Light moments from the Gov 2.0 Summit

The Gov 2.0 Summit conference in Washington opened this week with a serious look at how federal agencies are using Web 2.0 technologies to promote transparency, public engagement and improved customer service. It featured senior White House officials that included federal Chief Technology Officer Aneesh Chopra and federal Chief Information Officer Vivek Kundra, as well as top officials from several agencies.

Even so, a few speakers chose to go in a different direction. Sean Greene, associate administrator for investment at the Small Business Administration, started his presentation with an apology for not bringing a Microsoft Power Point presentation. Nearly all the other speakers were using Power Point as a backdrop for their remarks.

Greene offered this explanation: “If power corrupts, then Power Point corrupts absolutely,” Greene joked. “I said that once at a Microsoft conference. You could hear a pin drop.”

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Although the conference was mostly devoid of question-and-answer sessions, Clay Johnson, former director of Sunlight Labs, was a featured speaker on stage whose role was to question Sanjeev Bhagowalia, deputy associate administrator for the General Services Administration's Office of Citizen Services and Innovative Technologies.

Johnson asked, “I didn’t get to ask you, who would win in a foot race between Aneesh Chopra and Vivek Kundra?” Johnson asked Bhagowalia.