In today’s Wilshire & Washington, we talk Government 2.0 with special guest Dr. Mark Drapeau, an Associate Research Fellow at the National Defense University and Co-Chair of the Gov 2.0 Expo Showcase and the Gov 2.0 Expo in May 2010. The Gov 2.0 Summit (#gov20s), currently being held in DC, is bringing together some of the top minds in the tech industry to talk how government can better use technology. “Now is the time to reshape government” is the summit’s platform, and Drapeau talks about the idea of government as a platform, providing an infrastructure to help people get together and solve problems themselves or with the help of their local government. He encourages a DIO approach, or “Do It Ourselves,” taking data provided by the government and using it to solve our problems.

It’s a relatively foreign idea these days, imagining the government as an effective, useful entity, but that wasn’t always the way of things. “A lot of people forget how innovative the government is,” Drapeau says. Government researchers invented GPS, the wristwatch, even the trench coat (spy vs. spy, indeed…) so why can’t they do it again with online technology? But those results of scientific research need to be readily available for everyone (using this Internet thingy, maybe?), and the same thing applies to legal decisions by the Supreme Court. It’s all public data, right, so why can’t we have an easy way of accessing it? And while the public’s trust in the government has probably never been lower, the open processes of social media are the types of things can rebuild that trust. Drapeau argues that there are security concerns about government involvement in the public’s data, but those concerns shouldn’t stop progress, right?

We also talk winners and losers for the summer, as well as Obama’s education speech and his upcoming health care speech to Congress tonight. Teresa brings up Bill “The Comeback Kid” Clinton and the Birthers (both winners), Maegan talks Hamid Karzai (loser) and Howard Dean (winner), and Ted highlights Glenn Beck and the American Worker (guess who’s the loser between those two…)

Listen to the show here, subscribe to the iTunes podcast, or use the Blog Talk Radio player to the right.

Wilshire & Washington, the weekly Blog Talk Radio program that explores the intersection of politics, entertainment, and new media, features co-hosts Ted Johnson, Managing Editor of Variety; conservative blogger Teresa Valdez Klein (www.teresacentric.com), and liberal blogger Maegan Carberry (www.maegancarberry.com). The show airs every Wednesday at 7:30am PST on BlogTalkRadio.com.

Obama promised us Government 2.0, but what really happens after you join the Facebook group to save the whales or add your name to an Overturn Prop 8 email list? Does anyone actually read them? What happens when these thousands upon thousands of letters arrive at the door of Congress? Sarah Schacht, founder and Executive Director of Knowledge As Power, a non-profit dedicated to helping citizens become informed and effective within the legislative process, is a long-time insider and knows what influence, if any, these actions have on Congress. In her interview today on Wilshire & Washington, she offers some effective advice on how to best get your representative’s attention. You may be shocked by what you hear: Forget FISA, it’s the movement against the sale of wild horse meat that she recommends modeling your campaign after.

In other news: How about President Obama’s first primetime press conference? Did you fall asleep? Did he effectively dodge any and all serious questions W-style, including a doozy from Helen Thomas, the cutest WH correspondent who’s ever lived? And what about former e-bay exec Meg Whitman’s bid for CA governor? Does this signal a new involvement by Silicon Valley players in politics? Does Whitman get a pass for her nuanced support of Proposition 8, despite potential opposition from the sultry mayor of San Francisco?

Listen to the show here, subscribe to the iTunes podcast, or use the Blog Talk Radio player:

Wilshire & Washington, the weekly Blog Talk Radio program that explores the intersection of politics, entertainment, and new media, features co-hosts Ted Johnson, Managing Editor of Variety; conservative blogger Teresa Valdez Klein (www.teresacentric.com), and liberal blogger Maegan Carberry (www.maegancarberry.com). The show airs every Wednesday at 7:30am PST on BlogTalkRadio.com.