Getting Social With Schwabe – Episode 1
Episode 1
The inaugural show of Getting Social with Schwabe covers off some interesting points and includes great interviews with Chris Moore, Chief Information Officer for the City of Edmonton, and Chris Heuer, Founder of the Social Media Club in San Francisco. There’s also My Big App with Evan Adnams who reviews a new indie game called “Funnergunner” by Fluik Entertainment, and the Internutt who provides his take on “fails.”
Our thanks to our sponsor Yardstick Software
Please provide us with show ideas and feedback by sending us an email: radio@fusedlogic.com
Thanks for listening.
Greater Edmonton Region Speaks
Thursday was the inaugural launch of fusedlogicTV – “On The Road.” A made for web live TV series we intend to continue and bring to a neighbourhood near you. Contingent on sponsors and interest of course.
I’m not going to run through the entire show play-by-play, but I would like to mention a few key take-aways. Technically, we had very little really go wrong with the day. Oh sure, there were guests I’d never met until seconds before going live, guests without pants, pet cameos, names I got wrong, a lack of food all day and not wanting to chow down on camera means I was operating on fumes. Which probably contributed to situations with panelists where I rudely cut them off in mid-sentence, not intending to be rude, but what are you going to do? All in a days work on fusedlogicTV. One thing is for sure, we had no shortage of great people on the show. I’m so gratified that nearly everyone we asked was able to participate.
Another key moving forward is that we have some fine-tuning to do on our production. I believe we can make programming improvements that will help the next show flow a bit better. We gave everyone at least a half-hour on the show, and it seemed to me with all the panels, there simply wasn’t enough time to cover all that we wanted to. In each and every case, we could have talked for hours. A tribute to the quality of the guests, they were great.
In particular, I want to mention that this had an effect on the time that our Open Government panel had to speak. Compounding the issue was that I elaborated a bit too much and because of some technical things with cell-phones, Skype bandwidth etc, I might have come off a bit rude cutting things off on air. That was totally not my intention when setting the stage for a question or response from our panelists. A panel that collectively could fill days of airtime with their wisdom and knowledge on Open Government was distilled down to a few moments each.
Note to self, “Walter, shut-up and let your guests speak, ya bonehead.” That’s something I’ll definitely work on for next time, less the presenter and more the listener.
I tend to get really passionate about the topics and excited about the guests. Listening more will be part of my personal journey, something my wife will be happy about too.
Laughter
Of course, having said all of the above, if you caught our pro-sports with Allan Watt from the Edmonton Oilers, David Jamieson from the Edmonton Eskimos and the Team1260′s Kyle Chase, there was certainly no shortage of banter, laughter and great discussion going on. Also, Kyle was kind enough to join us at the last minute and I wasn’t aware until literally seconds before going live who he was by face. I said, “Hi, what’s your name?” “Kyle Chase, Team1260.” I said, “Kelly, great to meet you.” Thankfully, there was no shortage of people there to correct me, thanks Allan. I got it right on air, watch the segment and notice Kyle shakes his head up and down as I mention his name.
More laughter was had on Skype with Duleepa (Dups) Wijayawardhana, CEO of local Edmonton start-up Empire Avenue. This is a serious contender and we had lot’s of opportunity to tackle some of the misconceptions that are floating around on Twitter, and elsewhere. During the interview the battery on Dups’ laptop was about to die so he said, “Please excuse me while I move, I didn’t anticipate this and I don’t have any pants on.” Just shortly after that his cat decided to be the star of the show and walked into camera…awesome TV!
Thank-you to our guests
The proof of a great show is in the feedback. Thankfully that has been very positive on many fronts. From in studio guests, panelists, viewers in our chat room, by email and online. I’d like to thank each and everyone one of you for providing feedback. We look at each one as a chance to improve or continue in a positive direction. You make us better. Please continue to speak-up and let us know. Do you see value in a regular video podcast telling the kind of stories we did on Thursday?
