I’ve heard some mixed feedback about the recent CeBIT Government 2.0 conference, which was held in Canberra at the beginning of the month. I think part of the problem continues to be the gap between the engaged (some of whom are also more than quite immersed) and those still exploring the topic. This can create tension and misunderstanding, so a conference might not always be the best place for learning conversations to take place (an alternative approach being something like our Head Start or Social Innovation Lab process).

However, CeBIT have kindly gathered presenters slides together. There is some good material there and these are my (content rich) favourites from the stack:

• Andrew Stott, on his experiences in the UK with data.gov.uk;
• The Australian Law Reform Commission (this one also mention’s Headshift’s work with them on Project 15); and
• Andrew Schatz from the Australian Government Solicitor – I was really impressed with his concluding remarks on slide 11!

I would also suggest you read Peter Alexander’s own summary of his presentation.

From the twitter back channel, I understand the mention by AGIMO of them planning an ‘unconference’ apparently created some excitement. The level of open participation in getting the AGIMO unconference up and running will probably be a good metric of the overall progress made since the Taskforce finished its work. And I think if spent correctly, with some help from the broader Gov 2.0 community, AGIMO should still have a lot of change from the $1 million provided by Microsoft to invest in other initiatives.

UPDATE: There is a great write up of the ALRC’s Gov 2.0 experiences in CIO magazine.