From the not-so-glamorous corner of government comes a positive sign that it is getting smarter about technology. The VA has launched an innovation competition for its employees, letting them submit ideas for improving the department's work. According to the press release, "The platform enables unprecedented levels of collaboration and comment, and even allowed participants to "vote" on the ideas they thought would have the greatest, far-reaching impact. The VA innovation competition will create a new channel for best ideas to rocket right to the attention of the President and Secretary Shinseki."

Wow!

You could be excused for being a bit exasperated by all the Gov2.0 news from the last few months. Those behind it deserve credit for generating so much attention for a topic as wonkish as government IT. But, phew: it's been overwhelming. Gartner's Andrea DiMaio explains:

Barcamps and govcamps are now happening around the world, from Canada to the US, from Germany to the North East of Italy to the UK. More and more governments state that opening government data is their priority, from the U.S: to the UK, from Australia to Belgium. Application contests (or mashup or idea contests) to engage citizen developers in creating new and valuable applications that leverage government data pop up from Belfast to Washington, from London to Brussels, from New York to the Flanders.

So far this year, at least seven new conferences have sprouted up to promote government technology, and that's just in the U.S.:

I'm in DC this weekend for the Gov2.0 Unconference, a semi-formal get-together to discuss all sorts of topics in the government/politics/technology/transparency milieu: mobile platforms for emergency management; how to engage citizens through social media; technology options for health care reform; digital privacy; tech tools for state legislatures; and on and on.

I'm finding, however, that this conference fit the pattern of most others: the sessions are okay, but they seldom yield any breakthroughs. Instead, the value of the conference comes from the break-time conversations that evolve by having all of these people in the same place. And this time, it is especially interesting given the people that are here...