Summer of Gov

On Tuesday evening, I had the pleasure of attending the first Summer of Gov event in San Francisco. The event was well-attended by state, local and federal workers and industry representatives, including Craig Newmark, founder of Craiglist.org.

The event kicked off the creation of the Gov 2.0 Club - San Francisco, which is a new social organization centered around the ideas of making government more transparent and collaborative. "It's about getting out of the cubicles and down around the people who are doing cool and innovative things, cross-pollinating ideas from the developer community to the government tech community, and getting thought leaders from outside government involved in helping move the government forward in being more citizen-oriented," said Adriel Hampton, an investigator for the city and county of San Francisco and organizer of the event.

Hampton said the new Gov 2.0 Club will be planning some action-oriented events for the near future, including a developer camp this fall.

The event also celebrated the one-year anniversary of GovLoop, a social networking site boasting more than 15,000 members from the government and private sector. Companion events will be held in Washington, D.C., and in Second Life on Thursday.