I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the support from the community. The show is only as good as the people on it and the discussion and we had wonderful people and organizations participate. Here’s the list in no particular order.
| Panelists | Title | Organization |
| Adriel Hampton | Investigator | City of San Francisco, City’s Attorney’s Office |
| Roxanne Carr | Councillor | Strathcona County |
| Don Iveson | Councillor | City of Edmonton |
| Don Westman | Councillor | Fort Saskatchewan |
| Jaqueline Biollo | Councillor | Beaumont |
| Gerry Gabinet | Economic Development Officer | Strathcona County |
| Kent McMullin | Economic Development Officer | Edmonton Economic Development Corporation (EEDC) |
| Dups | CEO | Empire Ave |
| Jerry Aulenbach | Realtor | YEGHelps |
| Alain Saffel | CEO | Page One SEO |
| Felicia Dewar | Blogger | |
| Sue Huff | Trustee | Edmonton School Board |
| Mark Suits | Journalist | Edmonton Journal |
| Greg Gazin | Freelance Tech Journalist | Sun Media |
| Miles Hunt | CEO | Base HD |
| Gord McCallum | CEO | First Foundation |
| Chris Moore | CIO | City of Edmonton |
| Sarah Schacht | CEO | Knowledge is Power, Seattle |
| Allan Watt | VP | Edmonton Oilers |
| Dave Jamieson | Director, Communications | Edmonton Eskimos |
| Gilbert Allan | Local Director/Producer | |
| Franco Imbrogno | Local Actor/Producer/Educator | |
| David Bates | CEO | Tyrant Motion Pictures |
| Don Norris | CEO | Bamboo Strategy |
| Alexis McMillian | CEO | Christie Communications |
| Archie McLean | Journalist | Edmonton Journal |
| Shauna Scott | Freelance TV Director |
More of the great feedback regarding our show includes one viewer’s comments that we had “too many good guests,” they would have liked a shorter show possibly. We’ve also had feedback that we’ve reached new audiences as people who would have never consumed a live video podcast in the past tuned-in or showed up to witness it in person.
Thank-you to our sponsors
As I said live, a show like this cannot go forward without the kind support from the business community we were fortunate to receive. Our lead business sponsor was First Foundation, Gord McCallum and his team including Sheila Hawkins stepped-up and said we want to be a part of this. They put together a great panel including Kelly from CMHC, whom I only met a minute before going on air, and Stephen Lau, a successful Realtor. Great discussion regarding how people should prepare for applying for a mortgage. Watch the high-priced car loan folks, it can prevent you from getting that new home.
The Golden Rice Bowl equals fantastic authentic chinese food. I know this for a fact because after the show all of us were exhausted and Miranda Lau, the owner came by, took one look at us and said, “you guys sit down and eat, I’ve got food coming for you.” and boy was it good. This is not the first meal I’ve had at the Golden Rice Bowl but it was a clear reminder as to why the place is packed much of the time.
What’s next?
Well certainly our archived video will be up as soon as Mr. Evan (I broke my hand) Adnams can work to get the video up on fusedlogic.tv for those who missed the live show to watch. One thing I will caution everyone on. We had lower than preferred upload bandwidth so our playback quality will suffer a bit as a result. Still that’s mostly us being perfectionists.
Certainly, we’re looking for interesting stories to cover and we’ve received many requests to do “free” shows. Unfortunately, there is quite a production that goes on to do this right and with high production values. If you’d like to have a show for your organization, region or cause we’d love to help, we just cannot afford to help everyone for free or at a discount. We are happy to work with you on getting some funding for your project via the sponsorship model, for the the right show that works really well. We’ve generated over 100,000 viewer minutes in 2010 just with the few shows we’ve done, there’s more eyes looking at fusedlogicTV everyday and your great stories are the reason why.
How would you like to use live streaming video?
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.
Open Seattle
The Hotel Executive Pacific, is a modest but nice hotel with character situated across from the Seattle Public Library, (a very cool building by the way). I’m starting to power down despite all the Seattle Sounders hysteria today after a full day of travel, dinner on the Pier, a bit of shopping and a serious hike back up the hill on Spring street in the Seattle rain. That said, I’m remembering all the reasons why I love the Emerald City – Seattle, Washington. There’s Puget Sound of course, the Space Needle, here’s a list of several great Seattle attractions.
OpenGov West
However, I didn’t come here just to smell the salty ocean air, I’m here to work and attend OpenGov West which will be taking place at Seattle’s City Hall over Friday and Saturday. (Day 1 schedule) OpenGov West is a fantastic chance to meet many Open Government enthusiasts and evangelists, including Andrew Hoppin, CIO for New York State who will be giving a keynote. Our own Chris Moore, CIO for the City of Edmonton is here to be a panel moderator. This will be a rich opportunity to learn, share and experience what others not only here in Seattle are doing but elsewhere.
