Hey all, to kick off our Ford Foundation-funded Participation 3.0 - http://e-democracy.org/p3 - convening and outreach effort, we've decided to start off with an initial prioritization and idea submission online survey. My goal is to hear from a number of constituencies from "wired elected officials" and neighborhood online participants to researchers and technologists to see what next generation online civic engagement (transparency, participation, collaboration/problem-solving, inclusion, community building) ideas are of most interest among those who show up and want to make the future happen sooner than later across all local communities. The steps in our Next Generation Ideas process through 2010 are: 1. Participation 3.0 launch and outreach with online survey 2. Introduction/input webinar(s), includes some special calls for "wired local offcials" for example 3. Online working groups/input discussions 4. Top Ten theme drafting with outreach/partner building, broad outreach and input period 5. Open proposal/specifications - Partnership building, seek major funding 6. Launch funded projects, pilots, etc., Promote efforts that "move the field" The survey while short in questions is quite in-depth and might spin a few heads. I'd rather get 100 thoughtful responses than 1000 quick responses at this point. But I need your specific input on how to make this the best experience for those taking their time to contribute. So will this detailed draft generate some useful input? http://pages.e-democracy.org/Participation_online_survey (Click the link for the full draft.) Q2 Your Perspective Q3 Open Question Q4 Sharpening Priorities Q5 Open Data Q6 Open Government Directive Themes and Local Government Q7 Get Connected Options Please send along any input on the survey - as well as offers to help promote through various channels - in the next few days. We hope to go live next week with the survey. Contact: <email obscured> Or http://e-democracy.org/contact Steven Clift - http://stevenclift.com Executive Director - http://E-Democracy.Org Follow me - http://twitter.com/democracy New Tel: +1.612.234.7072
A few years ago when I was in Estonia, I was amazed to learn about their plans for a "Document Register" which would be an index of all public documents and eventually provide remote public Internet access to those documents even in draft form. I was shown the section of their parliaments website where they voluntarily published the salaries of staff managers on up. I was also amazed by the smart chip embedded government ID cards and not how they were being used to control people, but used by the people to help control the government. Or in this case (along side the e-voting option), slip your card into a reader in your computer, enter in their PIN and see the **private** information held by government agencies about them, have the ability to submit corrected information, see when it was accessed and have the right to ask why it was accessed. Before Obama was elected, at the Personal Democracy Forum the New York Times - http://nyti.ms/bjHRvd - picked up on my comments: “Maybe 50 years of Communism made them realize they needed to give their citizens these rights,” Mr. Clift said. In a true democracy, he said, everything should be online “unless the law says otherwise.” The Estonia story is one that I and folks like Micah Sifry and Andrew Rasiej with the Personal Democracy Forum (and top advisers to the Sunlight Foundation) have repeated a number of time. My guess is that it has directly or at least indirectly inspired "public = online." And for that we have to thank those who appreciate freedom and democracy in a more contemporary basis - those under the oppression of the Soviet Union and communism for decades. As Americans we must continuously refresh our democratic system or it will atrophy. While I've repeated this future vision in statements and articles over the years - I didn't expect to see anyone put real resources behind it as the Sunlight Foundation has so simply described as the "public = online" campaign. The Public Information Online Act campaign Ellen Miller introduces below will be viewed as a historic turning point in the future of American democracy. Government will be fundamentally accessible to all online or we will instead abandon the spirit of the American revolution and choose to live in a lesser republic. Public = online is inevitable unless those in power stop it. The questions is will be there in 5 years at _all_ levels of government on our terms or take 50 years where generations to come continue to live under less responsive, less effective governance. For those new to the field of open government/e-democracy, I do encourage you to make use of the many many articles and resources in the space rather than recreate the wheel. While for many, this all started with the 2008 election, here are a few things I've shared in the past that are relevant today: * 2002 - The Future of E-Democracy – The 50 Year Plan: http://stevenclift.com/?p=83 "..we will also see a radical growth in transparency in places where laws are currently predisposed toward access and accountability such in most U.S. States and in the Nordic countries ... Ultimately, the less democratic a country is today, the more a threat the Internet is to the status quo tomorrow." * 2008 - Sidewalks for Democracy Online : http://stevenclift.com/?p=152 "While the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) continues to have its place, I predict a fundamental shift: By default, all taxpayer-funded government information from a memo by a township clerk to the town board to ethics filing by Members of Congress, will be available online. Period. That’s it. Only legally narrowly defined private or secret information, such as military and national security information, will be offline." However, I want to point out my view that deep transparency is only a _starting point._ The Obama Administration's Open Government Directive has three pillars - transparency, participation, and collaboration. So, real engagement relies on the ability and active use of information online (and off) by groups of people. That's participation and collaboration. The freedom of