This weekend was Congress Camp at George Washington University. We had the pleasure of sponsoring this event that “focused on the ‘Congress’ side of Gov 2.0 and how web-based social and collaboration technologies are being used, or could be used, to transform engagement with the public.”  It was great to see congressional staffers and activists getting together and discussing possible solutions to the problems that surround engaging with your representative.  I also love any event where I can attach faces with twitter names and reconnect with all the great innovations happening in Web 2.0 and how they can be used to  interact with government.   Nisha Chittal, Wayne Moses Burke, and Noel Dickover did a great job organizing the event and bringing together such a great group of people.

I went to some really interesting panels on Communicating with Congress with Daniel Bennett, Real Time news collection with Digiphile, Alex Howard, and Stalking Congress with Forum One’s  Andrew Cohen– who talked about Apps for America 2nd placer Legistalker.  There was a great mix of people from staffers on the hill like Sean Hackbarth from the Senate Republican Conference to Shaun Dakin from no more robocalls and privacy camp.  Also Dazza Greenwood from eCitizen live streamed a few panels, so you might still be able to see the panels.

It was a great unconference overall and an excellent way to see what people are thinking about and how engaging with government has evolved.  I love seeing how this community has grown even from a year ago and look forward to see how it will continually impact how citizens interact with their elected officials.