Apartment613

Here at Apartment613 we are getting pretty excited about ChangeCamp this weekend. There is now a full roster of attendees (but you can still get on the waiting list), the hall is booked at City Hall, the food is ordered and proposed sessions are starting to show up.

In advance of the event this weekend we caught up with Mark Faul (@citymark on twitter and an organizer of ChangeCamp Ottawa) for his take on ChangeCamp, his expectations for the day and why he got involved in the ChangeCamp project.

@apartment613: What are your expectations for ChangeCamp Ottawa?
@citymark: Through ChangeCamp I hope we can bring together a variety of political representatives, private sector thought leaders, and constituents into a forum that encourages open dialogue, and more participatory and transparent governments.  The event itself will hopefully lead to new connections and relationships that will kick-start a series of ongoing conversations and actions about how to improve the relationship between governments and the public.

@apartment613: What are you bringing to the organization of ChangeCamp Ottawa? What got you involved?
@citymark: I work for the City of Ottawa, and when I first heard of the event, I thought that foremost it was my responsibility to help raise awareness and participation from City of Ottawa staff members & elected officials. I firmly believe that while the City provides excellent services and information, this event is an opportunity to enrich the way the City works with and for the public.

@apartment613: What’s the big idea behind ChangeCamp? What has changed that requires we reconsider citizenship/ engagement? Why is this important now?
@citymark: People have always been engaged in the political process, but in the social media/web 2.0/Obama era of online participatory engagement, the possibilities and expectations are higher.  When you look at younger generations, who have been raised with Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, and other dynamic ways to interact online, people are increasingly expecting this level of engagement, transparency, and interactivity from society.  The possibility of mass collective participation is already a reality, the technology exists – enacting this new paradigm will require transformative organizational shifts in business processes.  Governments need to face this reality – the shift is happening, it is being demanded and expected, and the real leaders in innovation will embrace these changes and run with them.

Editor’s Note: Unless the technology gets the best of us, we’ll be doing some live-blogging at ChangeCamp this weekend and attending the sessions to report back to those of you who might not be able to make it. Check back here over the weekend/ next week or follow our twitter stream @apartment613 for updates.

You might also be interested in the ChangeCamp interview on CHUO’s Around the Block.