Combining social media and public policy, I'll be in heaven

Okay, I'm excited.

Next week I'll be speaking at

the first ever Open Government & Innovations Conference. The conference, facilitated by the Department of Defense, is being touted as an opportunity to collaboratively explore how government can use—and is already using—social media tools and social software to achieve President Obama’s call for government transparency, participation, collaboration and innovation.

I'll be joining policy wonks like Vivek Kundra, the country's Chief Information Officer and  Aneesh Chopra, America's Chief Technology Officer, as well as one of my all time heroes, David Weinberger o0f Cluetrain Manifesto fame, as well as visionary Tim O’Reilly, plus dozens of other social media and transparency experts to share ideas and case studies about how federal, state and local government can use emerging technologies to create a more efficient and effective government.

I'll be leading a panel on Wednesday on how to measure transparency and social media with Liana Evans of Serengeti Communications and Andy Krzmarzick of The Graduate School.

Hope to see you there, If not, I'll definitely be writing about it.