Building the Open Government Community at OpenGov West 2011

People in the private sector need people in the public sector and vice versa. But focusing on relationships sometimes gets in the way of the daily work cycle of getting things done, meeting deadlines, and thinking about the best way to exceed client goals and expectations.

Last weekend I traveled to Portland, Oregon to moderate a panel on Building the Open Government Community at OpenGov West with Lovisa Williams, Karen Fung, and Chach Sikes. My take-away from the conference and our session is that sometimes the antidote to brain block is just down the block — or a Skype call away.

Building and maintaining relationships with our counterparts in public sector agencies and our colleagues in the private sector:

• Exposes us to new ideas. – New, creative solutions don’t arrive in a vacuum, when we limit ourselves to what we know and are comfortable with. Sometimes I don’t even know how to define the problem when I don’t have time to connect with others in the field that faces similar challenges.
• Allows us to tinker and experiment. – Digital strategists can read Mashable all day long, but reading about new tools and tactics won’t have the same impact as talking about how to implement those new tools and tactics with others.
• Creates a support structure. – We all need some sympathy, encouragement, and advice about how to face challenges and solve problems. Connecting with others and sharing experiences helps us support each other and the evolution of the profession.
• Promotes our work internally and externally. – The best promotional opportunities occur when other people say something good about us and our work. Members of the broader digital and open government community help support each other’s goals and initiatives, which allows us to succeed more and involve more people in the process.

Building this kind of community doesn’t have to be formal and boring. It can take many different forms, including:

• Regular coffees, lunches, and drinks either one-on-one or with a small group
• Happy hours and get-togethers that pull together people from a number of different public sector agencies and private sector organizations
• Unconferences and conferences
• Webinars
• Group blogging activities and intellectual exchanges online
• Social media conversations

For example, I’ve worked with Williams in a number of personal and professional activities over the last few years that have sustained me intellectually and emotionally, from the regular “Thirsty Thursday” happy hours that we throw with our friend Michael Galang, to a Future 15 session on Government and Technology we cultivated at SXSW, to the Mobile Citizen Summit we had the pleasure of organizing with a group of other friends across government and the private sector. These kinds of projects nourish us intellectually, connect us to new people, and help us reach those “aha” moments a lot quicker.

In the words of Thomas Merton, “We do not find the meaning of life by ourselves alone-we find it with another.”