Microsoft Bombs at OpenGov West

Day One of OpenGov West started off well, despite a few audio glitches, Sarah Schacht, Executive Director and Founder for Knowledge As Power, who later also passed out copies of “Open Government and The Sustainable Network,” published by O’Reilly.  More than that she and all the volunteers for OpenGov West did a nice job of getting us going and providing some context for what was to be expected, coffee bagels and a terrific environment to learn in, that being Seattle City Hall.

Citizen Engagement in Seattle

Mayor McGinn spent a few moments welcoming us all to Seattle and providing some interesting perspectives on how his campaign used social media to engage citizens and expand the reach of his message.  The Mayor also announced a new citizen engagement lab to help expand open government and citizen engagement here in Seattle.  ”We’re looking to learn from you and gather some ideas from this conference,” he said of the expectations of OpenGov West.  There were certainly a lot of great ideas that came out of yesterday’s experience.

Apps 4 Climate Action in BC

Honourable Minister Ben Stewart, Ministry of Citizens’ Services proclaiming “Go Canada Go” as well introduced ourselves was fun, however as we found out he had something else to proclaim.  Yesterday the Government of British Columbia announced a new contest called Apps 4 Climate Action.  That’s very cool.  Ironically, one of the things that the BC government will need to ensure as they pick a winner is “sustainability.”  In this case, I’m speaking about the sustainability of the application and the developer as that will be the key moving forward.

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention some other cool people from the BC government.  David Hume, Executive Director Civic Engagement, Ministry of Citizens’ Services and Christine Wood, Social Media/Online Communications Director with BC’s Public Affairs Bureau.

New York State Senate is Open

Andrew Hoppin, Chief Technology Officer for the New York State Senate provided an excellent keynote and overview of all the Open Government change that’s going on New York in large part due to budget constraints.  Andrew explained that efficiency was a key part of the plan.  For example, New York now saves over $1.5 million per year by having all the daily news distributed by news feed rather than having staff clip out news headlines and scanning them for distribution.  There is a lot that has been accomplished in just a short year or so, it’s amazing frankly what can happen with motivated individuals at the helm.

City of Edmonton Well-Represented

Chris Moore, CIO for the City of Edmonton was a panel moderator on Open Standards.  Not surprisingly there’s considerable work to be done with respect to standards and supporting policies.  Things get especially tricky when you go across jurisdictional lines.  One of the most common themes of the day was the fact that lawyers and their legal departments within government need to change their approach.  They need to move more to the centre and away from a “zero risk” position on the use of social technologies.  The largest barrier to progress within the Open Government movement isn’t technology but the law and how it is applied.  One of the keys to success as discussed by more than one panel with a lawyer on it was to get the legal department involved in policy making early in order to help them better understand the dynamics of what an Open Government initiative should look like.

Bill Schrier, CTO for the City of Seattle mentioned that “we need to deputize citizens,” a statement that stuck out for many including me.  The day was filled with nuggets of experience, wisdom and questions on how to solve big problems.  Today should be another packed day of Open Government exploration as we start the “unconference” portion.

“Real Men Don’t Tweet” – Stuart McKee, Microsoft

Stuart McKee was in the room representing Microsoft, and taking every opportunity to push Microsoft services made a distinct impression on me and frankly it wasn’t a good one.  In a breakaway session, I sat two chairs away from McKee and he took an opportunity to pitch to the panel and make a pledge to provide free hosting on the “cloud,” the “Microsoft cloud” for a project being discussed by the panel.  Brett Horvath was attempting to construct a multiple city project, to the exclusion of Edmonton represented by Chris Moore in the room whom Horvath acknowledged at one point but continued to focus on his immediate market while McKee attempted to give away free services as a desperate move to position Microsoft as some sort of Open Government advocate.  Knowing Microsoft as we all do, advocate seems to be way to altruistic of a term.  McKee wrapped his Microsoft commercial by asking the people in the room for a show of hands of those who didn’t own an iPhone.  About 10 people raised their hands out of 25 or 30 people.  ”You know all this talk about iPhone apps?” McKee questioned.  ”All those people can’t use them.” Then the head of Open Government for Microsoft literally hops up and down in his seat saying “Woooo, I’ve been waiting to say that!”  To which a participant replied, “yeah but iPhones are pretty cool, you should get one.”

I won’t speak for Chris Moore but my own thoughts and opinions as I sat next to him was, McKee again acted like an ass.  This time treating the CIO of Canada’s 4th largest city (and whom had graciously mentioned working with Microsoft earlier in the day as moderator) with less respect than he deserved as he in passing said, “hey, thanks for the shout out earlier.”  When Chris Moore asked him if he was on Twitter, “no I’m on Facebook, I like to say that real men don’t tweet,” he replied.  The arrogance of McKee was amazing and had offended both of us since we are both on Twitter.  This guy is responsible for “buying” Microsoft’s position in the Open Government space and in my opinion is just another reinforcement of why everyone should buy an Mac, Apple iPhone, iPad and use the “real cloud,” rather than a Microsoft server farm and run as far away from this corporation as possible.  Nice job McKee, and for the record not only do real men and women tweet, but since you’re not on Twitter you won’t have to worry about the amazing discussions going on regarding the Open Government space there.  Goof ball!  The first order of business for Steve Ballmer should be to fire this jerk, the damage being done to the Microsoft brand I’m sure is much more than I witnessed first hand with McKee on the loose.  That show of disrespect might work on the East coast of the US, but it clearly didn’t play well in Seattle yesterday with me, and who am I?  I’m part of the human network and I have a voice, as does Chris Moore and everyone else in that breakout session yesterday.  The fact that Microsoft has top-line executives who don’t get this is the central point as to why their only true tactic in Open Government is to “buy” their market position.  If McKee had any real clue of the Government 2.0 space he’s apparently responsible for across the US, he would have certainly handled himself differently yesterday.  His ineptitude even as a desperate pitch artist was palpable.

Ok, now I’m off to Day Two, and I look forward to meeting even more terrific folks today.  Open Government people (the aforementioned  McKee excluded of course) are awesome, they’re approachable, engaging and passionate about this subject and that makes the experience of OpenGov West that much more enjoyable and valuable.

See you all at City Hall.