Gov 2.0a, May 6-7, 2011, in Oklahoma City

A fascinating conference/workshop on technology and government is returning to Oklahoma City for its second annual edition in just over a week: Gov 2.0a.

Gov 2.0 stands for Government 2.0, the application of increased connectivity and new technologies to better help government achieve its goals by being transparent, participatory and collaborative. The benefits of this approach include increased efficiency, improved services, greater accessibility of public services, as well as more accountability.

The Friday program includes speakers to talk about progress in other states, but it also features many Oklahoma leaders: State Rep. Jason Murphey, Oklahoma County Commissioner Brian Maughan, Governor Mary Fallin, Joey Senat of Freedom of Information Oklahoma, urban blogger/activist Sid Burgess, John Butler of Oklahoma Crisis Mapping (also pastor of Beal Heights PCA in Lawton and an early Oklahoma blogger and podcaster). Oklahoma Crisis Mapping is responsible for @okicemap, which combines official government information and crowd-sourced news to depict the extend of ice damage and closures across the state.

Two all-day workshops are scheduled for Saturday: City Camp and Mash-IT-up Camp:

City Camp is an unconference focused on innovation for municipal governments and community organizations. As an unconference, content for City Camp is not programmed for a passive audience. Instead, content is created and organized by participants and coordinated by facilitators. Participants are expected to play active roles in sessions. This provides an excellent format for creative, open exchange geared toward action....

Mash-IT-up Camp is a day long event for software developers, web designers, and online entrepreneurs. The event begins with a half day of short talks that cover various APIs for using online services and accessing online datasets. After a lunch, the second half of the day is allocated to teams of developers working together to 'Mash up' APIs to create new interesting applications. The goal of this event is to by the end of the day have deployed a handful of innovative Gov 2.0 application prototypes....

I'm supposed to go to the Oklahoma Republican Convention that day, but this is awfully tempting, particularly Mash-IT-up.

Registration for the conference and networking receptions is $99. A pass that includes the Friday banquet is $149. The two camps are free, but advance registration is required. Higher last-minute fees go into effect after Saturday, April 30, 2011.