It's almost been a week since the first day of TransparencyCamp and I want to take a look at some of the online tools that made it a success. These services made our lives a lot easier when planning TransparencyCamp, and thankfully, most of them are free and simple to navigate.

 

• Eventbrite, which I've written about in the past was quite handy for selling tickets and keeping tabs on the number of attendees.

• Twitter continues to be a great tool for note taking, posting questions, alerting attendees to event updates, contacting staff to notify them to problems and so on. You can still see TransparencyCamp related tweets if you search for the #tcamp11 hashtag.

• We created our own TransparencyCamp mobile app that was accessible through smart phones.  Don't have the resources to create your own? Check out services like Lanyrd.

• Sunlight streamed opening and closing remarks and one session per time slot on the Livestream service, giving people at home a chance to follow sessions throughout the weekend.

• Prior to TCamp11, attendees submitted and voted on session ideas using Google Moderator, which helped us figure out which sort of topics attendees would be interested in ahead of time.  It also gave possible presenters time to prepare and offered TCampers a more enriching experience.

• There are a number of different Google Groups we used to communicate with attendees. We encourage you to join and continue the conversation.

• We're pooling photos from TransparencyCamp on Flickr. If you haven't added your photo, please do!  Many services that work on your smart phone, like Instagram, picplz and PixelPipe integrate with Flickr.

• If you hadn't noticed during TCamp11, we used QR codes on both name badges and on the monitors to quickly connect attendees to important TransparencyCamp information.  Unfamiliar with QR codes? Read more here.

• We used the TransparencyCamp.org wiki to document general TCamp and session info. Have notes? We've opened it back up (only for another week, due to security issues) so if you've got notes, links, or info to add, please have at it.

• Want to test some of these out, build the open gov movement offline and have some fun while you're at it? Host your own Sunlight Meetup.

What tools are we missing that we could have used? Do you have any thoughts?

 

We're still recovering from all the excitement and lessons of the weekend's successful TransparencyCamp and would love to share some favorites photos we found on the event's flickr pool - please add yours if you attended! As Sunlight says bittersweet goodbyes to our international guests and starts the unpacking process, we'd like to thank everyone who joined us and especially to our sponsors.

Video and more updates are coming soon, so stay tuned.

Photos by flickr users PoliticalActivityLaw.com, noneck, broke_kid, Tiina Knuutila and Nicko Margolies

Here’s an exciting development! Last week, I blogged about an encouraging report by Doug Belzer at Federal Computer Week, where he wrote about how Twitter, blogs and other Web 2.0 tools are revolutionizing government business. The General Services Administration had determined that Twitter’s standard terms of service is compatible with federal use.

Two days ago, Doug has another exciting article, this time in Government Computer News, about GSA announcing that it has signed agreements with Flickr, YouTube, Vimeo and blip.tv that will allow federal agencies to use new-media tools. Agencies can now begin using these tools to better communicate, network and share information via the Web.

Chris Snyder at Wired's Epicenter blog termed the move, "Web 2.0, meet dot-gov. Dot-gov, this is Web 2.0." He's right in calling it a "big step" for agencies attempting to become more transparent and interactive with citizens. "Now that the bureaucratic brush has been cleared, government agencies will be free, for example, to embed videos and create photo widgets that citizens can embed into their MySpace or Facebook pages," he writes. An example of a government agency already using Web 2.0 tools successfully is the Centers for Disease Control alerting the public about the recent peanut better product recall.

Chris quotes Andrew Rasiej, founder of Personal Democracy Forum and Sunlight's senior technology advisor, as saying it's another example of why it really matters who’s president of the United States. "Because we have the country's first tech president, the speed at which the government can catch up with the private sector and use of technology is exponential."

Each individual agency will determine their own guidelines for how their employees can use the tools. “The new agreements make it easier for the government to provide official information to citizens via their method of choice,” according to GSA’s administrator, who is in discussions with other new-media providers. They started with these four because of their popularity and large number of users.

We're excited about this development. You should be too.

TransparencyCamp, the unconference event that iStrategyLabs and Sunlight co-sponsored two weekends ago, was a huge success.

We made a highlight reel of the weekend --  interviews with many of the participants, including me  and Craig Newmark, scenes from various sessions. We want  to share with those who attended and those who couldn't make it :

The spirit generated 10 days ago lives on.

There are multiple ways to stay involved, whether you attended in person, virtually or not at all at the time. Check out the TransparencyCamp’s community page, where you can find videos, photos, community groups, free stuff and more. Here’s a list of ways to stay -- or get -- involved: 1. See what people have said about Transparency Camp on our delicious feed. 2. Join the Google Group. Currently there are  206 members who have added 86 messages. 3. Check out the full list of related community groups you can join. 4. Join our Transparency Breakfasts: The Sunlight Foundation is hosting what we hope will be an ongoing series of 90-minute “working breakfasts” to talk about plans, ideas, tactics and strategies for making the federal government more transparent. Bagels and coffee will be served. RSVP is required - sign up now by following this link: http://bit.ly/110oep. 5. I <3 Transparency happy hours: Sunlight will also be hosting a series of happy hours for transparency activists...With the next one happening on Friday April 3rd. 6. Follow and participate in the Twitter stream #TCAMP09. 7. Check out the camp's Flickr photos and group. (Thanks to Sunlight’s Avelino Maestas for setting it up.) 8. And here’s a link to a blog post I wrote at the conclusion of the camp on what people had been saying on Twitter about the event. Join us in keeping the spirit alive by continuing the communication and collaboration.

Last year, the Open House Project proposed the loosening of rules governing what lawmakers can post to their official web sites. Last week, the Senate Committe on Rules and Administration approved new rules to allow lawmakers to post content from third party sites such as YouTube, Flickr, Twitter, and so on.

The new rules, while not immediately available for public review, appear to be far different from the ones proposed earlier this year. Earlier, Rules and Administration proposed to "keep a list of “approved Web sites” that agreed to provide pages free of advertisements or partisan leanings."

In contrast to this proposal Republicans on the Committee offered a plan to allow lawmakers to post at their discretion, and in accordance with long-standing standards, with review by the Committee if necessary. The approved plan mirrors the Republican plan.

Kudos to the Senate for taking a step forward by allowing senators to more freely communicate across the Web.