Open Government Standards Conference Update!

From the first day Open Gov West in Seattle, Bill Schrier (CIO of Seattle), Alissa Black (San Francisco IT), Phillip Holmstrand (Portland Web & GIS Services Manager), and Kevin Bowers (Vancouver IT).

OGW: Standards

Open Gov West attendees and conveners are currently organizing a regional information standards work summit for October 26th, 2010 in Portland, Oregon.  OGW: Standards is scheduled for the day before GOSCON (Government Open Source Convention) begins.  The work summit will be an opportunity for governments from across the western US and Canada to coordinate open government projects (such as the crime data pilot across 5 major cities), and develop data and information release standards.  By working together, governments and open government organizations can ensure that this process is more cost-effective and efficient.

If you, or your government, would be interested in being on the convener team or attending in the standards conference, please sign up online.

Here’s a copy of the press release for OGW: Standards

July 27th, 2010

For Immediate Release

Cites, municipalities, counties and states are facing shared technology challenges, particularly with data and document management. As these governments work to modernize their internal systems and share their information openly, there is real opportunity to share in common solutions.

Governments across the Western US and Canada have been talking about developing and sharing in open information standards and open source tools.  Working together, our governments and citizens can benefit.

Open Gov West: Standards is a one-day work summit coordinated with GOSCON (Government Open Source Convention), held in Portland, Oregon on October 27th-29th.  OGW: Standards is an opportunity for the West to coordinate work, saving resources, creating flexibility and openness in government, and growing a collaboration network across governments.

Goals of the work summit include:

• Coordinating development and resource allocation for a docx to XML open-source software tool for automating the conversion of government documents to XML, piloting with legislative information.
• Discuss and agree to pilot standards for government information.
• Build relationships for future coordination and partnerships.

OGW: Standards is modeled after Open Gov West, a open government conference Knowledge As Power held in March in Seattle, Washington.  OGW events are low-cost, fun, low-key, and results-driven.  Knowledge As Power doesn’t throw boring events; we seek to make your investment of time at OGW: Standards meaningful and exceptionally useful.

Knowledge As Power is in the early stages of organizing OGW: Standards. If you would like to join the convener team, helping to set the agenda and coordinate the event, please sign up today. KAP staff will be in touch with you by August 9th, regarding the first convener conference call on August 13th.  Updates on OGW: Standards will be posted to http://opengovwest.org starting in early August.

If your government or organization is interested in being a sponsor of the work summit, please contact KAP’s executive director, Sarah Schacht, at director@knowledgeaspower.org

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Sarah Schacht is founder & executive director of Knowledge As Power. She founded Open Gov West, is an OpenGov author, speaker and gadfly. She believes governments should be open, their technology modern, and their work supported.