Posts in US Democracy Online Exchange
From: http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/11/21/1684129.aspx The wired White House Posted: Friday, November 21, 2008 9:37 AM by Alan Boyle After a historic presidential election, the tech-savvy campaigners who helped put Barack Obama in the White House say the nation is in for an equally historic four years of tech-savvy governance. The way the Obama campaign used blogs, texting, social networking and other Web 2.0 tools to win this month's election is just "the tip of the iceberg," said Simon Rosenberg, president and founder of the political advocacy group NDN. Those tools are quickly being adapted for the transition to the Obama administration: A new Web site for the president-elect, Change.gov, made its debut on the day after the election, offering supporters an outlet for their suggestions and stories as well as their resumes. In the two weeks since then, the transition team says more than 200,000 job applications have flooded in. Lots more w/links: http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/11/21/1684129.aspx
More names - even some people I know - from: http://change.gov/learn/policy_working_groups/ Technology, Innovation & Government Reform The Technology, Innovation & Government Reform Policy Working Group will help prepare the incoming Administration to implement the Innovation Agenda, which includes a range of proposals to create a 21st century government that is more open and effective; leverages technology to grow the economy, create jobs, and solve our country’s most pressing problems; respects the integrity of and renews our commitment to science; and catalyzes active citizenship and partnerships in shared governance with civil society institutions. The Working Group is organized into four sub-teams: (1) Innovation and Government, (2) Innovation and National Priorities, (3) Innovation and Science, and (4) Innovation and Civil Society. Blair Levin is a Managing Director of Stifel Nicolaus and serves as the firm’s principal telecom, media and tech regulatory and strategy analyst. Prior to his work as an analyst, Mr. Levin served as Chief of Staff to Chairman Reed Hundt at the Federal Communications Commission from 1993 through 1997. Before joining the FCC, Levin was a partner in the North Carolina law firm of Parker Poe, Poe, Adams and Bernstein. Sonal Shah heads Google.org’s global development efforts. Prior to joining Google, she was Vice President at Goldman, Sachs and Co. developing and implementing the firm’s environmental policy. She is also the co-founder of Indicorps, a U.S.-based non-profit organization offering one-year fellowships Indian-Americans to work on development projects in India. Sonal also worked at the Center for American Progress on trade, outsourcing and post conflict issues and the Center for Global Development on development policy issues. Sonal worked at the Department of Treasury from 1995-2002 on various economic issues and regions of the world, including Bosnia, Kosovo, the Asian crisis and sub-Saharan Africa. During that time she also worked at the National Security Council from 1998-1999. Sonal received her BA in economics from the University of Chicago and her MA in economics from Duke University. She is on the Obama-Biden Transition Project Advisory Board. Julius Genachowski is co-founder of Rock Creek Ventures and LaunchBox Digital, a special advisor at General Atlantic, and a member of various boards of directors and advisors. From 1997 to 2005, he was a senior executive at IAC/InterActiveCorp, where his roles included Chief of Business Operations, General Counsel, and a member of the Office of the Chairman. Genachowski served at the Federal Communications Commission from 1994 to 1997, including as Chief Counsel to the Chairman. From 1991 to 1994 he served as a law clerk to U.S. Supreme Court Justice David H. Souter, to U.S. Supreme Court Justice William J. Brennan, Jr. (ret.), and to Chief Judge Abner J. Mikva of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. He worked in Congress from 1985 to 1988, for Sen. Charles E. Schumer (then a U.S. Representative), and for the joint select committe on the Iran-Contra Affair. He is a on the Obama-Biden Transition Project Advisory Board. Group Members Howard Buffet David Burd Dan Chenok Aneesh Chopra Jack Chorowsky Cheryl Dorsey Joshua Dubois Judy Estrin Tom Freedman Jim Halpert Mark Johnson Michele Jolin Tom Kalil Kei Koizumi Vivek Kundra Don Lamb John Leibovitz Bruce McConnell Andrew McLaughlin Parry Norling Beth Noveck Spencer Overton Lori Perine Kartik Raghavan Alec Ross Paul Schmitz Clifford Sloan Steve Spinner Marta Urquilla Chris Warren Daniel Weitzner Irving Wladawsky-Berger
Does anyone know much about their responsibilities? Steven Clift From: http://techdailydose.nationaljournal.com/2008/11/obama_unveils_techinnovationgo.php Obama Unveils Tech-Innovation-Govt Reform Team President-elect Barack Obama's technology, innovation and government reform working group within his transition team has been announced. Members include Sonal Shah, Julius Genachowski, and Blair Levin. Shah, who heads the Google foundation's global development efforts, previously served as vice president at Goldman Sachs where she developed the firm’s environmental policy. Genachowski, a longtime friend of Obama's, is cofounder of Rock Creek Ventures and a former senior executive at IAC/InterActiveCorp. Levin is a managing director of Stifel Nicolaus and serves as the firm’s principal telecom, media and tech regulatory and strategy analyst. He previously served as chief of staff to FCC Chairman Reed Hundt in the Clinton administration.
