The Unblight Unconference galvanized policy makers, technologists and organizers from across the country to more deeply explore the challenges pertaining to vacant and blighted properties while exchanging ideas and developing solutions.
Continue readingWhat do TransparencyCamp and National Day of Civic Hacking have in common?
With TCamp14 and National Day of Civic Hacking on the same weekend this year, we decided to coordinate and maximize the potential of the two events, essentially: open government squared.
Continue readingCalling all campers: Opengov ideas needed for TCamp14
What issues, topics and ideas will be discussed at TransparencyCamp 2014? You decide! Help us construct the schedule by proposing or leading interesting sessions on our TCamp brainstorming page!
Continue readingThe top 10 things to know about TransparencyCamp 2014
TransparencyCamp is rapidly approaching! Here are the top ten things you should know about Sunlight's annual opengov unconference!
Continue readingRegistration for TransparencyCamp 2014 is now open!
Sunlight is proud to announce that regular registration for TransparencyCamp 2014 is officially open! Register now!
Continue readingBe a TransparencyCamp Ambassador and help grow the opengov community
Last year we ran an "Ambassadors Program" at TransparencyCamp to make our community more accessible, pairing transparency newbies with TCamp veterans. Guess what? Making friends is great! So this year we're doing it again, but better, faster and stronger.
Continue readingBuilding a Digital Unconference
With the dust finally settling from TransparencyCamp, it's a good time to talk about some of the work we did this time around to prepare for one of our favorite weekends of the year. TCamp '13 was a year of firsts for us: our first 500+ crowd, first time running the event with a mostly volunteer staff, and our first time trying to run nearly everything digitally and online. In this post I'll run through the what/why/how of that last point, and touch on some lessons learned. It's gonna be long and Django-centric, so grab your pink pony mug and cozy up with a cup of coffee.
Continue readingUnconference 101: A Quick Guide to TCamp and Beyond
With TransparencyCamp less than three weeks away, it’s time to get serious about what it means to attend an unconference. Unconferences are events run by participants. Attendees set the agenda for what will be discussed, lead the sessions and workshops that fill the schedule, and create an environment of innovation and productive discussion. It can be a bit hard to visualize how this all plays out before you’ve actually attended an open format event like this, so, to make things easier, we’ve pulled together some resources to help you get the most out of your TransparencyCamp experience -- or any other open format event you attend.
Continue readingOpening Government: Oakland’s First CityCamp
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed by the guest blogger and those providing comments are theirs alone and do not reflect the opinions of the Sunlight Foundation or any employee thereof. Sunlight Foundation is not responsible for the accuracy of any of the information within the guest blog. Spike is the Director of Research & Technology with Urban Strategies Council, an Oakland based social justice nonprofit and speaks nationally on data driven decision making and open data. He is the co-founder and captain of OpenOakland, a Code for America Brigade. An Aussie native, he became a dual US citizen last year and voted in his first ever American election. I recently co-founded an organization called OpenOakland with former Code for America fellow Eddie Tejeda. One of our passions was that we both believe that government can and should be much more than a vending machine. Those of us in OpenOakland (all 20+ volunteers) dig the idea of government as a platform: a platform that supports safe communities, job growth, excellent schools, strategic business development and innovation. When our government operates more collaboratively and genuinely engages with our communities (as opposed to acting as a barrier), it facilitates so much more that can benefit our communities. To many, this is a new concept, but we believe that it matters how we perceive our governments. It's no secret that current local governments have a ton of changing to do, but it's unlikely that these changes will come about swiftly without all of us being involved and engaged and supporting our government staff and leaders to make these changes.
Continue readingCome to CityCamp Oakland
On December 1, all roads will lead to Oakland, CA for CityCamp Oakland -- an unstructured conference where municipal employees, department heads, technology folks, developers, journalists and engaged citizens will talk about technology and local government. Organized by OpenOakland, the City of Oakland and other local organizations, CityCamp Oakland will show how innovative technology and open data can improve civic engagement, increase efficiency and government transparency while connecting residents to the city of Oakland. The Camp will be at the City Hall. Sunlight’s Evangelist, Bill Pease will also be present to share more on what we do, the data and tools we provide to support open government and our approach to local innovations.
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