assembly remains the most important aspect of the Internet to me in democracy. This was really hit home by the use of #iranelection on Twitter with the past elections in Iran just as it in in blogs, forums, etc. and other local spaces all around the world where people are helping set real the local political agenda from anywhere at anytime online. * 1998 - Democracy is Online: http://stevenclift.com/?p=33 "Perhaps the most democratizing aspect of the Internet is the ability for people to organize and communicate in groups. It is within the context of electronic free assembly and association that citizens will gain new opportunities for participation and a voice in politics, governance, and society. In the next decade, those active in developing the Internet and those involved with improving democracy have an opportunity to sow the seeds for democracy online in the next century. Like the founding of any modern nation, the choices made today, the ideals upheld, the rules adopted, and the expectations created will determine the opportunities for democratic engagement for generations to come." Go Sunlight! Go! Steven Clift - http://stevenclift.com Executive Director - http://E-Democracy.Org Follow me - http://twitter.com/democracy New Tel: +1.612.234.7072 From: Ellen Miller <email obscured>> Date: Tue, Mar 16, 2010 at 12:49 PM Subject: Today, Public = Online Happy Sunshine Week! We have some very good news today in the fight to make government transparent and accountable. Right now, I'm up on Capitol Hill with a lot of Sunlight's staff to announce the Public Online Information Act. This new legislation will require Executive Branch agencies to publish all publicly available information on the Internet in a timely fashion and in easy to use formats. When we get this thing passed, it will represent a sea change for one very big part of government. Everything you need to know about the bill - including a great, short video - is here: http://thePOIA.org Put simply, government information is still way too hard to find, difficult to understand, expensive to obtain in a useable way, and often available in only a few locations. We need good information available online, 24/7, to hold our government officials accountable - and that's not even close to what we have right now. It's the 21st century for crying out loud, and we expect to find just about any kind of information online at any time. I can book an airplane ticket from my laptop at 1 a.m. and I can check my latest credit card transactions, view the weather forecast, or get local traffic reports from my phone. I can even buy shoes off a website and have them delivered to my house less than 24 hours later. However, if I want to look up most government information, I have to travel to Washington and view it on paper or on the screen of a bulky vintage computer in the basement office of a government building, open only on weekdays from 9 to 5. Or I have to file a formal request and wait for weeks or even months for a response - and this is for government information that is already required by law to be made available to the public! This can no longer be the way Washington operates. The solution to this problem of government information access is, of course, the Internet, and today we're excited about introducing the Public Online Information Act as one big step in the right direction. http://thePOIA.org We also want to make clear that we couldn't have gotten to the point of introducing a bill like this without your public support. Each of you has supported the Sunlight Foundation in some way since our founding 4 years ago - from making sure Congress reads their bills to looking up government earmarks in your spare time or tracking lobbying contributions - and we can't thank you enough. We're going to continue to need all of you, plus tens of thousands more, to make sure legislation like the Public Online Information Act gets passed, and on Thursday, we're going to be announcing a national, non-partisan campaign that will help us do that. We hope you'll join us. Stay tuned! Ellen Miller Co-founder and Executive Director Sunlight Foundation PS Are you a blogger? You should join us in the Open Government Blog Swarm we're creating this week: http://bit.ly/BlogSwarm
From: corbett3000 <email obscured>> Date: Fri, Jan 22, 2010 at 12:52 PM Subject: [Apps For Democracy] Guide on How to Create Your Own Apps for Democracy To: Apps For Democracy <email obscured>> Hot off the press! What do you think? http://www.appsfordemocracy.org/guide-to-creating-your-own-apps-for-democracy/ I'm happy to answer any questions... Peter ... The Approach There are many moving parts and pieces to running an Apps for Democracy contest. We’ve broken most of this down into 9 core components. Table 1 - Project Components 1 Contest Framework (data, prizes, judges, timeline) 2 Website Creation 3 Marketing to Developers 4 Judge Recruitment 5 Initial Screening 6 Apps Posted Publicly 7 Public Voting for “People’s Choice” 8 Awards Ceremony & Final Judging 9 Results of Contest Marketing
The report used the Frogtown area in St. Paul as part of its case study zone:
http://forums.e-democracy.org/r/topic/J7KFUaqNHuIkcQvyf2bku
I am interested in how inclusion online in local community and content
rises up in terms of one of the justifications for closing the
broadband divide:
http://blog.e-democracy.org/posts/719
Steven Clift
From:
http://www.ssrc.org/publications/view/1EB76F62-C720-DF11-9D32-001CC477EC70/
Broadband Adoption in Low-Income Communities
Dharma Dailey, Amelia Bryne, Alison Powell, Joe Karaganis and Jaewon Chung
The social function of the Internet has changed dramatically in recent
years. What was, until recently, a supplement to other channels of
information and communication has become increasingly a basic
requirement of social and economic inclusion. Educational systems,
employers, and government agencies at all levels have shifted services
online—and are pushing rapidly to do more. Price remains only one
factor shaping the fragile equilibrium of home broadband adoption, and
library and community organizations fill the gap by providing critical
training and support services while under severe economic pressures.