Check this out: http://minnesota.publicradio.org/features/2008/11/19_challenged_ballots/ Also note: http://search.twitter.com/search?q=%23mnrecount Steven Clift
Tip from John Wonderlich with the Sunlight Project: Full press release from the National Archives regarding new online access to federal register documents, as announced here <http://www.archives.gov/press/press-releases/2009/nr09-06.html>. Documents are available here <http://www.federalregister.gov/inspection.aspx>. Press Release November 19, 2008 Federal Register Announces Launch of New Electronic Public Inspection Desk Just in time for post-election regulatory flurry, access expands "Beyond the Beltway" More Information * Office of the Federal Register <http://www.archives.gov/federal-register/> * Daily Federal Register <http://www.archives.gov/federal-register/the-federal-register/> * www.federalregister.gov <http://www.federalregister.gov/> (link opens in a new window) * Documents on Public Inspection <http://www.archives.gov/federal-register/public-inspection/> Washington, DC…The Office of the Federal Register <http://www.archives.gov/federal-register/> has created an Electronic Public Inspection Desk to provide free worldwide electronic access to public documents. For the first time in the 72-year existence of the daily Federal Register <http://www.archives.gov/federal-register/the-federal-register/>, the documents on file are available for viewing anytime, anywhere. Every Federal business day, anyone with access to a computer now can read critical documents governing Federal regulations relating to business, health, and safety as soon as the documents are placed on file. To view these documents, go to www.federalregister.gov <http://www.federalregister.gov/> (link opens in a new window). See "View Documents on Public Inspection <http://www.federalregister.gov/inspection.aspx>" (link opens in a new window) on the left hand side. This new desk grants the public access to documents that will be published in the next day's Federal Register as early at 8:45 a.m. EST. Previously, such documents could only be seen by viewing the documents physically located at the Office of the Federal Register in Washington, DC. Citizens across the country no longer need depend upon representatives in Washington, DC, to gain access to this material. The Electronic Public Inspection Desk has leveled the playing field in the competition for access to information. The dream of free access to government information that drove passage of the Federal Register Act and the Administrative Procedure Act has been realized. This development is perfectly timed for the 2008 Presidential election. Traditionally, after an election the Federal Register experiences a large increase in regulations, and this year is no exception. Now, anyone, anywhere, can monitor this flurry of activity through the click of a mouse. The web site has been particularly useful in providing up-to-the minute access to Treasury Department and Federal Reserve regulations issued in response to the ongoing financial crisis. The newly released 2007 edition of the Privacy Act Issuances is also posted on the web site to provide citizens with broader access to provisions of law that protect personal privacy. Background For 72 years, the Office of the Federal Register <http://www.archives.gov/federal-register/> has carried out its mandate to provide for public inspection of documents before publication in the daily Federal Register <http://www.archives.gov/federal-register/the-federal-register/>. Once a document goes on file at the Office of the Federal Register, the public at large is deemed to have legal notice of its contents. But as a practical matter, only a relative handful of Beltway insiders had the means to go to the physical location of the Office of the Federal Register in Washington, DC, to monitor daily filings on behalf of their clients. Due to these technical, logistical, and financial restraints early access to valuable information was restricted to a select few. Until now. # # # For press information, contact the National Archives Public Affairs staff at (202) 357-5300.
