Why Australia, you ask? That’s a very long way away from FutureGov’s main base in London isn’t it?

Well yes you’re right. But thanks to the wonders of the web and actual real life travel we’ve been working more closely with colleagues down under for some time and I felt it was about time I made the journey myself to check out the scene and put faces to names.

This November I will be presenting at the Gov 3.0: Investigating Web 3.0′s Impact on Public Sector Communication conference in Canberra 23-25 November 2011, where much of the 3.0 will be new to me as well so I’m looking forward to that.

But given Australia is a *mere* 24 hours away, I thought I would make the most of the trip and see how much I could pack into a week away. And kick off something exciting and new while I’m at it.

It was over two years ago that I first came across two Aussies – Allison Hornery and John Wells – who some of you met with when they spoke at CityCamp London.  They struck me back then as being determined, visionary, maybe a little bit crazy (they’re Aussies after all) and (very) enthusiastic types when it comes to government and social innovation.  Since then we’ve become firm friends hell bent on making change happen.

Photo thanks to Paul Clarke

It may come as no surprise then that we’ve been chipping away at some way of working together that combines our energies and experience, as well as a shared JFDI attitude (it’s been helpful that early morning Washington DC coincides with not-too-late evening Sydney, and vice versa.  And that we all have no life to speak of, really).

So… with a melodramatic roll of the drums (*pause*)… I’m happy to make a small announcement.  Together with the rest of the FutureGov team I’m immensely pleased to join with Allison Hornery and John Wells in building a new alliance with their Cofluence (“collaborative influence”) initiative.

FutureGov is constantly looking for new ways of doing what we do, new ways of working with people – and new places to do it in.  In the Cofluence guys, we’ve found people who share that vision.

For those of you that haven’t come across this pair (often referred to in the singular as John’n’Allison), they have spent the last 15 years up to their eyeballs developing public sector and civil society programs from local government to the UN; from public broadcasts to rural workshops.  Along the way, they also founded CivicTEC to take a closer look at the social impacts of tech at the civic level.  Recently they’ve been kicking off this new “social studio” project called Cofluence, with a focus on “public sphere conversation and co-creation”.

What I like most of all during our many energetic chats is our shared vision around bridging different worlds, exchanging knowledge and experience, and working up creative, innovative ways of enabling outcomes for communities.  Putting people at the heart of everything we do.

So, in creating this alliance, we hope to be our own experiment – a ‘living lab’ of new ways of people working with people.  Fun times ahead.

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Get in touch: You’ll find Allison and John on LinkedIn, FaceBook, Google + etc, but Twitter may be easier @allisonhornery @johnw3lls @civictec @cofluence @co_llab @gov20radio

Schedule a meetup: Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra, London.

In Australia:  Dominic Campbell will be in Australia 18-26 November for speaking engagements in Canberra as well as visiting Sydney and Melbourne.

Two-hour briefing sessions are planned:

• “Social Innovation Meets Gov 2.0” and
• “Doing Government: Local, Social, Digital”.

For Dominic’s schedule or to attend briefings please email john [at] wearefuturegov.com or contact John Wells on +61-417-443 811.  More information soon.

In the UK:  Allison Hornery and John Wells will be making an extended trip to London and regional local government planned from late January. More on this soon.