Commissioned by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to analyze
the factors shaping low rates of adoption of home broadband services
in low-income and other marginalized communities, this SSRC study is
one of the only large-scale qualitative investigations of barriers to
adoption in the US and complements FCC survey research on adoption
designed to inform the 2010 National Broadband Plan. The study draws
on some 170 interviews of non-adopters, community access providers,
and other intermediaries conducted across the US in late 2009 and
early 2010 and identifies a range of factors that make broadband
services hard to acquire and even harder to maintain in such
communities.
Published: Social Science Research Council, 2010
Citation: Dharma Dailey, Amelia Bryne, Alison Powell, Joe Karaganis
and Jaewon Chung, Broadband Adoption in Low-Income Communities (Social
Science Research Council, 2010).
Steven Clift - http://stevenclift.com
Executive Director - http://E-Democracy.Org
Follow me - http://twitter.com/democracy
New Tel: +1.612.234.7072
Very interesting: http://www.niemanlab.org/2010/02/the-internet-golden-age-of-local-policy-debate/ The Internet golden age of local policy debate Sure, the digital age might be killing professional muckraking in local markets, and most of the spadework that becomes local news stories might still come from newspapers. But a new empirical study suggests that all the new online din isn’t crowding out serious policy debate. Just the opposite: Startup news sites are drawing far more attention to actual local policy than newspapers, TV, or radio. That’s my take on this study, first presented in December, of where discussions about Portland’s city government are happening online. As reported by the Portland Mercury, social media consultant Jamie Beckland dug through six months of articles and comments from a variety of local sites for uses of the words “bureau,” “city,” “government,” “agency,” or “department” in conjunction with “Portland.” Percentage of posts or comments with direct references to Portland city government, May-Oct. 2009He found that topical local blogs ran rings around traditional media when it came to such references. The site that racked up the most posts and comments about those dry topics was bikeportland.org, a professionally reported blog for the city’s intense bicycle scene. Number two: mentalhealthportland.org, a daily filter of articles about people with mental illness and their run-ins with the law. Also in the top six: hipster hangout Blogtown PDX, hyperlocal aggregator neighborhoodnotes.com and libertarian opinionator bojack.org. (Full disclosure: I’m friendly with many of these sites’ creators.) And finally, down at #9: The Oregonian. More: http://www.niemanlab.org/2010/02/the-internet-golden-age-of-local-policy-debate/ Steven Clift - http://stevenclift.com Executive Director - http://E-Democracy.Org Follow me - http://twitter.com/democracy New Tel: +1.612.234.7072
Is anyone out there using this data? If not, want to? http://www.business.gov/about/features/api/geodata/ My simple idea, a geographically sortable list of local government home pages based on: 1. Geographic hierarchy 2. On a Google map 3. By latest time updated - send a robot in each day looking for changes on the home page 4. By latest time updated - a sort option within the geographic hierarchy 5. By population ranges 6. Display most/least updated by major population ranges - Help identify the most or least active websites in a comparative fashion 7. Display on a map the cities, towns, and townships with no known web site - then use http://TransparencyCorps.org to crowd source attempts to find the missing sites/pages Also, any idea if the API is built on the data collected by the US Census of Governments in 2007: http://harvester.census.gov/gid/gid_07/options.html This relates to #7 - when I dug into the 2007 Censis data I found that MOST local governments do not actually have websites - why? There are thousands of rural townships and towns with no web sites. I also found thousands without their own URL and instead a few web pages on some static local tourism web site with nothing more than basic directory information. While I would guess 90% of the population is served with a local government website, this is an untold story (until now). Steve From: http://www.business.gov/about/features/api/geodata/ U.S. City and County Web Data API Description This geographic names data set provides a "mashup" of URLs for official city and county government web sites and city and county location data from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (GNIS). GNIS data includes incorporated places, census designated areas, unincorporated places, counties, and populated places. The base URL for all calls to the Loans & Grants Search API is http://api.business.gov/geodata/. The API is RESTful and output formats are available in XML and JSON. Methods * City/County Data - All URLs If a city or county government has more than one domain or URL, one URL has been tagged as the primary city or county URL. These methods return only primary URLs. * City/County Data - Only Primary URLs If a city or county government has more than one domain or URL, one URL has been tagged as the primary city or county URL. These methods return only primary URLs. * City/County Data - All Data These methods returns all city and county data, including geographic data for cities and counties that do not have web sites. Steven Clift - http://stevenclift.com Executive Director - http://E-Democracy.Org Follow me - http://twitter.com/democracy New Tel: +1.612.234.7072
Steve, We had quite a public discussion with our Northfield mayor about these issues last month, both on our radio show/podcast and then continuing on our blog: http://locallygrownnorthfield.org/post/15549/
See: http://bit.ly/djxt9N 10 Tactics for Turning Information into Action Audio: podcast download audio Location: OSI-New York Event Date: March 1, 2010 Speakers: Melissa Gira Grant, Sam Gregory, Tessa Lewin, Elizabeth Eagen 10 Tactics for Turning Information into Action is a 50-minute film documenting inspiring info-activism stories from around the world, with interviews and case studies highlighting dozens of campaigns. This film, produced by the Tactical Technology Collective, provides original and artful ways for rights advocates to capture attention and communicate a cause. At this Open Society Institute screening and discussion, Sam Gregory of WITNESS, profiled in the film, and Melissa Gira Grant, a research consultant for the film, as well as other information activists, address how to turn information into action. Elizabeth Eagen, program officer for the OSI Information Program, introduces the event. Steven Clift - http://stevenclift.com Executive Director - http://E-Democracy.Org Follow me - http://twitter.com/democracy New Tel: +1.612.234.7072
Here are some of the "places" I know about:
http://pages.e-democracy.org/List_of_groups
What are we missing?
