This was the best photo I took at Open Government and Innovation. Note the slide behind Vivek Kundra showing Pres. Obama looking at the newly-launched (and very cool) Federal IT Dashboard.

I’ll post a blog write-up soon.

My grand plans to live blog Open Government and Innovation dwindled within minutes when I saw two Twitter boards behind the speakers displaying the live Twitter stream for hashtag #ogi. Live crowdsourcing is mesmerizing. Trends are quickly visible. Insights are captured. Judgments about speaker's presos are instantly rendered.

I’m liveblogging today’s Open Government and Innovations Conference in DC. Key players in Obama’s open government directive are speaking, including Aneesh Chopra, Federal CTO and Vivek Kundra, Federal CIO. Also Tim O’Reilly, credited with coining the term Web 2.0 and David Weinberger. Also looking forward to seeing local Gov 2.0 celebs Mark Drapeau, Peter Corbett and Maxine Teller. Read on for more about a new direction for this blog…

Authenticity, as I’ve written countless times, is the key ingredient of successful blogging and Twittering. It’s also key to a successful e-newsletter. Authenticity means being genuine, trustworthy and credible. But beware… don’t fake it. Here’s an example of fake authenticity from an editor’s note in an e-newsletter I received recently:

"I haven’t been sleeping well lately, but I’ve been thinking about you a lot… "

Yeah, right. 

Another blast from the past: originally published on July 25, 2003. Interestingly, copywriter Michael Fortin said the same thing recently in a post titled: Don’t Be Transparent, Be Authentic Instead.

In the 2nd anniversary issue of WordBiz Report I included a note to readers that opined: "Authenticity is key. And by that I mean authentic voice. I often struggle to find just the right tone. When I do, you respond… " To be candid, I didn’t