Presentations from the Scotweb2 event on 19 June... slides from Learning Pool (Social Learning: Does it return the investment?) and also Lichfield DC's Stuart Harrison on the Twhys, Thows and Twherefores of Twitter.  Read a brief event summary here and for more detail see the real-time coverage of the day's proceedings.

Local Government 3.0: How councils can respond to the new web agenda is the new pamphlet from the Local Government Information Unit think-tank. Download a copy here. On a related note, Simon Wakeman interviews Andy Sawford, LGUI chief exec on the communications issues councils  face today.

Following on from the launch of Data.gov, the US Government continues its drive towards greater transparency and accountability with USASpending.gov, a new website which lets the public to track spending on public sector IT projects. Tech guru Tim O'Reilly gives his take.

A video introducing Birmingham City Council's Podnosh's 'Be Vocal' site, part of the Birmingham Open City project which is one of the Timely Information for Citizens pilots funded by CLG. (via Dave Briggs)

Sarah Lay of Derbyshire County Council talks about council's use of social media in the recent local elections, recorded at Localgovcamp. (via Podnosh) More from Sarah's blog here.

Really useful Twitter tools for Community and Communications Professionals (via Carl Haggerty)

In a fascinating post, Emma Mulqueeny updates us on progress with the Home Office's digital engagement strategy. Emma writes about the challenges which have cropped up and how, where possible, these are being addressed.

DMCS has published an action plan for the Digital Britain White Paper on 16 June.

And finally... the Department for Transport makes its debut on Twitter, alas its bio states: 'Please direct queries via the 'Contact us' section of the website'.  Oh well... (via Neil Williams)