Best In Conference

   opengov / PDF      Posted on June 9, 2011 by Yussi

Best website/open gov

www.utah.gov speaks for itself. It’s the most innovative, user friendly, stunning government website I’ve ever seen.

Best Commentary on Social Media

Maybe old to everyone else, it's the first time I saw this insightful graphic: 

Best Non Profit resource

Described by Craig Newmark as the “Yelp for Nonprofits,” Great Non Profits is a great idea – the only downside is that there aren’t too many organizations on yet: http://greatnonprofits.org/

Best Idea/Short Presentation

Not only did the students convince with their idea, but also with the presentation: It was short, no hideous Arial 12point powerpoint. Just a powerful support of the spoken word. But let’s not get distracted by the presentation, the idea is as brilliant: They describe it as Netflix for absentee ballot. Simple and brilliant: www.turbovote.org

Best keynotes

If you only have time to watch three keynotes, watch these three. They are not representative of the two overarching themes – open gov and social change in the Middle East – but they are powerful in their own right.

First, the story of @MayorEmanuel, the Twitter satire on the recent mayoral election in Chicago, starts out humorous, but ends as a commentary on new and old journalism, easy and hard choices.

Second, the keynote by Lawrence Lessing, who should not need further introduction. It’s a presentation just as you would expect from him: passionate, but delivered dry, intellectual, but easy to digest. A plea for net neutrality and campaign reform.

Lastly, a person you probably never have heard of: Jim Gilliam. Maybe you’ve used some of his brilliant ideas, like GovLuv, a way to connect constituents with their politicians on Twitter or act.ly, a Twitter petition site; and you should definetly check out his Nationbuilder, if you are running a campaign. His speech “The Internet is My Religion” will leave you speechless.