The "Exchange" - http://dowire.org/x - is working OK as a catch-all
very international space with over 730 folks, but my sense is with the
continual diffusion of online spaces in the field, that lots of new
people who have lots to offer are stuck at the more superficial often
event-based Twitter layer.
Steven Clift - http://stevenclift.com
Executive Director - http://E-Democracy.Org
Follow me - http://twitter.com/democracy
New Tel: +1.612.234.7072
Video: http://civic.mit.edu/watchlistenlearn/the-future-of-civic-engagement-in-a-broadband-enabled-world This was on March 1. Mon, 03/01/2010 - 4:00pm - 6:30pm A symposium presented by the MIT Center for Future Civic Media in cooperation with the Federal Communications Commission. Free and open to the public. Join thought leaders and public interest advocates working at the nexus of technological innovation and civic engagement as they preview the civic engagement recommendations in the forthcoming National Broadband Plan. A live stream of the event will be available at http://web.mit.edu/webcastnow/1. Program 4:00pm Keynote address: "Civic Engagement in the 21st Century: Data Transparency, Social Media, Public Media, Innovation in Government, and Digital Democracy" Eugene Huang, Director of Government Performance and Civic Engagement for the National Broadband Plan, will kick off the Symposium with a speech framing the narrative for civic engagement in the 21st century. He will address topics including data transparency, social media, public media, innovation in government, and digital democracy. 4:55pm The Future of Government/Citizen Engagement From the Mayor of Newark's tweets to the President's online town halls, technology has already changed how the public engages with their government. In a world of ubiquitous broadband, this interaction can radically change how government operates and develops policy. This panel will explore how broadband can transform government/citizen engagement. Moderator: Jerry Mechling, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University Speakers: * Christopher Csikszentmihalyi, MIT Center for Future Civic Media * Nick Grossman, The Open Planning Project * Laurel Ruma, O'Reilly Media * John Wonderlich, The Sunlight Foundation 5:45pm The Future of Digital Public Media Public media has always played a critical role in our democracy, informing citizens, leading our public conversation, and fostering civic engagement. However, broadband presents an historic opportunity for public media to reach even greater heights. This panel will explore the challenges and opportunities for the 21st century digital public media ecosystem. Moderator: Jake Shapiro, Public Radio Exchange Panelists: * Robert Bole, Corporation for Public Broadcasting * Sue Schardt, The Association of Independents in Radio (AIR) * Marita Rivero, WGBH-Boston * Kinsey Wilson, National Public Radio 6:30pm Closing Remarks Damian Thorman, John S. and James L. Knight Foundation Location: MIT's Tang Center Map: MIT Campus Map, Building E51 Steven Clift - http://stevenclift.com Executive Director - http://E-Democracy.Org Follow me - http://twitter.com/democracy New Tel: +1.612.234.7072
This is really big news: http://sunlightfoundation.com/campaign In short, you can't push open government in Washington, without people asking for it at the grass roots. If Members of Congress aren't asked about transparency at a town meeting or do not feel compelled to make campaign promises on the issue, the foundation being built for greater transparency will remain on sand. At the local level where I focus, I do think the "participation" and "collaboration" themes of the federal Open Government Directive are also required at the local level along side the starting point of greater transparency. At E-Democracy.org we are working on how to leverage the push for transparency into greater civic participation and collaboration: http://e-democracy.org/p3 - the larger Sunlight's campaign, the more people we can bring into these efforts at all levels. Very exciting. In addition to joining their campaign mentioned below, I encourage you to check out Sunlight's fledgling online group called Citizens for Open Government - http://bit.ly/93O36u - and if you are locally interested, the CityCamp online group is taking on a life of its own: http://e-democracy.org/citycamp If you have a hard time tracking all the "online groups" see: http://pages.e-democracy.org/List_of_groups Steven Clift - http://stevenclift.com Executive Director - http://E-Democracy.Org Follow me - http://twitter.com/democracy New Tel: +1.612.234.7072 From: Jake Brewer <email obscured>> Date: Wed, Mar 10, 2010 at 2:55 PM Subject: Taking Transparent Government to the Next Level In January we said that our goal for 2010 would be to make openness and transparency something that government had to answer to us for at every level -- in our cities, in our states and in Washington. It's time to start making good on that pledge, friends. Government information should be as accessible to us as information about the weather, sports scores or knowing what's going on in the stock market -- all online and in real-time. We need it to be this way so we can both hold government accountable and create new business with what is made available to us. In order to create this open, transparent government we seek, we have been building a national, nonpartisan campaign for the last two months, and you can see all our progress on the campaign page of our website. Next Thursday, March 18, we will officially launch our campaign for open government along with all of you. Ultimately our goal will be to build a movement of 250,000 citizens across the country