De-comissioning this blog

Hi all. I just wanted to let anybody who's still reading this blog know that I'll be continuing to share learning opportunities and events on our IGGI blog from now on, and leaving this site up for archival purposes.

Continue to the IGGI blog by clicking on this link.

Thanks for reading, and I hope you'll stay in touch!

Melissa

Meetup: Behavioural Economics

This was passed along to me by Tanya, one of our GovJammers. It strikes me as an interesting way to approach the observation stage in design thinking in a very hands-on and experimental environment.

Behavioural Economics meetup

When: Tuesday, September 17, 7-9pm
Where: Future Bakery & Cafe, Bloor & Brunswick Ave. in Toronto
RSVP: Register through Eventbrite.

Our next inter-gov meetup is this Thursday

In case you're not following on Twitter, or haven't joined IGGI yet, wanted to give people who still read this blog a head's up that our next meetup is this Thursday, September 5, starting after work at 5:30pm. Click here for all details, and to RSVP through Twitter.

Growing the core economy - an opportunity for co-production

Our friends at Social Innovation Generation (SiG) @ MaRS have a great event coming up this upcoming Monday evening featuring Lucie Stephens, who will talk about co-production as a new way of thinking about public services. Here's the invitation we were sent.

When: Monday July 15, 2013, 5:30-7:00pm
Where: MaRS, Auditorium, 101 College Street, Toronto
Cost: $25 - register through Eventbrite

Social Innovation Generation is very pleased to invite you to the next event in our Inspiring Action for Social Impact Series, to hear Lucie Stephens, the Head of Co-production in the Social Policy team at nef (new economics foundation). Join us on Monday, July 15, as Lucie describes co-production as a new way of thinking about public services.

Public services face great challenges: increasing demand, rising expectations, entrenched social problems and reduced budgets. Reform is not enough to overcome these―radical innovation is needed, and must move from the margins to the mainstream.

But what should inform this radical innovation?

Co-production has the potential to revolutionize how we deliver health, education, policing and other services, making them more effective, efficient and sustainable.

What is co-production? Co-production has been described as the means of delivering public services in an equal and reciprocal relationship between professionals, people using services, their families and their neighbours. Where beneficial activities are co-produced in this way, both services and neighbourhoods become far more effective agents of change. (Download Co-Production: A manifesto for growing the core economy by nef to learn more.)

Come learn more as Lucie presents this innovative methodology.

Hope to see you there!

Last day to register - Human-Centered Design course by IDEO/Acumen

Thought some of you might be interested in this Human-Centered Design (HCD) for Social Innovation course being offered for free this summer by IDEO and Acumen. The registration deadline is today.

The course is five weeks long, and will take about 4-5 hours per week of your time. HCD is at the heart of design thinking, the same methodology we loosely used during GovJam (and based on our Jammers' post-event feedback, it sounds like people wanted to learn more about the process, so here's a good opportunity!)

Course Description

"Human-Centered Design for Social Innovation is a five-week course that will introduce you to the concepts of human-centered design and help you use the design process to create innovative, effective, and sustainable solutions for social change. No prior design experience necessary."

To register, you need to sign up with at least one other person and form a team; ideally a team has 4-5 people on it.

I hope some of you are able to take advantage of this opportunity!

Next inter-gov meetup: Wed. June 26

I just sent out invites to Jam participants for the next inter-gov meetup. Venue: Elephant & Castle on King Street.

Two ways to RSVP:

• RSVP to the invite I sent
• RSVP with your Twitter account via the Tweetvite link

Reply below if you don't have Twitter & I missed you on the invite. Hope to see you there!

Post-Jam Surveys!

I'm not sure how many of you are still checking this blog (or our @CreativeGov Twitter account), but I sent out two surveys to your inboxes recently.

• The first was from Katrin, who led GovJam Berlin. She's also a PhD candidate, and is doing some targeted research to public sector employees. If you're from the public sector and want to participate, click here to fill out the survey. It took me about 15 minutes to complete.
• The second was from me, and links you to a quick 5-10 minute survey to gather a few thoughts around how GovJam Toronto went. It also asks you to RSVP to a post-Jam reflections meeting scheduled for next Wed., June 26, 9-10am. We need your response from the survey to know whether to send you the meeting appointment, so here's a link to the survey in case you missed it. You can also email me if you don't want to fill out the survey but want to attend the meeting.

I look forward to reading your thoughts, and seeing some of you next week!

What to bring to the Jam

Mostly, bring yourself, an open mind, and ability to build (and not talk)... but you will need the following.

