Government 2010 is a conference that will be held live and streamed online on October 22nd.

The event will focus on how Web 2.0 technologies – like social media, cloud computing and open source technologies – are impacting the process of ‘doing government’. In short the event will try to unpick the whole idea of so-called Government 2.0 – and it’s free to view online from 9am to 5pm on October 22nd.

The event is a co-production between Quadriga Consulting Ltd and Switch New Media. Lead sponsor is IBM.

Jeffrey Peel of Quadriga Consulting commented: “Switch New Media is on our doorstep but also happens to be one of the leading streaming outfits in the UK. They have streamed content from the G20 Summit to the National Digital Inclusion Conference. If anybody can stream big, high profile events these guys can.”

Diarmaid Lynch of Switch New Media said: “Quadriga Consulting has a great reputation in the ICT and government sectors – providing consulting services to technology clients with a focus on the public sector, and public sector bodies themselves. It seemed obvious that we should get together to create our own events focused on subjects that interest us. This complements work that we each undertake for our own client bases.”


There are a variety of themes to the conference that will be kicked off by an address by Peter Kellner – President of the all-Internet polling company YouGov. Kellner will argue that a sea-change is happening in society, with traditional media ebbing away and social media replacing it. The result, as far as government is concerned, is that social expectations – especially among the young – are changing. The legacy method of delivering services based on clunking old client-server architectures just doesn’t cut it. Hence the emergence of a new breed of ‘citizens doing it for themselves’ type web applications such as TheyWorkForYou.com – from mySociety.org


Indeed, on the subject of mySociety, Tom Steinberg, its founder, will also be making a keynote presentation at Government 2010. He wooed audiences recently at the Gov 2.0 Summit in Washington DC. And mySociety web sites proved very useful for journalists during the MP expenses scandal – TheyWorkForYou.com handily reveals how often money grabbing MPs actually turn up for debates or ask parliamentary questions. And it’s built on open data, provided by government itself.


There will also be a session focused on Internet regulation – very handy given the publication of the Digital Britain report and Stephen Timms’ recent announcement that he’s going to tax fixed telephone lines to support improved broadband penetration. That session will be chaired by Dominique Lazanski – a lady who cut her teeth in Silicon Valley and now argues that governments should keep their snouts out of the Internet trough.


A session on the Internet and Social Inclusion will be chaired by Tony Collins- Executive Editor of Computer Weekly. There will be other sessions focused on eConsultation – the panel will include Tom Watson MP, former Cabinet Office Digital Minister; Data Mashups (chaired by 4ip’s Ewan McIntosh); Government Contact Centres (Chaired by Jeff Peel of Quadriga Consulting), and Social Media (Chaired by Political Blogger Iain Dale). Other keynotes include Bill McCluggage – Deputy HM Government CIO; William Heath - Founder of Kable, discussing identity management; and Adam Afriyie, Shadow Innovation Minister.


Further information about Government 2010 is available at http://g2010.co.uk To watch the web stream pre-registration is required but is completely free. There are also a small number of places available to attend the conference at the Grange St Pauls Hotel. Full details on the site.