From: http://www.governing.com/mgmt_insight.aspx?id=6062 Government 2.0's Inauguration November 19, 2008 By William D. Eggers and Tiffany Dovey What the Obama campaign taught us about collaboration. William D. Eggers When Cuauhtémoc "Temo" Figueroa, national field director for the Obama campaign, arrived in San Antonio ahead of Super Tuesday to get local volunteer operations off the ground, he came across what looked like an already well-oiled campaign operation. In something of a role reversal, Figueroa found himself taking orders from a self-organized group of 600 volunteers who, just a year earlier, had started out as a handful of Obama supporters gathered around a table at their local bookstore. Tiffany Dovey The rest is history. Elections will never be the same again. The Obama campaign demonstrated that traditional top-down, tarmac-to-tarmac presidential campaigns cannot compete against self-organizing armies of millions motivated by an inspiring candidate and empowered by a Web-savvy campaign team. It is not only political campaigns, however, that will be transformed by the 2008 election. Obama's deft use of collaborative technologies to create a new campaign model has big implications for governance. While some governments have already started experimenting with Web 2.0 tools, they are nowhere near the level of sophistication shown by the Obama campaign. With the Obama team already promising to bring his bottom-up, participatory model to the federal government, government agencies will be under intense pressure to catch up with their new president-elect. And that goes for not just federal agencies. Legions of Obama voters will expect to interact with their state and local governments in the same way they did with the campaign. ... More: http://www.governing.com/mgmt_insight.aspx?id=6062
Dear members of the list PSRT-L Its a pleasure to be in touch. My name is Cesar Gayoso and I am living in NY .At this moment I am preparing an International Electronical Bulletin about the" Challenges of Latin America in front of the globalizacion and its institutions in the XXI century.In this number scholars and diplomats from South America will be participating . This electronical Bulletin is built by the Internet Independent Network " Red Democratica". I am the founder and the administrator from 1998. This year , on Dec 2008 we will have 10 years of being On line and thats the reason for the publication of this Bulletin . Its the Sixth. The address of the blog is : http://reddemocratica.blogspot.com. Its going to be in spanish and english. And I would like to invite to the members of this presitgious list to this publication with a short article . No more of two or three pages.The deadline is second week of december. There are a lot of topics, as how building global democracy, conflict resolution, human rigths, ecology, transitional justice , track 2 diplomacy,etc. Wishing you the best and I hope we can keep in touch, Sincerely, Cesar Gayoso Editor E-mail : <email obscured>
See: http://www.appsfordemocracy.org/ Apps for Democracy for the District of Columbia Office of the Chief Technology Officer There's $20,000 worth of cash prizes up for grabs. You can submit as many apps as you can crank out! The more you build the more chances you have to win. Who: Talented technologists and creatives battling it out to see who can create the most useful applications from DC's Data Catalog — a resource that has tons of open data feeds including most recent roadkill pickups! Sweet! We've divided the contest in two — one prize pool will be awarded to agencies and one will be awarded to independent developers/designers. This is a good way to level the playing field and to provide twice the amount of awards! Check out the prize structure here. For Agencies: If you're running/working for a digital agency that builds technology solutions for your clients, then this is a contest you'll want to submit to and win. We're going to promote the contest far and wide, and the bragging rights you'll gain will no doubt drive new business - and serve as a great morale builder for your talented team. If you're a big shop, put a few teams together and you'll have a number of chances to win accolades and cash...is it possible for one agency to sweep this thing? For Independents: This contest was created with you in mind. We're going to reward you financially and with public recognition for your talents. Since you're an independent, you might need to find some other people to work with (perhaps you need a front end designer, or a back-end developer or something else), so the Open Innovation Labs have been setup to give you a place to do that. 2 Days Left! 22 Links to posts about Apps for Democracy. 2008 November 11th 3 Comments There are only 2 days left for folks to submit to Apps for Democracy. There are some really interesting applications that are already launched and many more to come. Through the course of this contest we’ve tried to keep up with all the great feedback we’ve received from blogs and publications around the net. Here’s a [...] Apps of All Kinds. What are you working on? 2008 October 23rd 4 Comments We’ve been talking with a lot of developers who are working on applications for the Apps for Democracy contest and it’s truly amazing the breadth of creative ideas that have been dreamed up in only a 9 day period since we launched the contest. As far as we can tell, there are 15 apps that [...] Filed under APPS08, boalt, pointabout Continue Reading » Press Recap + Photos and Videos posted October 20th 2008 with No Comments » We’re just getting the ball rolling here for the Apps for