Manor will be host to Manor.GovFresh, a conference designed to help spark local government innovations.
“Manor wants to help re-define what it means to have a conference. Conferences are traditionally centered around knowledge transfer, and we want to transfer immediate, tangible value to other communities like ours. We want to show other local governments that Manor is not a unique, one-time experiment. Everything we’ve done in the last three years can be replicated cost-effectively and applied within the context of their agency or community.”
We're bringing location based services (LBS) to government with our newest experiment. Check-in at Manor City Hall on Gowalla: http://bit.ly/cDLneo Let us know your Manor Labs user ID and we'll give you 5,000 Innobucks.
This month's sales tax revenue was$21,796.64, which was considerably lower than what was budgeted. In fact, sales tax has been declining steadily over the past few months, which has sparked an additional need from our citizens.
Open Gov the Movie is a short film documenting the year since President Obama's Open Government memorandum.
The documentary was shot by Chris Quigley - founder of UK e-democracy company Delib - over November / December 2009 both on location in Washington DC and via Skype.
The 14 minute film is based around a series of interviews with key players involved in the Open Government initiative:
- Beth Noveck - Head of the White House Open Government programme
- Tim O'Reilly - Web2.0 commentator
- Dustin Haisler - CIO at Manor, Texas
- Lena Trudeau - Head of Collaboration at the National Academy of Public Administration (NAPA)
- Jeffrey Levy - Head of digital communications at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
Open Gov Movie launches on Thursday 21st January, on the year anniversary of President Obama issuing the Open Government memorandum, giving an insider's perspective of how the Open Government initiative came about, what's happened over the last 12 months and its effect on both Federal and Local government.
The idea Open Gov the Movie came about by accident as the film's creator Chris Quigley was visiting Washington DC back in November 2009, meeting with various Open Gov insiders.
Chris was working in the Open Government scene in DC with his e-democracy company Delib, and recognised the marked excitement and impact that the Open Gov memorandum was having within government.
Being based out of London (UK), gave Chris an outsider's perspective on the Open Government initiative, which he thought was worth capturing on film. So he did - armed with a DV cam and Final Cut!
As Chris put it "President Obama's Open Government initiative is a significant move in how government works not only for the US, but for democracy around the world - and I wanted to capture this moment of change on film."
"The impact that the Open Government manifesto has had on how UK government works has been particularly pronounced. It's no coincidence that since Obama's memorandum back in January 2009, both Gordon Brown and David Cameron have announced various schemes to make UK government more open, transparent and participative."
"Government has been seen as a pretty closed-shop for a while now, and the Open Government initiative aims to counter this way of doing government. What think Open Gov the Movie does is open up the Open Gov process, giving greater insight into the workings of this movement to the wider public."
Discussing the documentary itself, Chris says "The most interesting aspect of the film is seeing the full impact of Open Gov throughout government, seeing the perspectives of the White House (through Beth Noveck), through Federal departments (through Jeffrey Levy at the EPA) down to Local government (through Dustin Haisler from Manor, Texas)."
"Views from industry commentators outside government also give a good balance to the film. With Tim O'Reilly sharing his views on the future of government as "government as a platform" off which business can innovate in a way government could never do."
"It's also interesting to get a reality check as to how far Open Gov has effected Joe Public so far. A reality check we see at the end of the film where I'm chatting to a cab driver about Open Gov and he clearly hasn't a clue what I'm talking about!"
"Jeffrey Levy, from the EPA, reaffirms this point by saying that "there's too much naval-gazing within the Open Gov scene", and what we need to see next is for Open Gov to reach the man of the street."
For more information on the documentary, contact Chris Quigley: Chris@Delib.co.uk / 00 44 7710 145575
The cities of Arvada, Geneva, Manor and Rockwall have teamed up with DotGov, Inc. to participate in a unique innovation project. The goal of the project is to develop an iPhone Application, at no cost to the citizens of Manor, which will offer citizens mobile access to city services and information. You can participate by sharing your best ideas or wishes for a mobile app on: http://ideas.dotgov.com/ You can add your ideas till February1, 2010.
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