Well, National Public Service Week (NPSW) is quickly approaching and is undoubtedly worth mentioning in this space.First let me point you to the official Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat (TBS) web page for NPSW.
Then, let me draw your attention to the theme: It starts with you!
If NPSW starts with me, then why can’t I help plan some activities here (in GCPEDIA)? The external TBS page is scant on the details and if I want to help out, it seems that I have to fire off an email to one of the coordinators.
Correct me if I am wrong here but isn't GCPEDIA the only cross-departmental collaborative tool that we have inside the Government of Canada?
Isn't it supposed to help us move away from collaboration via email?
The kicker is that the official NPSW page is being hosted by TBS.
So why a webpage and not a community inside GCPEDIA? Or why not both? The TBS webpage can be the point of contact for people outside the federal public service while GCPEDIA is the coordination takes place.
In my opinion this could be a win-win situation. NPSW benefits from better collaboration, greater involvement in the planning phases, huge reductions in email to regional coordinators, better transparency and less duplication across regions. At the same time, GCPEDIA benefits by gaining new users, new communities, and better exposure nationally. Imagine the Clerk coming out in praise of the collaborative efforts in organizing these events enabled by the use of GCPEDIA.
Whatever the reasons are for not rolling NPSW event coordination inside GCPEDIA, the only tangible one I can think of is that it may or may not involve partners from provincial governments, who sadly don't (yet) have access.
Maybe we should just start something up ourselves... of course we can invite the regional coordinators to the space. Hmmm… there is an idea. I am going to email the regional coordinators (all of them) and ask them to use GCPEDIA to plan their activities.
Holy Cra… Craig Sellars!
No sooner did I type out the last paragraph did I receive an email from Craig Sellars. Craig, the man behind the NPSW page in GCPEDIA sent out an email (in both official languages) to every contact person for NPSW across the country.
Kudos Craig, you beat me to the punch! Here is Craig’s email (reproduced w/permission):
(ENGLISH FOLLOWS)
Bonjour tout le monde,
J’espère tout va bien. Veuillez pardonner mon français modeste.
Je m'appelle Craig Sellars et je travaille avec le Comité Semaine Nationale de la Fonction Publique (SNFP) dans Alberta. J'ai localisé vos noms sur le site Web de SNFP en tant que les coordonnateurs régionaux et contacts départementaux. Si vous n'êtes plus le contact, transfères de cet email au nouveau contact, si vous plait, et réponse ainsi je peux vous enlever de ma liste.
www.gcpedia.gc.ca
Je cours un concours national pour SNFP 2009 pour la Meilleure Nouveau Page 2009 de Usager de GCPEDIA. C'est une excellente occasion d'examiner les possibilités de collaboration de GCPEDIA. Je créai une page pour le concours:
http://www.gcpedia.gc.ca/wiki/Meilleure_Nouvelle_Page_d%27Usager_GCPEDIA_2009
http://www.gcpedia.gc.ca/wiki/Best_New_GCPedia_User_Page_2009
Un exemple, C'est mon page de usager de GCPEDIA:
http://www.gcpedia.gc.ca/wiki/User:Craig.Sellars
GCPEDIA est un outil qui fournit le potentiel pour la collaboration derrière du pare-feu du Gouvernement du Canada, indépendamment d'endroit. J'ai également créé une page générale de NPSW GCPEDIA pour que vous employiez pour montrer et partager des événements nationalement:
http://www.gcpedia.gc.ca/wiki/Semaine_Nationale_de_la_Fonction_Publique_2009
http://www.gcpedia.gc.ca/wiki/National_Public_Service_Week_2009
J'ai inclus des connexions aux GCPEDIA pages régionales que vous pouvez éditer librement. Si vous avez un événement ou l'ordre du jour de SNFP que vous voudriez partager, satisfaire ajoutez-le vous-même, si vous plait, ou expédiez aux détails moi le***.
***Note: Je publierai seulement des événements/ordres du jour de SNFP dans la version finale et de finition. Ils doivent être dans un format téléchargeable (Word, Excel, PDF etc.) ou facilement copié et publia sur la page de GCPEDIA. J'exécuterai seulement le formatage mineur pour nettoyer les pages. Je travaille tout seul.
Nous explorerons que Web 2.0 et GCPEDIA peut faire pour la collaboration dans le Gouvernement du Canada. Sentez-vous SVP libre pour inclure les liens ci-dessus dans vos communications de SNFP 2009.
Merci de votre temps et ayez un jour spectaculaire.
Craig Sellars.
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(ENGLISH VERSION)
Hello everyone,
I hope your day is well.
My name is Craig Sellars and I am working with the National Public Service Week 2009 (NPSW) Committee in Alberta. I located your names on the NPSW website as Regional Coordinators and Departmental Contacts. If you are no longer the contact, please forward this email to the new contact and reply so I can remove you from my list.
www.gcpedia.gc.ca
I am running a national contest for NPSW 2009 for the Best New GCPEDIA User Page 2009. This is an excellent opportunity to test GCPEDIA’s collaborative capabilities. I created a page for the contest:
http://www.gcpedia.gc.ca/wiki/Best_New_GCPedia_User_Page_2009
http://www.gcpedia.gc.ca/wiki/Meilleure_Nouvelle_Page_d%27Usager_GCPEDIA_2009
An example is my GCPEDIA user page:
http://www.gcpedia.gc.ca/wiki/User:Craig.Sellars
GCPEDIA allows for collaboration behind the Government of Canada firewall, regardless of location. I also created a general NPSW GCPEDIA page for you to display and share events nationally:
http://www.gcpedia.gc.ca/wiki/National_Public_Service_Week_2009
http://www.gcpedia.gc.ca/wiki/Semaine_Nationale_de_la_Fonction_Publique_2009
I included links to regional pages you can edit freely. If you have an NPSW event or agenda you would like to share, please add it yourself or forward the details to me***.
***Note: I will only post NPSW events/agendas in the final, finished version. They must either be in a downloadable format (Word, Excel, PDF etc.) or easily copied and pasted onto the GCPEDIA page. I will only perform minor formatting to clean up the pages. I am a one man show.
This is an exciting opportunity to explore what Web 2.0 and GCPEDIA can do for collaboration in the Government of Canada. Please feel free to include the above links in your NPSW 2009 communications.
Thank you for your time and have a spectacular day.
Craig Sellars.
Suggestion
If you are interested why not help out, and contact a coordinator yourself? After all NPSW starts with you - or does it? I suppose that choice is yours.
Cheers,