From Social Capital Review: "Civic Intelligence At Open Government West." An excerpt:

Liberating public data and packaging it in useful ways is a must, but savvy advocates and enablers of transparency also heard today at the Open Government West conference in Seattle City Hall that intermediaries are essential too, for "last mile" delivery to community collaborators. Bill Schrier, Chief Technology Officer for The City of Seattle, said governments "must deputize the private sector, non-profits and academics to distribute data" and help drive public engagement around solutions. Bill raises an important point. And while the open government "deputies" include developers of some mighty practical mobile, location-based apps built off government data sets, and developers of online whiteboard tools to collect suggestions for governments, there's a danger of being too government-centric about open government.

Maybe what's needed even more than open government, is what Douglas Schuler of The Public Sphere Project called "civic intelligence," formed around emergent patterns of civic thought and activity in communities, and used to develop responses to social and policy challenges and opportunities. This isn't primarily driven by government but it can be a vital partner.

Here's the full article.

Posted by Matt Rosenberg at March 31, 2010 06:02 PM