European convention to discuss Web 2.0 projects

According to the Sunlight Foundation, a European workshop in March will promote ways in which governments can adopt Web 2.0 tools.

The European Commission’s ePractice portal is teaming up with some Europe-based social media consultants to host a workshop on how to promote user-driven and developed Web 2.0 tools to further public services. They will focus mainly on examples of what is being done currently to actually make government more responsive, as opposed to what might be done theoretically. The workshop will be held on March 16th in Brussels.

The organizers are responding to the dramatic rise over the past three years in user-driven, Web 2.0-style initiatives to make government more open, transparent and accountable. They rightfully point to TheyWorkForYou, the product of Sunlight’s friends at the United Kingdom-based MySociety.com, as a good example. The organizers see a growing gap between the innovation culture underlying these initiatives and government approaches to information technology innovation in public services.

More here.