Research
To set the stage, I’ve been doing a bit of research on the local situation and have found some substantial issues here for Seattle’s new Mayor McGinn. Here are some of the highlights. One of the largest issues on the agenda is a construction project. The Alaskan Way Viaduct Replacement project. This is Seattle’s “big dig” and it seems that Washington State is being a bit difficult to work with regarding the funding scheme for this project. As Mayor McGinn states, “90% of all large tunnelling projects go over budget” this is a critical issue because apparently Washington State legislature has issued a law stating the State won’t pay more than a certain amount, (somewhere just north of a billion dollars). Should the project experience cost overruns Seattle will be stuck with the bill. Add to this issue that of the King County Metro Transit system taking funds from their capital equipment stash to prop up operations and you quickly realize that the transit system is on life support and the overall budget is another central issue here. The financial situation here due to the recession is serious enough that City of Seattle workers are taking voluntary days and the Mayor and Council are working through a process to identify 200 top-line jobs to save the city money – things are critical. Citizens are asking for more Seattle Police foot patrols in the downtown area. There’s more light rail needed and as everyone knows, elevated trains don’t come cheap and neither does road and bridge construction/maintenance, such as in the case of the Route 520 bridge project. This is a project that’s been in the works for over 4 years now from what I can gather, but Mayor McGinn wants the design to support light rail and that has the discussion heating up apparently.
Open Seattle
What can a more “Open Seattle” accomplish in this fiscal environment? Well, certainly on the citizen engagement front, guidance from the population on a host of issues can’t hurt but what about all those folks who aren’t as tech savvy in the Seattle region? Well check out this cool “digital inclusion” Community Technology Project – a matching funds project to help people develop computer skills. Sure, Web 2.0 applications to help with information flow but I’m interested in finding out what’s already being done, I’m sure there’s a lot.
Frankly, I’m even more excited now to see what transpires over the next two days and beyond. I don’t think Open Government solves all of Mayor McGinn and the rest of the City of Seattle Council’s financial woes, but it can definitely help.
By the way, I found this Oct 2009 Public Engagement Plan released by the City of Seattle’s Open Government Committee. The next couple of days are going to be epic for us Gov2 wonks…
Open Alberta
Just over a week ago, fusedlogic worked hard on behalf of our client the City of Edmonton to provide our live webcasting services. We helped the City break new ground by also providing live translation into French as well. The day went very smoothly, here’s the Open City Workshop (video archive)
Open Government Framework
As Chris Moore, CIO for the City of Edmonton states, it’s time to “enlarge the circle.” With that in mind, I’m calling for an Open Alberta. The Government of Alberta (GOA) needs to begin to put in place an Open Government Framework. I think that there are many within government who understand that the GOA doesn’t have a monopoly on creating “public value.” Citizens also have an opportunity, and in my opinion, a responsibility for creating value that positively impacts the quality of life for Albertans and Canadians.
If we take a moment to think about this, Open Government initiatives are a tremendous opportunity to share openly. To communicate that the government is willing to listen and collaborate with citizens rather than simply appear to placate, which is so often the criticism many in the provincial government hear from Albertans.
Is Open Government risky?
I believe Open Government is only risky to those individuals working (at all levels) within government who would rather see citizens not enter the discussion and thereby affect the way their job is performed. Unfortunately, these people exist, I know because from time to time I’ve had conversations with them. You may know an elected official or bureaucrat that believes in this philosophy, claiming this is the way an efficient government works, “we know best and citizens need to butt out,” they’ll say. This can be the result, when people don’t vote and/or get involved in public debate.
What about privacy?
Open Government doesn’t mean that the Government of Canada should start sharing everyone’s Social Insurance Numbers or personal information on a wiki. What it does mean, is that data which is already generally available should be properly organized into machine readable formats and offered for use by the private sector or citizens.
Election Issue!
I suggest that during this municipal election year people make the concept of Open Government an election issue. True, many elected officials have been sitting on the sidelines regarding the use of social media and Web 2.0 technologies. This is no longer tolerable. Further, if the candidate for your ward, or those going to the top job of mayor know nothing about Open Government, don’t vote for them. Simple. The same goes for the next provincial election, if your MLA, party of choice has not exhibited the fact that they understand, or the government hasn’t initiated an Open Government Framework by that time, don’t vote for them either. Open Government isn’t the future, it’s the present. If you don’t know about it you’re living in the past. This isn’t about being harsh but direct.
Is it really that important? Not only is Open Government important, it’s critical. Critical that our leaders get this concept and move quickly in this direction. Many have yet to realize that this is the most transformative time in government in our lifetime. Hold meetings and chat all you want about how your government isn’t performing. More than talk, Open Government is where the rubber meets the road, it’s transparency, participation and collaboration in action. Open Government represents citizens and government elbow to elbow working together for a better future.