Democracy contest and here are some quick stats: -There are 90 people RSVP’d to attend the awards ceremony. -8 people have submitted initial apps, and the first one went live within 2 days of the contest opening. See it here. Apps for Democracy Articles: [Washington Post] Apps for Democracy [...] First Application Submission is Live! posted October 17th 2008 with No Comments » PointAbout has been quick out of the gate with an iPhone app that provides location aware alerts for DC residents. The full app discription and a video to watch the demonstration is here. You’ll be able to download the app from the Apple App Store in about a week. Building the Digital Public Square posted October 15th 2008 with No Comments » By Vivek Kundra Chief Technology Officer, District of Columbia Government In ancient Athens—the model for the democracy envisioned by the framers of our Constitution–citizens met, face to face, in the agora—the public square–to conduct business, debate civic issues, and drive the decisions of government. Gone are the days of daily meetings at the agora. Today, citizens know [...] Get the Apps for Democracy Widget! posted October 12th 2008 with 1 Comment »
From: http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/lmholmes/gGxqFT MyBarackObama.com Bloggers will convene in Washington DC area for the Inaugural of the 44th President of the United States By Lisa Holmes | TX Precinct Captain #3361 | V.O.B. - Nov 11th, 2008 at 9:17 am EST Comments | Mail to a Friend | Report Objectionable Content MyBarackObama.com Bloggers will convene in Washington DC area for the Inaugural of the 44th President of the United States. The MyBarackobama.com website's "veteran" bloggers will convening in Alexandria, VA to meet and celebrate the Inaugural. Many of these bloggers have been blogging on MyBarackObama.com since very early in the campaign and they are coming from all over the world. The event will be an awards ceremony and a "Live from D.C." Blog session, meetup etc. RSVP: http://my.barackobama.com/page/event/detail/gsxyq2 Date: 19 January (monday) 11:30- 5:00 PM Location: Murphy's Grand Irish Pub http://www.murphyspub.com/old_town.html
From: http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/chrishughesatthecampaign/gGxZvh Moving Forward on My.BarackObama By Chris Hughes - Nov 7th, 2008 at 5:23 pm EST Over the past 21 months, millions of individuals have used My.BarackObama to organize their local communities on behalf of Barack Obama. The scale and size of this community and its work is unprecedented. Individuals in all 50 states have created more than 35,000 local organizing groups, hosted over 200,000 events, and made millions upon millions of calls to neighbors about this campaign. There can be no question that these local, grassroots organizations played a critical role in Tuesday's victory. What has made My.BarackObama unique hasn't been the technology itself, but the people who used the online tools to coordinate offline action. My.BarackObama has always been focused on using online tools to make real-world connections between people who are hungry to change our politics in this country. And the site isn't going anywhere. The online tools in My.BarackObama will live on. Barack Obama supporters will continue to use the tools to collaborate and interact. Our victory on Tuesday night has opened the door to change, but it's up to all of us to seize this opportunity to bring it about. In the coming days and weeks, there will be a great deal more information about where this community will head. For the moment, let's celebrate this victory and know that the community we've built together is just the beginning.
(See link at end of e-mail for file.) Subject: 21st Century Right to Know report -- PLEASE SIGN ON Date: Fri, 7 Nov 2008 16:32:39 -0500 From: Sean Moulton <smoulton@ombwatch.org> I thought folks might be interested in a new collaboratively written government transparency report called Moving Toward a 21st Century Right-To-Know Agenda: Recommendations to President-Elect Obama and Congress. I'm attaching the final text of the report which is going through final formatting and layout over the next few days. We are continuing to collect sign-on to support the report and are trying to get as many as possible by next Tuesday, when we hope to circulate copies to members of the transition team. The sign on form is http://www.zoomerang.com/Survey/survey.zgi?p=WEB228DWTM8NTQ Feel free to circulate the report and recommendation form to any and all others you think might be interested. We will continue to take sign-ons beyond Tuesday and will regularly update the list in the online version of the report. So if you cant make Tuesday, please continue to work to sign your organization on in support. And remember that we have worded the sign-on statement so that groups are not endorsing every recommendation. Thanks. Sean Sean Moulton Director, Federal Information Policy OMB Watch 1742 Connecticut Ave. NW Washington, DC 20009 Phone: (202) 234-8494 Fax: (202) 234-8584 Combined Federal Campaign #10201
The following file was added to this topic:
