relations expert, Jean-François Gauthier has worked in the strategic ICT support field since 2004. Passionate about public affairs and technology, Jean-François is an advocate of leveraging of technology for more efficient public service.

Until recently a strategic advisor to the Office of the Chief of Information, he is now working on initiatives to support innovation in the public service. Jean-François has also worked in several political offices and in public administration

About Mario Asselin

Strategic Advisor at le Groupe Loran, Mario Asselin started out one of the most successful experimentations in integrated computer-assisted training at school: Cyberportfolio at Institut St-Joseph in Quebec City. At that time, after teaching Elementary and High School level and leading activities, he was appointed Head of School, a position which he held for 15 years at Elementary and High School level. He advises institutions, business, Canadian Government departments and Ministries of French Government in order to support best practices and initiate the emergence of vast learning and open organizations. Member of Démocratie Ouverte, he also teaches organisational communication at Université de Montréal.

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Episode links and resources

• Kinshasa Summit announcement
• Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie (OIF)
• Démocratie Ouverte

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Nigel Shadbolt discusses the realities of harnessing the potential of open data for governments, businesses and citizens. With Sir Tim Berners-Lee, Professor Shadbolt is the joint head of the newly formed Open Data Institute in London which he summarises as “… building the supply side; building capability and empowerment; developing a demand side”.

Calling for “a real forensic commitment to open data”, he explores new economic models needed around open data as well as the need to better understand where and knowing how the value is being generated.

There’s a feeling that the job is never done – it’s eternally vigilant process of trying to improve the quality, improve the format, improve the ease of publication.

Professor Shadbolt also shares his hopes and aspirations for the Open Government Partnership in the next 12 months.

About Prof. Nigel Shadbolt

Nigel Shadbolt is Professor of Artificial Intelligence and Head of the Web and Internet Science Group, Electronics and Computer Science, University of Southampton.  With over 400 publications he has researched on topics ranging from cognitive psychology to computational neuroscience, Artificial Intelligence to the Semantic Web. He was one of the originators of the interdisciplinary field of Web Science and is a Director of the Web Science Trust, and of the Web Foundation – both organisations have a common commitment to advance our understanding of the Web and promote the Web’s positive impact on society.

In 2009 the Prime Minister appointed him and Sir Tim Berners-Lee as Information Advisors to transform access to Public Sector Information. This work led to the highly acclaimed data.gov.uk site that now provides a portal to over 9000 datasets. In May 2010 he was asked by the UK Coalition Government to join the Public Sector Transparency Board – this oversees Open Data releases across the public sector. In April 2011 he became Chair of the UK Government’s midata programme – which seeks to empower consumers by releasing their data back to them. He is Chairman and Co-founder of the Open Data Institute, based in Shoreditch, London.

He was also a founder and Chief Technology Officer of ID protection company Garlik Ltd. In 2008 Garlik was awarded Technology Pioneer status by the Davos World Economic Forum and won the prestigious UK national BT Flagship IT Award. In December 2011 Garlik was acquired by Experian Ltd.

Prof Shadbolt is also an international speaker at the  ICEGOV 2012 conference – to see more about the conference, visit here.

Feature images courtesy josema and RSLN

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Episode links and resources

• About Prof Nigel Shadbolt
• About the UK Open Data Institute
• Data.gov.uk
• UK Open Data Innovation Community
• UK Public Data Principles
• 5 stars of open data
• Legislation.gov.uk
• Wired magazine article: “Professor Nigel Shadbolt outlines plans for Open Data Institute” – 22 May 2012
• The Guardian article: “Government data PDF enthusiasts will be ‘dealt with’, says Maude” – 17 Oct 2012
• A Right to Data – interview with Chris Yiu of Policy Exchange

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David Ferriero is the 10^th Archivist of the United States and Head of the National Archives and Record Administration, including the Presidential Libraries.  The collection includes some 12 billion pages and 40 million photos and now holds all Federal Government tweets.  We explore the linkages between open government and record-keeping public data as well as how social media is challenging the notions of what defines a ‘record’.

Our mantra has been from the very beginning that you can’t have open government without good records management.

