An interesting affair….

Almost everyday my inbox is filled with information or invitations to attend conferences and events on digital engagement, e-government, social media, local government and everything web 2.0. There’s some interesting conferences and events coming up on my calendar and I thought I’d share one with my readers.

Digital Democracy has been working for two years with the Burmese community in Thailand,Bangladesh, India, and China as well as with resettled Burmese populations in Indiana, Washington, DC and New York. D2 staff have published and presented research on Burma with an emphasis on technology use by displaced Burmese groups. In addition to Burmaʼs borders, we have conducted research in Cuba, Armenia, Mali, Zimbabwe,South Africa, and Israel.

This interview covers the following issues and questions:

Steven talks about his most recent project – Neighbourhood to neighbour engagement.
Steven talks about how local authorities get involved within this online neighbourhood.
Citizen to citizen engagement and value.
Does the local authority make themselves known as an authority to the public within the online community?
Mix of email and online forum.
What are the main tools that you use? Groupserver.org
People need to choose their own technology.
What does it mean to you to have an open government?

I met Peter while I was in NYC attending the Participation Camp (PCamp) and Personal Democracy Forum 09. Its funny how it might seem that I just bumped into him on the street but actually we were on our way back from PCamp and walking towards the subway when I asked Peter if I could do a quick video interview with him. And he was kind enough to agree to do so eventhough the rain was starting to pour ! (Thank you Peter!). We talked about alot of different things.

So how does it feel to be apart of the “biggest, most diverse, politics and technology conference in the world?” (@misif) Well, let’s find out…. A big thanks for @FutureGov for giving me this brilliant opportunity!

Let me just start of by saying, this is possibility the most important and impressive conference I have ever attended. This doesn’t just extend to the fact I had my long time dream come true, which is coming to New York City but also down to everything and anything that had to do with the conference.

So as all of you might have already known, a few months ago I was given this absolutely wonderful opportunity to attend a conference in the US of A by the wonderful people at FutureGov …