GOVIS 2011 and an open data barcamp or release day?

Mar 17 12:17 NZDT

Hi all,

I had intended to send this email three weeks ago, but then my world got
turned upside down (I live in Chch). Things are slowly coming back to
normal, thanks in part to the awesome efforts of those of you involved in
eq.org.nz.

In early Feb I discussed with the folks that organise GOVIS, the idea of
doing an open data/govt barcamp just before or after the main GOVIS conference
in June. They are very keen.

It'd be great if we ninjas could discuss the type of event we might want to
hold, and people's interest in helping organise this. We can then go back to
the GOVIS committee with a more concrete proposal.

Below are some details on what/when GOVIS is, the open data related events
planned for this year (to show where this might fit in), and some ideas of
the type of event we could run.

I wanted to raise this now with ninjas as there's likely to be some
discussion on this at the Smart Government conference later in Wellington
this week, and it'd be good to have some sense of what you think to feed
into that. It's fine if we (as Open NZ) take a couple of weeks to discuss
and think this through. I'll report back to you next week on the Smart Govt
conference, to help progress this.

So what do you reckon? What kind of event could we run alongside GOVIS?

Julian

*What is GOVIS?*
GOVIS stands for the Government Information Systems Managers Forum. It
began in 1991 and became an incorporated society in 2007. GOVIS is an
all-of-government network run by volunteers.
GOVIS holds a large conference about every two years. The next one is
on 20-21 June at Te Papa in Wellington. More info at http://govis
.org.nz/Events/GOVISConference2011.aspx

*Open Data related events in 2011*

   - Smart Government Conference, 17-18 March in Wellington - commercially
   organised conference with some international speakers. Great lineup but a
   pretty mediocre chairperson.
   - GOVIS, 20-21 June at Te Papa in Wellington - day two is specifically
   focused on govt information.
   - GOVIS open data barcamp or similar - could be on 19 or 22nd June
   depending on what we want to do
   - NetHui, 29 June - 1 July in Auckland - workstream on "government and
   openness" that Laurence is chairing (and hopefully ninjas will contribute
   to)
   - Remix & Mashup 2011

There are probably other ones that I've missed, so do add any others to the
list.

*What kind of event could we run?*

   - A regular barcamp like we did in 2008 and 2009
   - A more structured unconference like the Microsoft led one in 2010
   - A 'release day' focused more specifically on helping govt folks who
   want to release data (for the Remix & Mashup comp, or more generally),
   but who are unsure about how to do it, how to get over the legal, data
   quality, format, technical issues. A more practical hands on day, helping
   get data out there and creating some wins, a bit like DOC did for Remix &
   Mashup last year.
   - Something else?