See: http://whovoted.net This ought to stir up some discussion. I've often felt use of this data in electronic bulk format by candidates campaigns to limit outreach to the most active voters was a state subsidy for exclusion. This is particularly true for local election where local candidates can easily concentrate outreach on the most likely voters ... on the other hand it could be viewed as a way to keep the costs of campaigning under control. And in 1998 folks with Jesse Ventura's insurgent third party campaign used this data to specifically target less frequent voters. The site below will raise awareness of the fact that this data has generally been available, just not online for all to use. Steven Clift http://dowire.org Subject: "Who Voted" Website Provides Public Access to Voter Lists Date: Tue, 4 Nov 2008 11:57:02 -0800 (PST) From: Todd Davies <davies@csli.stanford.edu> FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, November 3, 2008 CONTACT: Todd Davies (davies at csli dot stanford dot edu) "Who Voted" Website Provides Public Access to Voter Lists As voters go to the polls around the U.S. this week, a new website is promoting the need for easy public access to voter lists. The site, called "Who Voted?", provides free web access to voter histories - the official lists of those who are recorded as having voted in government elections. Site visitors can now view records for four states -- Florida, Idaho, Ohio, and Washington -- by searching on a name, voter registration number, or zip code. The site is live at http://whovoted.net. The Who Voted project grew out of a Google Summer of Code grant to Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility (CPSR), but the current website and the views it represents are independent of CPSR. Who Voted is being hosted as a research prototype on a server located at Stanford University. Members of the project team include Todd Davies, Jeffrey Gerard, Reid Chandler, and Gordon Lyon. The Who Voted team plans to upload data from more states in the future. Meanwhile, the team hopes to spark a conversation about the need for public access to voter lists. Many states restrict the ability of the public to access voter data, through laws that prevent its general release and/or high fees for obtaining the data. Since the late 19th Century, public elections in the United States, and in most other countries, have utilized a secret ballot. This means that no one except the individual voter is supposed to know for which candidates or propositions that voter voted. The secret ballot protects voters' privacy and generally prevents the buying and coercion of votes. While it is widely viewed as essential to democracy in large modern societies, the secret ballot makes election results difficult to verify, and removes a communicative function in the act of voting. The Who Voted website attempts to address these problems while maintaining ballot secrecy and voter privacy. It makes already-public information about who voted, which is usually difficult to access, available to everyone for free via the web. Citizens may check their own or others' voter histories for personal interest, or to verify that they were properly recorded as voting (or not voting) in a particular election. These poll book entries generally mean that a voter showed up at a poll, or cast an absentee ballot. It is still possible for a vote to be invalidated later in the process. In addition to promoting public verification of voter lists, another goal of the Who Voted project is to spark conversation about the meaning of voting itself as a socially responsible act. Research by political economist Patricia Funk has shown that citizens are more likely to participate politically when the fact that one has voted is publicly visible. The site's URL is http://www.whovoted.net. For more information, contact Todd Davies (davies at csli dot stanford dot edu).
Lots of fun from: http://search.twitter.com/search?q=%23mnrecount
Thanks, I signed up. For those of you who have never heard of them, this from their website: Our goal through our grant-making<http://www.sunlightfoundation.com/grants/> , blogging <http://blog.sunlightfoundation.com/>, projects<http://www.sunlightfoundation.com/projects/> , and technical leadership <http://www.sunlightfoundation.com/labs/>, is to use the power of the Internet to shine a light on the interplay of money, lobbying, influence and government in Washington in ways never before possible. We think Justice Brandeis was right when he said "Sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants." We Are Sunlight. <http://www.sunlightfoundation.com/about/>
Clips from: http://www.ajc.com/news/content/news/stories/2008/11/05/election_obama_internet_army.html Obama to take Internet army to Washington By Frank Greve McClatchy Newspapers Wednesday, November 05, 2008 WASHINGTON — A powerful new lobbying force is coming to town: Barack Obama’s triumphant army of 3.1 million Internet-linked donors and volunteers. In a mass e-mail thanking them, written moments before his Grant Park victory speech, Obama put them on notice. “We have a lot to do to get our country back on track, and I’ll be in touch soon about what comes next,” he wrote. ... As for political utility, many thousands of volunteers such as Hood will be deployable within hours, with great precision and at almost no cost, thanks to the campaign’s state-of-the-art information-management systems. The president-elect’s political operatives know, for example, the ZIP codes and hence the congressional districts of each of Obama’s million most active campaigners, those who volunteered via his Web site mybarackobama.com. It’s a social network that the campaign set up to communicate needs, events and assignments to volunteers. The profiles that Obama campaigners submitted to the site also reveal which supporters in each district are environmentalists, concerned about health care or keen on government reform. Moreover, because the so-called “MyBO” site quantified volunteers’ participation and fundraising totals digitally, there’s a numeric score for each participant’s success. It’s even adjusted to give