that demand transparency in government. We'll be asking that citizens sign a pledge stating that transparency is of highest priority in determining who they vote for, and also ask citizens to commit to staying engaged in holding government accountable. In this way, we'll build political muscle big enough that we can't possibly be ignored. It's going to take all of us to get there, though. One of the first things you can do right now is volunteer to be a campaign leader, and serve next week as one of the people who will help us spread the word: http://sunlightfoundation.com/campaign Throughout next week, we will announce ways we can make government more open, and share ideas for how to make it work better for all of us. Next Thursday, we'll also unveil our new website, which will serve as the hub of our campaign. Each day, we'll let you know about something new. It's especially appropriate that next week is our launch because it's also the nationally recognized "Sunshine Week," in which the media focuses specifically on how to shine more light on government. Transparency leaders nationwide will connect online and off-line, hosting "Open Government Happy Hours" to bring people together in their cities, and organizing blog swarms to raise awareness of what we're doing. I'm sending this email this afternoon primarily as a heads up. We simply want you to know what's coming up, get excited about it, and help us spread the word as we near the launch date. This is going to be fun. We don't want anyone to miss out! Jake Brewer PS One way to think about what we'll be trying to do across the country with our campaign is find ways to complete a "Cycle of Transparency" - combining policy, technology, journalism, and engagement - in communities everywhere. This is a graphic we just put out to help make sense of it. Let us know what you think! http://bit.ly/TransparencyCycle
16:00 GMT is 12 Noon Eastern next week. (Speaking of standards, this is approach we will be exploring with http://PublicMeetings.Info - after openly exploring the requirements, the draft standard (or pointers to a mix of existing standards) might lead to open data sets related to public meeting notices and agendas. Since most local governments do not have legislative information systems like state legislatures and only some have gov-wide event calendars, some standards work might have a real impact. (Or not. :-))) From: http://www.talkstandards.com/sunshine-week-ict-and-open-government/ Online Forum: March 18, 2010 :: 16:00 - 20:00 GMT Sunshine Week: ICT and Open Government Upcoming event on Sunshine Week: ICT and Open Government Across the globe, awareness of the importance of open government and freedom of information is spreading. The Sunshine Week is an initiative to encourage dialogue and raise calls for an increased level of public access. This year, Talkstandards will join the Sunshine Week and host an Open Forum discussing the role of ICT standards in providing transparency. ICT solutions can contribute by providing services for participatory government, i.e. eGov 2.0 services, and create accessible databases etc. Another important issue is the need for standards in ensuring data portability. The forum will start at 4 pm GMT on Thursday March 18 and discussion will be based on a handful of introductory remarks. If you have any questions or would like to express interest in providing a written contribution, please contact Niklas Lindblom. Welcome to join the discussion! Mattias Ganslandt Steven Clift - http://stevenclift.com Executive Director - http://E-Democracy.Org Follow me - http://twitter.com/democracy New Tel: +1.612.234.7072
See: http://www.kcnn.org/open_government/ http://www.kcnn.org/open_government/door_1/ http://www.kcnn.org/open_government/blog/ Door 1 Grading State Web Sites Door 2 Access to Government Records: Some Basics Door 3 What Records Can You Get? Door 4 How to Create Productive Records Requests Door 5 Following Up on Records Requests Door 6 Blogger Q&A Door 7 Access to Meetings Door 8 Access to Courts Door 9 Access to Resources Door 10 Blog Steven Clift - http://stevenclift.com Executive Director - http://E-Democracy.Org Follow me - http://twitter.com/democracy New Tel: +1.612.234.7072
I've mentioned our "Inclusive Social Media" efforts to help network neighbors online before. Now they come to life in this excellent article from the Twin Cities Daily Planet: http://www.tcdailyplanet.net/news/2010/03/01/e-democracy-neighborhood-forums A must read. I've added an extended blog report with detail here: http://blog.e-democracy.org/posts/719 I cover the 6+ new forums suddenly in the pipeline, ideas on "moving the field," and end with the grand scheme. All very exciting. Also, the Block Activities wiki page keeps growing and our fourth Neighborly code-a-thon is planned for April: http://pages.e-democracy.org/Block_activities http://e-democracy.org/Neighborly In related news, our friends with the Front Porch Forum in Vermont are featured in an article as well - great job: http://www.yankeemagazine.com/issues/2010-03/features/local-networking-vt To move from 4% of the population (U.S) to 8% or 16 million adults on neighborhood e-mail lists/forums NOW is the time to connect those who want to make it happen. My one small contribution is to invite folks who do this kind of work to a new Locals Online community of practice and ask you to sign the draft invite letter: http://e-democracy.org/locals http://pages.e-democracy.org/Locals_Online Now is the time to make this happen. Steven Clift - http://stevenclift.com Executive Director - http://E-Democracy.Org Follow me - http://twitter.com/democracy New Tel: +1.612.234.7072
