February 15, 2010

Rewired State: 2010

Hello from Rewired State, it’s been a while, but we’re back.

So much to announce:

2010: The plan
National Hack The Government Day 2
Rewired State: DotGovLabs Hackday
Rewired State: Justice and Home Affairs Hack Day
Rewired State: Culture

2010: The plan

2009 was pretty incredible. We started with the public sector still getting their knickers in a twist over Twitter, without a clue about data, and ended it with Tim Berner’s Lee being appointed data tzar and launching data.gov.uk.

We were very close to putting down our weapons and retiring to a safe distance, but then we remembered just how far we still have to go. There are still problems, such as billions being spent on failing IT projects. There was also a problem which we seem to help create: the undervaluing of developers. Data has helped show the power, but there is more to be done before that power is fully utilized.

So we have three main aims:

Get developers in there as part of the system, and paid for the work they do
Enable developers work with Government in a geek friendly way
Keep it all fun and positive and fluffy and nice

This weekend we will finally sort out rewiredstate.org, but we couldn’t hold all this back any longer, so here’s the lowdown on our upcoming events.

National Hack The Government Day: 20th March 2010 The Guardian Offices, King’s Place

All of this doesn’t mean that we’ll be leaving a good old Hack The Government Day behind. We’re very excited to announce it’s return, and soon!

You know what to expect from this, so we won’t explain further. As last time, we have a capcaity of 70 developers so usual drill, please send an email to info@rewiredstate.org with National Hack in the subject, who you are, whether you have been to a Rewired State event before, and if not - an example of something you have created.

Rewired State - DotGovLabs: 19th and 20th March 2010 The Guardian Offices

We need 30 developers for a two day piece of work with dotgovlabs (the innovation arm of the government supersites: businesslink.gov.uk, Directgov and NHS Choices). They have some problems that they’d like us to help solve.

We will be paying all developers, as this event is for specific work, and we believe that it is right. Don’t worry though, we’ll still keep it a fun and creative hack day environment.

You may notice that the second day clashes with the National Hack the Government Day, everyone will be in the same space, you just get 2 days instead of one

Let us know if you’re interested in this by emailing info@rewiredstate.org with the subject line dotgovlabs

Rewired State - Justice and Home Affairs: 11th March 2010 (Venue TBA but will be London SW1)

On the 11th March 2010 we propose to run an event using datasets from the Home Office and Ministry of Justice.

Ten developers will work on datasets in the morning and present their results to officials in the afternoon – where there will be an opportunity to discuss and exchange views on the presentations. Again, we will be paying developers.

As there is such limited space, this will be invite only. If, however, you are very keen on this, email us at info@rewiredstate.org explaining why.

Rewired State: Culture: 27th March 2010 (Venue TBA but will probs be London SW1)

Rewired State is working hand in hand with department for Culture, Media and Sport to run a Hack event. Here’s the blurb:

Rewired Culture has two strands - the first is a hackday bringing together data owners, data users, developers and people with ideas to see what they can create in a day. This builds on the very successful Rewired State events held in 2009.

The second strand is a halfday unconference style event starting at midday and running in parallel with the hackday for data owners, entrepreneurs, data users and communites to discuss business models, funding mechanisms and challenges.

We will be encouraging constant communication between the two strands because by the end of the day we want the event to have come up with a number of projects that people want to take forward on technical or business grounds, preferably both!

These chosen projects will then be used as exemplars for the Chief Executives and Chairs of the major national cultural institutions, broadcasters and key figures from the creative economy. They will be used as both an inspiration and a challenge to that community.

Look, it’s even on a proper .gov.uk and everything: http://www.culture.gov.uk/working_with_us/6644.aspx

Blimey, that’s quite a lot of stuff. We’re going to be working our arses off here. Hope you will come and enjoy what we’re up to.