more credit for recent help. “We really know who Obama’s community leaders are,” issue by issue, said Thomas Gensemer, the managing director of Blue State Digital, the Washington-based mobilizer of online communities created by four Dean campaign veterans. ... He and others presume that Obama will pass on his activist database to the Democratic National Committee and/or a new nonprofit that takes direction from the Obama White House. That’s permitted under MyBO’s privacy policy, which says that its names and data may be turned over to “organizations with similar political viewpoints and objectives, in furtherance of our own political objectives.” The Federal Election Commission is unlikely to step in, said Washington lawyer Jan Baran, who’s a specialist on federal election law, ethics and lobbying. “The FEC has generally laid off regulating Internet-based activity by political organizations and individuals,” Baran said. Reform advocates who see the Internet as a tool want to reduce Washington’s grip on power by providing universal Internet access to more government deliberations and records. It’s an idea that appeals to lots of Obama activists, who can be expected to push for it. Obama has promised to create a “transparent and connected White House.” He’s also promised to appoint a Cabinet-rank chief technology officer to promote openness in federal agencies and help the new president communicate with the electorate. More generally, Obama supports expanding high-speed broadband Internet access, which roughly half the nation lacks. An easy and popular step toward transparency would be for Obama to reverse the Bush administration’s secretive policy on Freedom of Information Act requests for government records. That could be done by declaration, without congressional involvement, noted John Wonderlich, the program director of the Washington-based Sunlight Foundation, which promotes transparency. Visionaries in the realm of Internet politics, several of them well-known among Obama activists, would like to see Obama go further and use Internet social networks for ideas and collaborative problem-solving.
See: http://www.communitycounts.com/forum/?id=bigdialog From: http://www.communitycounts.com/static/bigdialog.html AFTER THE ELECTION -- THE INTERNET'S POWER TO CHANGE GOVERNANCE This Year the Net Redefined How Candidates Run for Office Soon We Will See it Reshape How They Govern We have seen the Net's ability to change politics. It helped make this the first Billion dollar presidential campaign, and William Mitchell, Professor at the MIT Media Lab, expects it will soon change the way we interact with elected officials. That's what http://www.BigDialog.org and its Ask the President-Elect forum is all about. The eCitizen Foundation (a Massachusetts non-profit), Mitchell's eCitizen Architecture Program (MIT-ECAP), and a growing coalition of web communities are asking people to pose and prioritize text and video questions for the President-Elect, but it doesn't end there, for the next President's responses will be voted on by the public. Participants won't be asked if they agree with the answers, only if the responses actually answered the questions, establishing a structural incentive for real answers. This is in keeping with BigDialog's aim to produce true dialog through multi-round interactions. The eCitizen Foundation sees this as a first step towards a more participatory political discourse. Ray Campbell, eCitizen's President, believes that "just as the Internet has revolutionized commerce and campaigns, it will revolutionize the way elected officials and citizens interact, creating new channels of communication." The foundation believes these solutions have something unique to offer, and that one day soon we can expect to see true Internet questions complementing traditional media in the White House press room. Assuring the quality and legitimacy of such questions are major goals for the foundation. For Mitchell the question becomes, "What kind of environments do you create in order for people to participate?" The forum makes use of the same technology behind last year's 10questions, a presidential primary forum run by BigDialog partner techPresident.com in cooperation with the New York Times Editorial Board, MSNBC.com, and a cross-partisan assortment of bloggers/ecommunities. Huckabee, Obama, and a smattering of other primary candidates participated, and despite concerns from many about "silly" questions rising to the top, there were no talking snowmen. Even better, the candidates were not limited to thirty-second soundbites, and they actually seemed to answer the questions. BigDialog partners include acedemics, bloggers, ecommunites, and non-profts all working towards the goal or a more democratic dialogue. The foundation is actively growing its partners list. You can find a complete list at www.BigDialog.org BigDialog.org is currently accepting video and text questions for the President-Elect as well as votes on current entries. They will be accepting questions through November and hope to see replies from the President-Elect in December. ### For more information about the eCitizen Foundation and it's BigDialog projects, contact foundation president Ray Campbell at 781-249-6983 or rayc at rac3 dot com For inquries related to the forum host, communityCOUNTS, contact communityCOUNTS founder David Colarusso at 781-519-0232 or press at communitycounts dot com
Has anyone seen any numbers on the total numbers of/percentage of
people donating this cycles to either Presidential candidates or
campaigns in general? Any numbers on the percent of donations given
online?
