Back from Brussels epractice.eu conference

Expect a small flurry of blog posts now. I have just got back from David Osimo and Dominic Campbell‘s conference in Brussels, that – apart from being thought-provoking – gave me some much needed train/MAC time to knock some stuff off my ‘to do’ list (and add to my list of things to yell for help on through my blog).

Anyway, Brussels/EU/stuff…

I was there with James Darling to speak about what we did at Rewired State. What was great was that, quite by chance, we happened to be on a panel of people showcasing everything that they had done with data. It was billed as a web 2.0 conference, but as we all know this is far greater than meeting the general cry for a MyFace or Spacebook account. Here’s the list of people we were on a panel with:

• Jack Thurston, founder, Farmsubsidy (EU) – looks a bit like fatboy slim, Jack is the champion of ‘getting stuff done’ in the EU, hoping to do a rewired state type event (making a big play for boy wonder‘s geekery skills – join the queue). He was disappointed that so much of the panel, and day, was showcasing UK talent and achievement, I concur and look forward to this being done with more of a European show-off
• Adrian Moraru, IPPC: how MEPs vote: he had a great voting record hack to show, but as they had run out of funds, it is no longer available online to view. Shame, I hope they get their funds, and/or the geeks get their hands on the Opensource info and recreate it for us to enjoy. I am v interested in Adrian’s work and hope we have more Eastern block talent shared at future events
• David Price, Debategraph: this kind of went over my head in the quick ten minute showcase; however, it is one that I will go and have a proper look at. I believe that somewhere in here is the answer to monitoring online consultation.

So then us. You see? All hacks.

This then lead into another panel, lunch, Ivo Gormley’s film: Us Now and an afternoon of meso and macro level approach to Public Services 2.0. I am pretty sure it will all be shown and available, keep watching FutureGov… it was very good and worth watching/following but I will not do a blow by blow here.

Conversation at lunch revolved around data provision and procurement of talent such as the geeks at Rewired State. For the former, I look squarely in the direction of Richard Stirling, Power of Information Taskforce. For the latter, I am slightly more out of my depth, however the Agile Procurement Manifesto, based on the Agile Manifesto, proposed by the agile procurement group (borne of UKGovBarCamp09) looks like it will begin to address this. (This is a bit of a teaser, the wiki will be up shortly and I will definitely show you where and when.)

Ivo Gormley’s film inspired the most thought for the day but I will do this in a separate post. All in all it was a good day, and I am excited about what is happening across Europe in this public service 2.0 space.

Do watch the recorded video from the day as and when you can, and definitely get to see Ivo’s film.