I thought you might be interested in an "online event" we are hosting with folks in New Hampshire: http://e-democracy.org/nh Press release: http://www.unh.edu/news/cj_nr/2010/feb/bm23gambling.cfm A few weeks ago, an effort in New Hampshire called What's At Stake approached us about helping them host an online dialogue tied to the ten in-person dialogues the held across their state in mid-Feb: http://whatsatstake.unh.edu The had about 200 or so folks who showed up in-person, but now with the added online round of participation, they are generating a new round of input for their Governor's Gaming Study Commission - http://www.nh.gov/gsc - from anywhere, at any time through Mar. 15. I know of no other example where everyone registering or attending a set of distributed in-person events were automatically added to a post-gathering online exchange. We called it "part two" and noted this aspect on a flyer shared at the event, had it mentioned orally, and before we uploaded people into the system we have them 48 hours to opt-out. About 10 folks opted out before uploading, another 10 or so during our round of introductions, and of the 200+ folks only a couple were really really confused or upset. Calling it a two-for-one event and risking a bit of heat is well worth the price of not losing 3/4 of people simply by requiring people to click on an invite link. We've added about 50 or 60 new people as well. (Better media coverage would bump this up, but for us this is a large group for such an online dialogue.) The technology they are using is the same we use for Issues Forum - which includes the crucial e-mail/web participation mix for effective inclusion and far broader participation than web-centric systems that require you to login to publish. Like our local public Issues Forums, the content is also being fed into Twitter and Facebook as well (something new are rolling our). Because their dialogue is geared toward gathering diverse opinions without the pressure of coming to consensus, that goal can be well served online. Any questions? Below is the post launching the two main themes over the next three weeks as well as my internal "priming" outline note. The conversation home is here: http://e-democracy.org/nh The topics as they unfold in detail: http://forums.e-democracy.org/groups/nh/messages/topics.html Note that the e-mail participation option results in messier topics - that is the price making publishing the technical ability to press reply. 1. Agenda Post From: http://forums.e-democracy.org/r/topic/5I7ujUb8peH2BJ4ZDYa9Ya From Martha Parker: Thank you for an exciting round of introductions. Many of you have shared your personal stories about gambling and its impacts. Please keep the stories coming. In the next two weeks we will cover more ground. To help you frame your thoughts, here is our suggested line up of topics. * Topic One - Cherish * Today - March 7: Our topic is “What you cherish” A. What do you cherish most about living in New Hampshire? And how do you think expanded legal gambling with affect what you cherish? B. Then, what are the key criteria or considerations that you want the Governor’s Study Commission to consider as they develop their report for the Governor? * Topic Two - Options * March 8 – March 14: When you think about expanded legal gambling in NH . . . A. Should this be an option for your community? Why? Why Not? B. Should this be an option for New Hampshire? Why? Why Not? * Final Thoughts * March 12-March 15: Final thoughts: What would you like the Commissioners to know that you haven’t already posted and discussed on this site? NOTE: See most of the 70+ introductions here: http://forums.e-democracy.org/groups/nh/messages/topics.html 2. My Internal "Priming" Outline to the NH Team In terms of potential "priming" messages - my rough thoughts sent the project leaders: Thursday 1. Short Welcome, Quick Timeline for next week - Martha 2. Digest/Admin Note - Steve 3. Invite a Friend to Join Us Friday 4. Context/Background/Links 5. Introductions - Started Saturday 6. Introductions - Moderated time to keep to intros 7. Digest Reminder Sunday 8. Introductions - Fresh keep them coming prompt Monday 9. Civility and Expectations Note 10. Theme One Intro/Question Tuesday 11. Invite a Friend Two then a mix of open discussion, themes until the end closing week ... you may want to share summaries and ask for comments on whether they accurately reflect the diversity of opinions That's all for now! Steven Clift E-Democracy.org Steven Clift - http://stevenclift.com Executive Director - http://E-Democracy.Org Follow me - http://twitter.com/democracy New Tel: +1.612.234.7072
From: http://bit.ly/cEe9Lm Making Social and Email Work Together By Jeanne S. Jennings, JJennings, More Posts 120 tweets TOP5K retweet Social is sexy; email is not. Social is alive and well; email is dead. This is the perception, but it’s not reality. Smart marketers know that social and email work together well, and that by leveraging that relationship they can make both their social media and email marketing strategies more effective. This is just one topic I’ll be covering in the MarketingSherpa Email Essentials 2010 Workshop Training, taking place in 10 locations around the United States beginning in this month. The strategic link between social and email is supported by “View from the Social Inbox 2010”, released by Merkle last month. It builds on the findings published by MarketingSherpa earlier this year, and by Silverpop in their “Emails Gone Viral: Measuring ‘Share to Social’ Performance” late last year. Merkle found that people who use social media actually check their email more frequently than those that do not: 42% of social media users check their email four times a day or more, compared to just 27% of those that don’t use social media. Even better news for marketers: 63% of those surveyed said that they use the same email account for social media messages as they do to opt-in to permission based email. ... http://bit.ly/cEe9Lm Steven Clift - http://stevenclift.com Executive Director - http://E-Democracy.Org Follow me - http://twitter.com/democracy New Tel: +1.612.234.7072
