Alan Silberberg discusses Gov20LA with KCET

As I have noted before, I am on the planning committee for Gov 2.0 LA 2011 and I am very excited about the potential of this event to broaden the conversation about open government across international and public/private sector boundaries.

Alan Silberberg is the Founder of Gov20LA and he recently chatted with KCET, local public television in Southern California, about open government and Gov20LA.  With the permission of Zach Behrens, Editor-in-Chief, KCET-TV Blogs, I am sharing some portions of the interview here.    Note that the interview was conducted by Yoli Martinez.

Q.  Tell us about Gov 2.0 LA
A.  We bring together the leading minds in Government, Business, Technology and Academia to discuss the latest trends, collaborate on new initiatives and create new relationships across International, Federal, State and Local governments and the businesses and people who work with them. It is the only major Gov 2.0 un-conference in Southern California and one of the first to institute live streaming for entire event to open it to the World at large. This coming Gov20LA will be held the weekend of February 11-13 2011 in both Pasadena and Santa Monica. We will again be live streaming – this year in both English and Spanish, and into Facebook directly as well to really allow a broad audience besides the in-person audience to participate. We will have participation from Government officials from around the world, as well as a mix of speakers from Hollywood, Silicon Valley as well as Washington, DC and State capitals alike.

Q.  What are some of the hot topics and speakers attendees and viewers should look for in Gov20LA’s schedule? Which government officials are attending?
A.  To name a few:
British Ambassador John Duncan
Jeanne Holm, Chief Knowledge Architect for JPL
Lovisa A. Williams, U.S. State Department
Dillon Hosier, Israel Consulate, Los Angeles
Jeremy D. Thompson, California State Assembly
20+ more lined up.

Hot topics: Is Gov 2.0 Diplomacy or Propaganda – Mobile implications and case studies for local Government, “BrainJams” the unconference brainstorming sessions – The Los Angeles Consular Corps social media boot camp on Friday Feb 11 will get a lot of
attention, and I anticipate some news to be made by several of our speakers and panelists.

The event will be live streamed both onto the internet through a streaming partner into various channels like Youtube, Livestream, Ustream as well as directly into Facebook through a player/app we created.

Q.  What do you hope Gov 2.0 LA will achieve this year?
A.  2010 was the establishing year for Gov20LA and it succeeded beyond anyone’s imagination, including my own. It set the tone for several months of dialog and discussion in the Government 2.0 community. In 2011 we are seeing a huge international interest as witnessed by the pre-event we are doing with the Los Angeles Consular Corps. I anticipate a tremendous interest in some of the discussions, especially in the post wiki-leaks environment.It is my hope that we will help to educate and inform, both those in Government and those outside on how we can all be better citizens who can assert more control over our civic lives through initiatives like this.

Interested in reading the rest of the interview?  Check it out on the KCET website.