The most compelling argument for Governments to adopt Cloud Computing is Open Government.

Migrating the legacy data-centre to the Cloud will happen but will move slowly due to IT complexities and the usual resistance to outsourcing, whereas in contrast the Cloud is ideal for public-facing web 2.0 community sites, achieved through enterprise content systems with social media capabilities.

Accessing these on a SaaS basis will enable agencies to meet directives to make themselves more transparent and to enable enhanced levels of public participation, and demonstrate the quick wins that the directives ask for.

Open Government Canada
The USA is pioneering the charge with their thought leadership of Open Government policies, and also those for a supporting 'Cloud-first' procurement strategy, and other nations will follow on quickly.

Canada announced their Open Government Resolution in September 2010, and our forthcoming Open Government Canada conference will detail how the program can be accelerated through these Cloud computing best practices.

http://OpenGovernmentCanada.com

This will include a review of Cloud services like MS Azure, applications like Sharepoint and Dynamics CRM, and how these can be tailored to meet the needs of specific Canadian Government policies and departments.

Unleashing Social Innovation
Most notably it will focus on 'Social Innovation' - A cutting edge policy program currently being researched by the Canadian Government, highlighting how Social Innovation is defined through the sweet spot where business innovation overlaps with community innovation.

Currently Canada is scoring a 'D for Innovation', and falling behind in the global IT industry, and as this other report they're also scoring a D for Social Innovation too.

The opportunity Cloud computing presents is a multi-tiered benefit where adoption can help fuel growth of a high-powered ICT industry, and this platform can be used by each agency to become more Open, and in a manner that helps grow more innovation.

Our program will focus on different departments and agencies, and how each might play a role in unleashing nation-wide Social Innovation through compliance with the Open Government resolution.