See: http://wiki.liqd.net/Open_Democracy_Camp_2010 For the German speakers on Dowire.org. Open Democracy Camp 2010 Am 8. und 9. Mai 2010 laden wir zum Open Democracy Camp 2010 (#odc10) nach Berlin ein. Das Open Democracy Camp ist eine gemeinsame Veranstaltung des Liquid Democracy e.V.[1] und des Opendata Network e.V.[2] - zwei Organisationen, die sich für digitale Formen der Demokratie, für Transparenz und Partizipation einsetzen. Unsere Einladung richtet sich an alle, die sich für die Nutzung und Entwicklung des Netzes als demokratischen Raum interessieren und engagieren. So soll es um Konzepte digitaler Demokratie, um den Einsatz und die Entwicklung von Debatten- und Diskursaggregatoren gehen. Zum Thema soll auch die notwendige Transparenz der öffentlichen Hand werden - eine OpenDemocracy braucht den Zugang zu Informationen - Stichwort: OpenData. Die Veranstaltung wird eine Mischung aus Barcamp-Format (Info) und Workshops werden: Der erste Tag dient zum Austausch, der zweite zur konkreter Zusammen- und Weiterarbeit. Um einen Austausch über die vielen Aspekte und Perspektiven zu erreichen, richtet sich das Camp unter anderem an: - mögliche Anwender neuer Formen von Demokratie - Vereine, NGOs und Parteien - an EntwicklerInnen und DesignerInnen unterschiedlicher Softwareprojekte - PolitiktheoretikerInnen und -praktikerInnen sowie IdeengeberInnen Steven Clift - http://stevenclift.com Executive Director - http://E-Democracy.Org Follow me - http://twitter.com/democracy New Tel: +1.612.234.7072
See: http://pewinternet.org/Reports/2010/Online-News.aspx Overview The overwhelming majority of Americans (92%) use multiple platforms to get their daily news, according to a new survey conducted jointly by the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project and Project for Excellence in Journalism. The internet is now the third most-popular news platform, behind local and national television news and ahead of national print newspapers, local print newspapers and radio. Getting news online fits into a broad pattern of news consumption by Americans; six in ten (59%) get news from a combination of online and offline sources on a typical day. The internet and mobile technologies are at the center of the story of how people’s relationship to news is changing. In today’s new multi-platform media environment, news is becoming portable, personalized, and participatory: * Portable: 33% of cell phone owners now access news on their cell phones. * Personalized: 28% of internet users have customized their home page to include news from sources and on topics that particularly interest them. * Participatory: 37% of internet users have contributed to the creation of news, commented about it, or disseminated it via postings on social media sites like Facebook or Twitter. In addition, people use their social networks and social networking technology to filter, assess, and react to news. And they use traditional email and other tools to swap stories and comment on them. Among those who get news online, 75% get news forwarded through email or posts on social networking sites and 52% share links to news with others via those means. Despite all of this online activity, the typical online news consumer routinely uses just a handful of news sites and does not have a particular favorite. And overall, Americans have mixed feelings about this “new” news environment. Over half (55%) say it is easier to keep up with news and information today than it was five years ago, but 70% feel the amount of news and information available from different sources is overwhelming. Steven Clift - http://stevenclift.com Executive Director - http://E-Democracy.Org Follow me - http://twitter.com/democracy New Tel: +1.612.234.7072
From: http://radar.oreilly.com/2010/02/rethinking-open-data.html Rethinking Open Data Lessons learned from the Open Data front lines by Nat Torkington | @gnat | comments: 25 In the last year I've been involved in two open data projects, Open New Zealand and data.govt.nz. I believe in learning from experience and I've seen some signs recently that other projects might benefit from my experience, so this post is a recap of what I've learned. It's the byproduct of a summer reflection on my last nine months working in open data. Technologists like to focus on technology, and I'm as guilty of that as the next person. When Open New Zealand started, we rushed straight to the "catalogue". I was part of a smart group of top-notch web hackers--we know what a catalogue is, it's a web-based database and let's figure out the UI flow and which fields do we want and hey I can hack one up in Wordpress and I'll work on the hosting and so on. We spent more time worrying about CSS than we did worrying about the users. This is the exact analogue of an open source software failure mode: often companies think they can get all the benefits of open source simply by releasing their source code. The best dinner parties are about the other people. Similarly, the best open source projects have great people, attract great people, and the source is simply what they're working on: necessary but not sufficient. You can build it but they won't come. All successful open source projects build communities of supportive engaged developers who identify with the project and keep it productive and useful. More: http://radar.oreilly.com/2010/02/rethinking-open-data.html Steven Clift - http://stevenclift.com Executive Director - http://E-Democracy.Org Follow me - http://twitter.com/democracy New Tel: +1.612.234.7072