This interview comes a day after the opening of the National Archive’s first Office of Innovation.  The Archivist – or “Collector-in-Chief” – discusses large-scale public record-keeping in the digital era and offers advice for smaller libraries and public collections.  Mr Ferriero also declares his well-known enthusiasm for using social online channels to push archived content and digital assets to ‘where the people are’, including his Wikipedian-in-residence initiative.

About David Ferriero

David S Ferriero is a librarian, library administrator, and the 10th Archivist of the United States. He was Director of the New York Public Library; and before that, he was the University Librarian and Vice Provost for Library Affairs at Duke University. Prior to his Duke position, he worked for 31 years at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology library. Ferriero is the first librarian to serve as Archivist of the United States.

National Archives and Records Administration

On July 28, 2009, President Obama nominated David Ferreiro to be 10th Archivist of the United States. He was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on November 6, 2009; and he was sworn in to his new office on November 13, 2009.

Ferriero used the public occasion to express his view that the National Archives is at a “defining moment with regard to our existing electronic records, social media communications, and emerging technologies being used throughout government offices.” He also noted “issues of collection security, the future of the Presidential Library system, backlogs in processing, staff job satisfaction, stakeholder relationships, preservation and storage needs.”

President Obama appointed Ferriero to simultaneously head the new National Declassification Center, which “has been given four years to go through 400 million pages of federal documents that remain top secret. They date to World War I.”

Other career highlights:

• MIT Libraries: Ferriero was Associate Director of Public Services at MIT Libraries. His MIT library career spanned 31 years.
• Duke University Library: Ferriero was the Rita DiGiallonardo Holloway University Librarian and Vice Provost for Library Affairs at Duke University from 1996 through 2004. Ferriero was the first Duke university librarian to address the members of the university’s Board of Trustees in person. He was actively involved in the evolution of North Carolina’s Triangle Research Libraries Network (TRLN).
• New York Public Library: Ferriero was the Andrew W. Mellon Director and Chief Executive of the Research Libraries at the New York Public Library (NYPL) from 2004. In 2007 his role expanded with additional responsibilities as director of New York Public Library’s (NYPL) Branch Libraries. He was responsible for the management and operations of NYPL’s Research Libraries since 2005 and the Branch Libraries since 2007. He presided over a major restructuring, which was accompanied by elimination of some positions and the creation of new ones.
• Cataloging: Ferriero was the NYPL’s Partner Representative in OCLC (Online Computer Library Center), which with its member libraries co-operatively produces and maintains WorldCat—the OCLC Online Union Catalog. During Ferriero’s tenure, the library stopped using the unique “Billings classification system” for its reference books in the Rose Reading Room (main reading room).
• Google digitization partnership: The NYPL joined the Google Books Library Project during Ferriero’s tenure. Google and major international libraries have agreed to making collections of public domain books available for scanning to be offered to the public online, without charge.
• Relationship with Wikipedia: As part of his tenure at the National Archives, Ferriero has taken an active interest in working with Wikipedia, of which he has called himself “a huge fan”. When questioned about the National Archives’s engagement with Wikipedia, his response was “The Archives is involved with Wikipedia because that’s where the people are.” Under Ferriero’s aegis, the National Archives has worked with the Wikimedia Foundation since 2009, having had a Wikipedian in Residence as well as uploaded thousands of images to Wikimedia Commons. He has quoted a blogger in saying: “If Wikipedia is good enough for the Archivist of the United States, maybe it should be good enough for you.”

Mr Ferriero is a Co-Chair and speaker at the  ICEGOV 2012 conference – hear his sneak preview (5 mins) of the conference here.

Biography source: Wikipedia
Feature images courtesy David Ferriero

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Episode links and resources

• The Archivist’s blog:   AOTUS: Collector in Chief at http://blogs.archives.gov/aotus
• Favorite Records of the Archivist of the United States (AOTUS)
• David S Ferriero: Speeches and Writings
• US National Archives
• US National Archives and Open Government
• US National Archives wiki
• US National Archives blogs
• US National Archives on Facebook
• US National Archives on Flickr
• US National Archives on You Tube

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