Derek #DayNotes for March 6, 2019
Here is my first attempt at #DayNotes. To learn more about the concept, check out this blog.
Though it should go without saying and to be be 100% clear, these are not official communications from the Government of Canada but rather just my own personal notes about what I am doing.
Apologies in advance for my bad grammar, these notes are meant to be quick and dirty.
We are trying to find better ways to track all the information we are gathering on who is doing what in the digital government space. After debating using some type of CRM which would require learning and committing to use a new tool (never easy) we decided instead to try instead using a simple google form that helps organize our thinking into a standard set of categories (e.g. project type, org, contact person, project status) and then automatically populate a google sheet. Step 1 is to test this out and see if it meets our needs of being easy to use and effective at organizing our data. To this end I stood up a beta form today (HERE). We will test it over the coming week, refining it to better meet our needs. If this works well, step 2 will be to spread this use of the form so more people can populate the google sheet, thus giving us an evergreen database of who is doing what in the digital gov space.
We also held a brainstorm session with a couple amazing system weavers in the Government of Ontario (Susie Floresco) and Nova Scotia (Arlene Williams). To brainstorm how to better interconnect the Provinces, Territories and Municipalities into the work we are trying to do with OneGov. My key takeaway from the conversation is that there is a lot of overlap with work that Susie and Arlene are already doing to link the digital government space and we can really help strengthen each others work. The big question for me is how the Government of Canada can more meaningfully enter the space without feeling like it needs to be in the driver seat/brand it.
Digital Government Research Project:
I am definitely feeling lost in the sheer immensity of this research project right now. Also, it is so easy to get pulled away from it by things that seem more urgent. To better protect my time I put a bunch of slots in my schedule for the next week.
I want to work more collaboratively on this research so I scheduled an open brainstorming slot next week (Wednesday March 13th 11–12) and anyone who is interested in joining me virtually to discuss this research can, just send me a tweet or message me here.
My friend Meghan Hellstern #rockstar suggested I look at finding ways to document more of the research process. To this end, I am going to aim to write a quick week summary of what I have learned #weeknotes. Hopefully that will force me to organize my thoughts and also create space for others to enter into the conversation more easily.
I also had a chance to chat with Mary Francoli today, she is the Associate Dean and Director, Arthur Kroeger College of Public Affairs at Carelton who does a lot of amazing research on open and digital government and works on the independent reporting mechanism for the Open Government Partnership. We ended up having a good conversation about the difference between digital government and open government and she highlighted how digital government (which focuses on using technology for improved service delivery) gets mixed up with open government which focuses on transparency, accountability and participation. I look forward to more conversations with Mary as my research starts to take shape.
Municipal Innovation Pilot Project (MIPP):
We are still really needing to flush out the business plan for this projects so that groups can start moving resources and we can turn them into people to work on the Open Resource Exchange. Business plans are not my strength but luckily there are much smarter brains than mine working on this. Today I booked a working meeting for later this week to focus on getting the plan to the finish line.
Team:
Our team is still coming together after the falls re-organization and after moving into our new office this week. To help us gel, today I booked weekly team meetings. I figure Monday morning is a good time because it lets us set ourselves for the week.
Other:
French is so important for working in the Federal Government. Having grown up in Southern Ontario, I never developed good french (or grammar). I have been fortunate to had the opportunity to do the Explore program twice but my french has a long way to go. Today I booked the french test required to get into the french training program available to public servants. Finally, I am one step closer to improving my french!
Wow… so that ended up being a lot longer than I expected. Moving forward I will try to keep it shorter, likely more point form.