See: http://www.gamesforchange.org From: Suzanne Seggerman - Games for Change <email obscured>> Date: Fri, Feb 26, 2010 at 2:21 PM Subject: 2010 7th Annual G4C Festival - White House CTO Aneesh Chopra Keynoting! Games for Change is delighted and honored to announce this year's keynote on May 25th: The first-ever White House Chief Technology Officer: Aneesh Chopra! The 2010 7th Annual Games for Change Festival May 24 - 27, 2010 - early registration open! Other featured speakers include: Clay Shirky, Internet expert and author of Here Comes Everybody Nick Bilton, Specialist at the New York Times R&D Lab & author of the forthcoming book, I Live In The Future And Here's How It Works Katie Salen, Executive Director of NYC's innovative "game school" Quest To Learn Dr. James Paul Gee, Mary Lou Fulton Presidential Professor of Literacy Studies, Arizona State University Micah Sifry, co-founder TechPresident.com and Personal Democracy Forum Among many others. Overview This May, the only festival dedicated to the exciting new movement of Digital Games for Social Change will explore real-world impact, the latest games, and a variety of funding strategies. Hosted in New York City by Parsons The New School for Design and The Games for Learning Institute at NYU, the 7th annual Games for Change Festival will take place May 24 - 27, 2010. 97% of teenagers are playing games - perhaps the most potent medium of our time for learning and civic engagement. The Annual G4C Festival brings together the world's leading foundations, NGOs, game-makers, academics, and journalists to explore how best to harness this incredibly powerful medium to engage young people and the general public in the critical issues of our day. Now in its seventh year, the Annual Games for Change Festival is the biggest game event in New York City, and has events around the world. Called "the Sundance of video games" for "socially-responsible game-makers" we're promoting a new genre of video game - games to change the world - for the better. Join us! The festival includes 4 exciting days of panels, keynotes and brainstorming sessions, as well as funders' meetings, press briefings, a private journalists dinner, birds-of-a-feather gatherings and the usual excellent networking opportunities. This year also features the always-popular Game Expo and reception where attendees can play these new games first-hand. Check out the festival site here. New Features Games for Change is excited to premiere a a new day-long workshop: The Power of Design: Youth Making Social Issue Games on May 24th. Young people are intensely curious about how games are made, and now with the availability of several game creation tools, they are becoming not just consumers, but game-makers. Game making incorporates a wide range of technical and artistic skills, and is an exceptional way to engage learners in complex systems thinking. We created this workshop especially for teachers, after school program leaders, and mentors who want to leverage the enthusiasm for games to create an innovative learning experience that incorporates many of the skills youth need to thrive in today's world. Also debuting at the 2010 festival is a bonus day What Makes Games (Really) Good For Learning on May 27th sponsored by the Games for Learning Institute at NYU which will focus on various aspects of games for learning, including: - The design process and team composition for educational games - Research methods for studying games in learning contexts - Design patterns for effective educational games - Assessment, in-game and out-of-game - Integration of games into traditional and non-traditional curricula And don't forget the pre-festival workshop for newbies on May 24th. Let the Games Begin: 101 Workshop on Making Social Issue Games - This workshop is a soup-to-nuts tutorial on the fundamentals of social issue games. Appealing to both those who are new to designing learning games but passionate about social issues, and those already underway in game production, the workshop will feature leading experts on game design, fundraising, evaluation, youth participation, distribution, and press strategies. We look forward to seeing you all there! Suzanne Suzanne Seggerman President, Co-founder Games for Change http://www.gamesforchange.org cell: 917.478.4772 Twitter: @Seggerwoman We are thankful for the generous support of our Festival sponsors, the Knight Foundation, the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, as well as Parsons The New School for Design. Games for Change seeks to harness the extraordinary power of video games to engage the public in the most pressing issues of our day, including poverty, human rights, global conflict and climate change. We are a voice for the transformative power of games, bringing together organizations and individuals from the nonprofit sector, government, journalism, academia, industry and the arts, to grow the sector and provide a platform for the exchange of ideas and resources. Through this work, Games for Change promotes new kinds of games that engage contemporary social issues in meaningful ways to foster a more just, equitable and tolerant society. This email was sent to <email obscured> by <email obscured>. Instant removal with SafeUnsubscribe™ | Privacy Policy. Email Marketing by Games for Change | 666 Broadway | Suite 825 | New York | NY | 10012