So we’re finally back in the UK ; – ( We had an amazing week in Washington with our hosts – the guys from NAPA.

The last few days were pretty action packed – with a whirlwind tour of the OpenGov scene, as part of the documentary I’ve been making which I’ve been calling “OpenGov the movie”.  OK – it may well be an OTT title, but it kinda does what it says on the tin – i.e. it’s a film about the OpenGov scene in the US – designed to give an insight into what’s happened since Obama’s OpenGov memo last February.

As part of the making the documentary, I met a whole bunch of interesting and inspirational people in the DC scene, including:
- Beth Noveck @ Office of Science and Technology Policy
- Jake @ the Sunlight Foundation
- Steve@ Deloitte
- Tina @ DHS (head of Ideas Factory)
- Allan @ NextGov
- Dustin @ City of Manor (Texas)
- Lena @ NAPA Vice President

Perhaps the common link of all my meetings and interviews was how nice, open and committed to the OpenGov cause  they all were.  I think one of the biggest drivers of this continued enthusiasm has been the leadership given by Obama’s Open Gov memo and the continued leadership of Vivek Kundra and his team.  Definitely a key lesson to anyone (policy teams / governments) is that if you want to make something happen like an OpenGov agenda, then set a clear vision + make sure you’ve got strong leadership.

The other great thing was that everyone knew who we (Delib) were – and liked the National Dialogue work we’ve been doing with NAPA – which was obviously great to hear!  It’s always nice to have fans of your work . . .