Next Topic Suggestions: Who, What, Where

Comment by Alex Barth on February 18, 2011 at 5:22pm

Open Source was a great topic. The natural extension would be Open Data. Todd Park's talk at the opening panel of "Open Source" was a great glimpse into the challenges in the field. Many organizations are busy opening their data, struggling with what to publish, how to publish and how to measure success. Time to put our heads together.

eDiplomacy Comment by techATstate on February 23, 2011 at 8:06am

We had our first internal conversation about next topics and these came up:
Serious/Social Games
Water (“Tech@State: H20”)
Geospatial & Data Visualization

 

We're also discussing holding the next event outside the State Dept., but inside the DC metro area. Or maybe one in Silicon Valley. Even got a query for one from Senegal.

 

What do you think of these ideas and/or locations? Have any speaker suggestions for these or others? We're open to your thinking.

Comment by Lisa Wolfisch on February 23, 2011 at 4:09pm

I had the same notion as Alex. How can agencies do better at data provisioning. What about a dialog with govies and developers to share ideas on what we could be doing better as data suppliers to meet the needs of modern data consumers.

Comment by Eric Gundersen on February 24, 2011 at 6:16pm

We obviously love the suggestion of "Geospatial & Data Visualization." :) The topic is really heating up and I think there are some major developments in the space that will significantly increase the use of custom maps by government. We hope that MapBox will be one of them. We therefore would love to be part of the conversation.

 

Comment by Rebecca Lee on March 1, 2011 at 1:01am

The internal planning team has already established an exciting list of topics for the next Tech@State forum; however, I would like to propose an additional topic for future consideration: Education Reform. Across the federal government, several agencies have initiated competitive grant programs to improve access to, and quality of, education.  The forum topic “Education Reform” will provide leaders, new innovators, government personnel and others the opportunity to discuss the use of technology to improve teaching, learning and research.

Comment by Ben Clark on March 4, 2011 at 9:32am

It would be great if one of these meetings could happen in fly-over country some time instead of DC of CA... somewhere in the midwest.

Comment by Robert Bole on March 4, 2011 at 9:43am

I would suggest that you enlist Kati London of (now) Zynga-NY, formerly called Area/Code games.  She does amazing work in both digital/offline/hybrid games.  For example, through a Knight Foundation award she and her team created Macon Money that is helping build community engagement in a very diverse, very separated community.

 

She was also hired by the UK to create an online game to teach - of all things - children to look both ways to cross the road.  (Apparently, there is a rising incidence of children being hit as they run out into the road...potential of US TV/film that is conditioning children to "look the wrong way", you be the judge.)  The result has been a very popular MMO the Code of Everand, which even after funding was cut, has been supported by the gaming community.  

 

I saw Kati speak at SXSW last year, got to meet her at another gathering and have gotten to know her since then...wonderful presenter, passionate, smart as anything.  A good addition for this session.

Comment by James BonTempo on March 4, 2011 at 12:35pm

For serious games I would recommend Jennifer McNamara @ BreakAway, Ltd. They have a wide range of projects/products in this emerging area (see http://www.breakawaygames.com/serious-games/overview/). And they're nearby - Hunt Valley, MD.

Comment by Brian Zhang on March 4, 2011 at 2:43pm

Serious/Social Games:

 

Jane McGonigal! http://janemcgonigal.com/

 

Her recent games, Urgent Evoke and World Without Oil (http://janemcgonigal.com/play-me/), have shown the power of removing the risk barrier of and increasing the individual feedback from tackling global issues. 

 

 

Comment by Joe B Johnson on March 4, 2011 at 2:52pm

You could have experts yammer about gaming, or you could turn the next Tech@State into an online game,built around a problem in foreign affairs.  Something with an outcome from all those clever minds at work.

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