Changing Government Culture the Open Source Way

Can an entrenched bureaucracy, encumbered by a rigid culture and public records compliance adapt open source ways to collaborate more effectively? Is it like pulling teeth just to get people to share ideas? Is that devil's advocate bringing your team down? If you want results, try something different. Use open communications and transparency with your team. You might be surprised how these open source pillars will create the ownership and accountability to achieve your desired results.

Imagine you came from a world were the freedom to share and collaborate were the way your organization survived. Can you apply this recipe to government?

That was the challenge Jonathan Minter, chief technology officer of information technology for the City of Raleigh, and I were faced with as we presented at the NC Digital Government Summit. Our goal was simple--spice things up. We wanted to show an audience of government employees from across the state of North Carolina new ways of collaborating.