My favorite April Fools Day item — so far: Welcome GSA administrator nominee Shatner

My favorite April Fools’ Day item — so far, anyway…

William Shatner

OBAMA POISED TO NAME SHATNER TO GSA POST

April 1, 2009: In a move designed to solidify the bond between Hollywood and Washington, President Obama appeared poised today to name actor William Shatner as the next Administrator of the General Services Administration. An unidentified spokesman speaking on the condition of anonymity stated, “The President believes that Mr. Shatner’s impressive career in space exploration and elsewhere has prepared him well to strengthen GSA’s place in the government management universe. Although not technically an American citizen, Shatner did tell On the Shelf, “I have. Paid. All. Of my taxes.” When asked about his qualifications for the position of Administrator, Shatner seemed confident. “I have boldly gone where no man has gone before in getting people great deals on air fare, car rentals, and hotels. I see no reason why this can’t be put to use for the government.” When asked to comment on the possible appointment, former Administrator Lurita Doan said, “I think that the Administration really hit a bullseye with this appointment.”

Hat tip… this came from Larry Allen, president of the Coalition of Government Procurement . Too funny!

In our e-mail thread, Federal Times reporter Elise Castelli said: “He does have excellent negotiation skills and experience with travel policy. So it really might not be a bad choice. Except it may exacerbate any NASA rivalry. No drama Obama may not like that.”

Ah — team of rivals, right?

Government 2.0 Camp — the un-conference

I mentioned that I was at Government 2.0 Camp over the weekend. This was the inaugural event of the Government 2.0 Club.

Yesterday on Federal News Radio 1500 AM’s Daily Debrief with Chris Dorobek and Amy Morris , we spoke with Mark Drapeau, who is a fellow at the Center for Technology and National Security Policy at the National Defense University and one of the organizers of Government 2.0 Camp. We talked to him about how things went around the government 2.0 camp fire. You can hear that conversation here.

We have been talking about this for some time. And we have spoken to the other organizers. Just after the announcement of Government 2.0 Camp, we spoke to Peter Corbett , the CEO of iStategy Labs — hear that conversation here — and just before Government 2.0 Camp started, we spoke to Maxine Teller of MiXT Media Strategies — hear that conversation here .

And on Tuesday, April 7 in the 10a half-hour on Federal News Radio 1500 AM’s Government IT Solutions Spotlight, we will talk to all four of the conference organizers. In addition to the people listed above, we will also be joined by Jeffrey Levy, director of Web communications inEPA’s Office of Public Affairs. (We recently spoke to Levy as part of Federal News Radio’s Meet the Innovator series about the government’s Government Social Media SubCouncil.

In brief, my general take on the Government 2.0 Camp…

Unfortunately I wasn’t able to attend all of both days, but… the time I was there was very valuable. The un-conference idea was just fascinating — and works with this group of people who are collaborators collaborating about collaboration. These are people who are inclined to participate — and are passionate. And I’m not sure if I’ve ever been in a room and seen so many laptops.

One of the most fascinating parts of the session was right at the start of both days when everybody introduced themselves. Each person had to either offer up a session — or they had to offer three words about why they were there. (Mine where: Just do it!) It was so interesting to see the eclectic mix of people — and ideas.

The sessions I got to attend:

• How HHS used social media in the peanut recall
• 10 recommendations to Team Obama re: transparency… see a video of session organizer Andrew Rasiej of the Personal Democracy Forum talking about the conclusions… see that video here.
• White House new media czar Macon Phillips talk about the White House and new media. More on that to come.

Over all, it was a weekend well spent. A public congratulations to the organizers. I look forward to what comes from the Government 2.0 Club.