I've seen some Obama numbers floating about, but what about overall.
Are we talking 1, 2, perhaps up to 5 percent of adults donating?
While I doubt the campaigns have been public about this, I'd love to
know how large their e-mail news list memberships are. Anyone know?
Steven Clift
I've sent the following invite to a number of online groups tied to the
election for President. Feel free to forward.
Steven Clift
As the final hours of the Internet-accelerated campaign 2008 come to close, I
want to invite you to join the U.S. Democracy Online Exchange:
http://dowire.org/us
In short, this is an online group (e-list/forum) for those interested in using
the Internet to encourage political participation at the local, state, and
national level.
When the next President seeks to govern, how he and his administration use
online tools to bring Americans together and lead will be extremely important.
Unfortunately, in past election cycles interactivity was turned off right after
the election (I created the world's first election information website in 1994
with E-Democracy.Org - so I've been through a number of election cycles where
this repeats itself). I don't think that can or will happen this time -
Americans
expect to use the Internet in governance just as they did in this election. But
what
will happen with this and related two-way platforms and how can you play a
role?
Whether the next President brings the web into a White House 2.0 or uses the
bully pulpit to encourage Americans to adapt his online-powered Neighbor to
Neighbor model to meet public challenges locally, gathering the builders of the
many projects that will undoubtedly flow from this experience in a space for
open and constructive exchange can further our many efforts.
If you are inspired to take what you've learned and experience with this
campaign
into governance and community building, the Democracy Online Exchange
is a place to join.
To join, sign-up directly from here:
http://groups.dowire.org/request_registration.html?form.groupId=us
Sincerely,
Steven Clift - http://stevenclift.com
Democracies Online Blog/Groups - http://dowire.org
Sidewalks for Democracy Online Article:
http://rebooting.personaldemocracy.com/node/52
P.S. I also run a non-profit called E-Democracy.Org which host local online
town
hall forums across a dozen local communities in three countries. If you are
interested in "local up" spaces for agenda-setting online participation that
bring together local people from across the political spectrum, see:
http://e-democracy.org/if http://forums.e-democracy.org
Subject: [openhouseproject] permanent links announced on THOMAS Date: Thu, 9 Oct 2008 14:33:18 -0400 From: John Wonderlich <johnwonderlich@gmail.com> Reply-To: <email obscured> To: <email obscured> THOMAS Publishes Permanent Links (Another Recommendation Realized) <http://www.theopenhouseproject.com/2008/10/09/thomas-publishes-permanent-links-another-recommendation-realized/> Fulfilling one of the recommendations of the Open House Project report <http://www.theopenhouseproject.com/the-open-house-project-report/3-legislation-database/>, The Library of Congress has published on their THOMAS web page directions <http://thomas.loc.gov/home/handles/help.html> for creating permanent links. From our report: We also recommend that: THOMAS provide permanent links to all documents, in an obvious way, to enable Web researchers to directly refer to these documents From THOMAS <http://thomas.loc.gov/home/handles/help.html>: Legislative Handles are a new persistent URL service for creating links to legislative documents from the THOMAS web site (http://thomas.loc.gov). With a simple syntax, Legislative Handles make it easy to type in legislative links to bibliographies, reference guides, emails, blogs, or web pages. Legislative Handles, for instance, http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.uscongress/legislation.110hconres196, are a convenient way to cite legislation. This matters because linking is one of the most basic components of online dialog. Without citations and primary sources, commentary and analysis are just opinion and rumor. The "Handles" allow a simple procedure for linking to specific legislation, without that link expiring, as often happens if you create a link to a bill's page accessed through a search. This is a great first step toward modernizing THOMAS. We'd love to see additional changes, like access to bulk legislative data, or permanent links automatically created within bill pages. As it stands now, however, it's great that THOMAS is recognizing the needs of its users, and helping the public create permanent links to legislation is long-awaited first step towards doing just that. → No Comments <http://www.theopenhouseproject.com/2008/10/09/thomas-publishes-permanent-links-another-recommendation-realized/#respond>*Tags:* openhouseproject <http://www.theopenhouseproject.com/category/openhouseproject/>