Welcome to the collaborative workspace for the roundtable discussion hosted by Frank DiGiammarino, "Harnessing Technology to Embrace Change."

The purpose of this page is to provide:

A) Background Information on the panel discussion
B) Opportunities to initiate dialogue on issues raised during this panel as well as on any other Web 2.0 topic of interest.
C) A platform for Summit attendees to take real-time notes

NOTE: To edit this page, you must first register (registration is free) and then click "edit" in the top right hand corner of the page.

Background Information

Overview of the Discussion

IT decision-makers from across government will explore Web 2.0, its various forms, its acceptance and its potential to change government. Participants will discuss how disruptive technologies can be used to influence and accommodate change; how Web 2.0 can be used to drive agency change; and, how the next generation of disruptive technologies will affect how you do business tomorrow.

Biographies of Roundtable Participants

Frank DiGiammarino
VP Strategic Initiatives, National Academy of Public Administration
Frank DiGiammarino is Vice President for Strategic Initiatives. He supervises the conception and execution of special campaigns and initiatives and is responsible for driving strategic organizational change and opening new lines of business for the National Academy; Oversees communications, government relations and business development activities.

Vivek Kundra
Chief Technology Officer, Government of the District of Columbia
Vivek Kundra was appointed by Mayor Adrian M. Fenty on March 27, 2007. As Chief Technology Officer (CTO,) Kundra leads the Office of the Chief Technology Officer (OCTO), an organization of over 600 staff that provides technology services and leadership for 86 agencies, 38,000 employees, residents, businesses, and millions of visitors. Kundra brings to the role of CTO a diverse record that combines technology and public policy experience in government, private industry, and academia. Before Kundra came to the District, Governor Timothy M. Kaine appointed him Assistant Secretary of Commerce and Technology for the Commonwealth of Virginia, the first dual cabinet role in the state's history.

Dan Mintz
CIO, Dept. of Transportation
As Chief Information Officer (CIO,) Dan Mintz serves as the principal advisor to the Secretary on matters involving information resources and information services management, and provides leadership in using information technology to achieve the department's goals and objectives. Mintz came to the Department of Transportation from Sun Microsystems, where he most recently served as the Director for Government Compliance Programs and was responsible for leading a corporate-wide group responsible for security, legal, and regulatory compliance for Sun's US Government business.

Molly O'Neill
CIO, EPA
Confirmed by the U.S. Senate on December 8, 2006, Molly O' Neill is the EPA's Assistant Administrator for the Office of Environmental Information (OEI) and Chief Information Officer (CIO). She is responsible for EPA's strategic planning concerning the collection, management, and access to the Agency's environmental information. As EPA's CIO, she is a member of the Federal CIO Council, where she currently serves as the Co-chair of the Architecture and Infrastructure Committee. Prior to joining EPA, Ms. O'Neill was the State Director for the National Environmental Information Exchange at the Environmental Council of the States (ECOS).

Chris Rasmussen
Knowledge Manager, National Geospatial Intelligence Agency
Chris Rasmussen is a knowledge manager and trainer for the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency within the Department of Defense. He's a thought leader in the application of Web 2.0 tools to intelligence goals, especially social software.

Session Notes

Real time notes taken during the session are captured below. Feel free to read, comment, agree or disagree, or otherwise pile on!

