The Government as Community Curator

Justin Houk has worked for the Metro,the Portland area regionally elected government, for eleven years. During that time he has focused on geographic data creation and outreach on projects ranging from natural resource protection to population forecasts. Metro coordinates and standardizes many data sources from it's member governments and helps governments purchase technology though regional consortia.

Justin is very active in the Portland community and involved in several technology blogs. He has been one of the organizers of WhereCampPDX for the past two years and helped to convene a conference called OpenGov West in Seattle in 2010. He has recently interned with and written posts for ReadWriteWeb. He currently is a contributor at ProgrammableWeb.com where he writes about open data and government APIs.
It's not enough to simply open data and have an API. Government needs to get better at fostering communities around all of it's services. To do this it needs to divest itself of some control and invest in communities that are already working. Curating existing communities around data and services is critical for future success. Can we create a joiner government that supports civic participation at all levels?

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• ignitegov
• goscon
• opengov
• gov2.0
• justin houk