Required (at least one of each item required per team)

• Laptop (Note: we will have 5 or 6 government-issued laptops on hand and will provide these to teams for the WiFi connection.. but if you have any fancy programs/apps you need access to in order to build prototypes, please bring them!) tablet, phone, flash drive, etc.
• Cords, cables and dongles for charging/uploading your work
• Camera for photos, video recording (a tripod, if you have one, is helpful, too)
• Pens, markers, sketch book or notebooks

Don’t forget!

• Water bottles, reusable mugs/cups (go green!)
• Business cards

Prototyping Materials

What is a Prototype? A prototype serves to provide specifications for a real, working system rather than a theoretical one. For example, a prototype can be a physical item (new device, adaptations of existing things); a recording of actors showing how a service might be executed; a clickable interface; a paper storyboard/sketch where test users can touch or indicate what they want to do.

So bring materials like...

• Old magazines and newspapers
• Legos, Play-Doh, Barbies (toys make great tools for prototyping!)
• Hats, glasses, wigs, clothes, and everyday items (also great tools for prototyping! Think about role play and acting out a user experience...)
• Aluminum foil, plastic wrap
• Popsicle sticks
• Cardboard boxes, box cutter, scissors
• Markers, pens, crayons (things for sketching and drawing)
• Containers of all shapes and sizes, any material
• Velcro tape, glue guns, wire, tie wraps, safety pins (things for attaching parts)
• Whatever you can think of - be creative!

Other things to do ASAP

Sign up for GovJam HQ!
If you haven't already, please create an account with the GovJam Headquarters. You will need to log into this site, join the Toronto Jam, and create project teams here. You'll also upload (early and often!) all your sketches, notes, photos, and other supporting documents/materials to this page.

Sign into GovJam's ideas platform & keep a tab open for it!
You should be sent  an invitation to join the site by tomorrow morning. Sign in and put in a brief description of your proposed solution to your challenge question, once you have it. (Tip: Use the Project Brief info to describe your solution - it should be complete by end of day tomorrow).

We'll use this site during the Jam, and after the Jam, to continue building on the prototypes teams come up with.

That's it! See you all again soon.

IMPORTANT: sign up for GovJam HQ

GovJam.org is open for registration

Sign up and join our Toronto Jam through the GovJam HQ website.

This is where everyone across the world will be uploading sketches, photos, and other supporting materials for their prototypes. Bookmark it, and upload early & often to the site throughout the Jam.

Participants at GovJam Toronto will also sign up for OPIN's ideas platform. You will receive instructions at the kick-off tonight.

See you all soon!

Get ready to Jam!

We're one week away 'til the first ever GovJam Toronto! My life is lists this week... organizers are caught up in confirming details and keeping track of lots of little things to get ready.

What can you, the participants, do to prepare?

• Read the GovJamTO Guidebook. It's not very long, and full of helpful information for the Jam. (Download it by clicking on "File" and then "Download.")
• Start tweeting about it. Follow the global hashtag, #GGovJam, and please also attach the #GovJamTO hashtag when talking specifically about Toronto's event.
• RSVP for the after-party. The after-party follows the last day of the Jam on Thursday, June 6. We need your RSVP to know where to have it (either a small, cozy corner of a pub, or bigger space in a pub... [rest assured, it will be a pub. :p]). So RSVP to the Tweetvite invitation, or email me to let me know you're planning to come.

Participants will have received an email from me earlier today (Tuesday), but if not, check your junk mail - I always forget that when including multiple links (and BCC:ing all for privacy), some email filters might pick up the email as spam.

That's it for now - look forward to meeting everyone!

Edited 05/29: Less acronyms & more to the point. And sorry for all the hashtags! 

Mixing it up #w2pYYZ styles

It was great meeting everyone tonight at our first ever #w2pYYZ mixer. Special shout-out to @richardpietro for pulling the reservation together at the Elephant & Castle pub, who were very accommodating and friendly hosts!

If you missed tonight's informal meetup, or want to get in touch face to face before GovJam happens, be sure to follow the #w2pYYZ hashtag on Twitter, or JoinIGGI.

Small update on GovJam

We've had an awesome response from every level of government - we have only three tickets left for public servants through our Eventbrite registration! (We had a feeling there was some appetite for inter-governmental collaboration & getting cool stuff done... :))

Organizers will be in touch in the next few weeks with GovJam Toronto participants & facilitators with information about the event, some background info to get in the spirit of the Jam, and to prepare you for the event. We're looking forward to meeting everybody!