Issue/Idea	Notes
Introduction	Frank D. shared that we are seeing the confluence of a number of forces, including: the Wikipedia principles of openness, peering and sharing over a ubiquitous platform; the drive for transparency; swarm intelligence, which reflects the intelligence that comes from multiple data points; and the "Medici Effect" (check out the book by Franz Johanssen) that makes the case that a greater diversity of thought leads ultimately to better ideas
Thoughts from Chris Rasmussen
Email vs. Collaboration	Focus on the content and the conversation. If you're focusing on the "container", you've lost. Chris' slides are good, I'll post them here shortly.
Coordination vs. Collaboration	They are not the same. Don't think that just because you are coordinating internally, you're truly collaborating.
Work Looks Like Home	Increasingly little difference in the way work looks vs. the way things work at home. This is particularly important for nGen employees.
Molly O'Neill shares her view
Leadership Support	She came into a role where there was already signficant interest in 2.0 and leadership support (witness attendance at the summit by Marcus Peacock, Deputy Administrator of EPA)
Numerous Initiatives Underway	Watershed Central, Puget Sound Mash-up, Blogging, using wikis to reach out to communities. More detail on these initiatives to come.
Vivek Kundra on Changes in DC
Speed and Transparency	He wanted to put something into place that was "high velocity" and repeatable. Instead of looking to the developed world, he looked to cities in the developing world to learn how they leverage technology to reach vast numbers of people without spending millions of dollars.
Procurement	Transparency around procurement is very important. We're now using technology, including YouTube, to make the entire competitive process more accessible and transparent.
DCPedia	We started with HR Processes - rather than having a 300 page HR book, or a massive and expensive portal, we started small and grew from there. Now there is a wealth of information on subjects that range far beyond HR.
Trading Model	In DC, IT projects are now modeled as investment portfolios. Each project has an investment manager, and is evaluated similar to a stock. Fund performance is monitored, as is fund manager performance. The power of data is that it democratizes information. On a quarterly basis, Vivek sits down with the City Manager and the Mayor to "balance the portfolio". He recommends which stocks to sell, and how to reinvest that money into high performing stocks. Brilliant!
A few minutes with Dan Mintz
Passion Required!	Understanding the stakeholders and getting them engaged is critical. People need to be passionate in order to create robust communities.
DOT World	I need to talk to Dan about this to more fully understand. More on this shortly.
Policy Creation	Starting to use wikis to involve more people in the creation of policy.
Geospatial	DOT is also looking at ways to leverage the geospatial information that exists across the Department - and in other agencies - to greatest effect.
Panel Discussion
How do we have time for more collaboration?	Question was asked from the audience re: how do we have time for more data? Which blogs should we read? How do we track all of the activity out there? Chris R. responded that counter-intuitively, the answer to more data is more data. If you find blogs are overwhelming, you're probably reading blogs that aren't meant for you. Keep in mind also that if you get out of the "email game", it frees up a lot of time to focus on other things. Dan M. weighed in to share that the marketplace works, and over time, the most useful sites will become the most popular.
Topical Structure	There is this thought out there that wiki structures need to mirror organizational structures. Not so. What we really need to pursue is topical organization.
Implementing Ideas	What do you do with the information you receive through wikis and mash-ups? Concern voiced that once these ideas enter into the procurement process, it slows things down considerably. Molly spoke to the ideas that came out of the Puget Sound Mash-up. The purpose of the mash-up was to jumpstart the conversation and provide a rich set of data and ideas to the folks working on the Puget Sound. So, they didn't really set expectations that all ideas would be implemented, only that they would be shared. This gave EPA the opportunity to connect with (for example) the DC Government to share information that came out of the mash-up.
Project Information	Back to Vivek's portfolio approach, how do you make the approach independent? Some of these projects are so large that careers are at stake when you think about cancellation. Concern that it is impossible to kill some projects, no matter how bad they might be. VK's answer was terrific - data is truly independent. Data provides great insight into project performance and also helps managers to identify management challenges that cut across projects. Dan added that even if you're not able to make big changes to the organization, you will still make great strides in the culture of the organization if you make data transparent.

Collaborative Discussion Forum

During the course of this Government Leadership Summit, ideas generated at this roundtable or at any of the other events may spark a desire for extended dialgue. This space is designed to provide attendees with opportunities to initiate new points of discussion.

Name	Topic	Comment

Real-Time Note Taking Space

As the roundtable discussion "Harnessing Technology to Embrace Change" unfolds, the following space will be utlized by attendees to make notes and commentary.