• UK | Apps for elephants
  After the iPhone apps story by BBC, more thoughts on what should government do when it comes to using new tools and foster technical innovation:

• EU | Building applications to foster citizen engagement
  Mobile platforms and applications are becoming very important in empowering citizens and even giving them new opportunities of engagement.
  Bengt Feil describes how Google is introducing App Inventor, a tool that would make easier to build Android apps, and explores possible developments for citizen engagement: 

• EU | What happens when the Euroblogger becomes a reporter...
  

  When the Euroblogger enters unknown territory, she or he doesn't know whether he or she is walking into a gold mine or a mine field - and my participation at the EPP Summit ahead of the June European Council meeting was such a move into unknown territory.

  Euroblogger Julien Frisch was invited to follow the European People's party summit and liveblogged the event. Frisch had previously been active part in the debate on whether bloggers should get accreditation to EU institutions (a topic we explored on our blog, too) and has a lot of interesting reflections, an exploration on the differences between blogging and journalism and how both of them can look at the EU work and tell people about that:

• Spain | The blogosphere in white coats
  Patients and medical walk through hospitals and surgery office, but also on the Internet. The Spanish network of medical blogs is one of the world's liveliest: patients seek additional information to learn more about symptoms and doctors share experiences, new techniques and studies. The blogs explore a range of topics, from rare diseases to government actions.
  "Some networks will always faster than can go the classic systems of management and organization" said Rafel Cofino, one of the most active bloggers. For these and other reason the most important bloggers in this field and the Fundación Gaspar Casal decided to organize the First Congress of the Health Blogosphere in Madrid. The conference will take place next June 14th and will explore this part of the blogosphere with teachers, experts in scientific communication and doctors.

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...