A few other tidbits in the post.One was that Pogue shared a cab ride in Florida with John Suffolk, , who was one of four CIOs from around the world who attended and spoke at the Summit.The petition site is quite cool. Check it out at . (And, an aside, Steve Kelman was just in Number 10 Downing Street. Read his about it.) You can also read what the international CIOs said .The other Pogue item was this one:He sure didn't seem sick.We're glad he made it. He is informative and very entertaining. If you have a chance to see him speak, it is well worth it.
Cabinet Office CIO for the United Kingdom
petitions.pm.gov.uk/blog posthere
I mentioned earlier that NYT tech columnist David Pogue was one of the most popular speakers at FCW's Government CIO Summit, if for no other reason he gave us a whole slew of cool technologies to check out.
His column today is about the summit's agenda -- Web 2.0. His general take: We ain't seen nothin' yet.
The bottom line is that Web 2.0 is still in its infancy. There are so many other ways that we could save time, money, hassle — if only we had the right information from other people like us.
Get started, entrepreneurs. You're living in an exciting time.
Cabinet Office CIO for the United Kingdom
Only yesterday, I shared a cab with a man who serves as an information officer in Britain. He told me about a popular petition site there, a centralized, government-run place where people start and maintain petitions. Some of the issues under discussion are minor (repair a pothole) and others are huge (go to war), but anyone can weigh in.
The results are nonbinding and unmoderated — there's nothing to stop somebody from voting more than once under assumed names, for example. But it gets the lawmakers' attention, it brings issues to the public and it serves as a barometer of public opinion.
petitions.pm.gov.uk/blog posthere
It seems to me, though, that we haven't even scratched the surface. We've picked the low-hanging fruit, but there are dozens or hundreds of huge Web 2.0 ideas that have yet to materialize.
I was thinking about this — a LOT — as I lay in bed last week, sicker than I'd been in years. I hadn't eaten for two days, and I was nervous about being well enough to travel to a speaking engagement the next day. (Is it just my imagination, or are the bugs getting a lot nastier these days?)
NEXT STORY: Wisdom of crowds -- IRMCO edition