In the coming weeks, O'Reilly Media will publish Open Government, a collection of new essays on how technology can make DC more transparent and efficient. Today, O'Reilly released a sneak preview (PDF) of the book that features the first eight chapters. My chapter is included; its entire text is below.

Back in October, the Director of National Intelligence killed a program called BRIDGE. (I've written about BRIDGE here before.) As such a vocal advocate of BRIDGE with a financial interest in its success, my bias is clear, but for whatever that biased opinion is worth, BRIDGE's death was the biggest government IT failure of 2009.

I've been chewing over the CRS's Twitter report this afternoon. Spurred on by a case of Twitter burnout, I thought I might calm the fears of ashamed netroots writers: "out-tweeting" someone is no big deal. One of my followers tweets all day long about why I should buy an inflatable boat. Nobody listens.

So while GOP congressmen may be tweeting a lot, is anybody listening? They have lots of followers. But does that matter? Are those followers paying attention? Are these representatives using Twitter to their advantage--to attract and sustain supporters and to help constituents--like Whole Foods and Southwest Airlines have used it to improve customer support and add a human face to their brand? Or are they the DC equivalent of the inflatable boat guy, incessantly linking to press releases that nobody ever reads?

Apple has taken heat recently for blocking seemingly benign and, in some case very helpful, iPhone apps submissions--most notably Google's Voice app.

Now, an independent developer is claiming that his app, iSinglePayer, has been blocked by Apple for being "politically charged." iSinglePayer is a sort of "lobby Congress for health care reform via my phone" wizard: it shows you US and worldwide healthcare statistics, determines your senators and representatives via GPS, shows the campaign contributions they've received from the health care industry, and lets you easily call their congressional offices.

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.:

GOSCON--the Government Open Source Conference, typically hosted in Portland, Oregon (a Mecca of the open source software movement)--is heading to DC this fall in order to draw more of the government community. Originally scheduled for this summer, the date was pushed back, ostensibly on the Obama Administration's recommendation. Today, a firm date was announced: November 5.

It'll be just one day, meaning two things:

-Low registration cost. Just $50 for government employees, $150 for everyone else (and cheaper all around if you register early).
-Highly concentrated. The day will include sessions for both managers and geeks, with an "Open Technology Forum" that sounds vaguely like a group hacking session.

A few months ago, Governor Schwarzenegger used his Twitter account to request radical ideas for solving California's budget crisis.

This request must have gotten a good response, because the tweet has spawned its own Web site for citizens' policy ideas, with a full set of hash tag standards.

The site was launched on August 25. It aggregates all tweets with the #myidea4CA hashtag into a Digg-style vote up/vote down list of ideas. Like Obama's first virtual town hall, the most popular ideas regard marijuana legalization. (Given the recent high-level attention marijuana policy has received in California, this shouldn't be a surprise--nor should it be discarded as a comical foible of online democracy.)

Back in August, we organized a few get-togethers in New York for those interested in the mayor's BigApps contest. During those sessions, we dug around and found that the city already publishes a LOT of data: GIS maps, 311 information, event calendars, crime data...

Among Barack Obama's more memorable pledges upon entering the White House was to create "an unprecedented level of openness in Government." This past week, two reports graded the Administration's commitment to this pledge thus far. The grades are mediocre.

OpenTheGovernment.org's 40+ page report (PDF) touches on digital issues, such as declassification of emails and the Open Government Directive project, but mainly sticks to issues like FOIA, FISA, executive privilege, and whistleblower protection.

On Wednesday, the Electronic Privacy Information Center published a smaller yet more digitally-focused report (PDF). The grades range from a C+ on civil liberty matters like the PATRIOT Act and REAL ID, to an A- for medical privacy.