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Steven Clift's Notes - Democracies Online (10 unread)

September 03, 2010

Permalink for 'Steven_Clift_s_Notes___Democracies_Online/2010/09/03/New_Zealand_Combines_Open_Data_with_Public_Engagement_Online'

0:15

New Zealand Combines Open Data with Public Engagement Online

» ‎ Steven Clift's Notes - Democracies Online

This looking interesting!
[nesdiscussion.mfe.govt.nz]

From: Nadia Webster >
Date: Fri, Sep 3, 2010 at 12:09 AM
Subject: [ninjas] Open Data Engagement Pilot
To: 

We (DIA) have just launched an open data engagement pilot in a joint
initiative with the Ministry for the Environment. The pilot is testing
the hypothesis that data is a useful ingredient in government policy
consultations.

The discussion forum [nesdiscussion.mfe.govt.nz] is running in
parallel with MfE's consultation on the National Environmental
Standard for Plantation Forestry. The forum focuses on Erosion
Susceptibility Classification and asks three associated questions with
relevant datasets. The forum site aggregates land based datasets that
look at land environment, cover, use and also and climate and water
(all things important when considering erosion susceptibility).

Please take a look at the forum and the data. Is there anything
interesting that could come from the data to inform the discussion?

While you're there please also fill out the brief questionnaire to
help us with the pilot evaluation.

0:07

YahooGroups changes ... what people say to you when you change stuff they rely on

» ‎ Steven Clift's Notes - Democracies Online

Back in the day, eGroups (which became YahooGroups through
acquisition) revolutionized group formation online in 1998.

Prior to that time you had to essentially have your own server or be
based at an university to run an e-mail list. It took me many months
to find the folks at the U of Minn in 1993 where I could host the
Public Policy Network e-mail list that got me into online group
building originally. With E-Democracy.org (until we moved to
YahooGroups for a number of years) we were lucky to have Minnesota's
then largest ISP and regional Internet node host our MN-Politics forum
using "majordomo." Remember that name?

While newsgroups were available, at least with politics, they were
anonymous bottom of barrel conspiracy theory filled spaces like online
news commenting is today. E-mail lists typically brought real
identities to the fore because most people simply do not have the time
to manage an alias via a webmail account. (The web forums, blog
commenting systems, and MySpace went the newsgroup "alias" route and
Facebook basically went old school by adopting real identities like
most e-mail list users.)

The problem with e-mail list tools, is that developers haven't found
them sexy to work with. Mailservers are a pain and keeping spammers at
bay a challenge. So while Google Groups and YahooGroups remain popular
services, they've really languished. (One reason why we went with open
source [GroupServer.org] so we could still allow lowest common
denominator e-mail publishing while getting the web interface into a
semi-competitive position to compete with the expectations of new more
web-centric, now social networking centric users.)

YahooGroups is trying to change that and make e-mail lists look modern
on the web:
[www.ygroupsblog.com]

They are trying to make the functioning of e-mail lists look more Ning
or social networking like.

So, I find some of the comments quite interesting (I need to see an
actual new group in action to judge what features are gone). When
folks ask E-Democracy.org why we don't use "just use" Ning or Drupal
or Facebook etc. in part it is because in general - most of your
existing user base - will not come with you if you change to much (or
in particular if you try to force them to move) and in our case
sacrifice e-mail publishing to essentially look better to potential
new users. Now it could well be that we could serve many more
communities (perhaps at a lower quality threshold) by creating
Facebook Pages with trained facilitators for our Issues Forums, but
like the YahooGroups group owners are experiencing you no longer
control your own destiny when the real owner changes things based on
their goals/mission and not your own.

From:
[www.ygroupsblog.com]

#
Will Davis said,

August 31, 2010 @ 7:52 pm

Stop. Making. Changes.

The number of items “removed (at least for now)” is DISGUSTING.

The remodel is unworkable.

Go look at the comments attached to the blog post you folks made when
you announced the changes. You’re getting buried there.

Stop building yourselves YahooFacebookLite and leave well enough alone.
#
Mike Clemens said,

August 31, 2010 @ 7:57 pm

So now I can’t read the entire message, but have to sort through the
pile of stuff I’m not interested in? Nice “redeisgn” folks. You’ve
taken all the utility out of the groups and replaced it with visual
noise.

Please add an option for those of us boring stick-in-the-muds who want
to see the whole message and its thread at one time.
#
Jan D said,

August 31, 2010 @ 7:59 pm

I absolutely HATE the new format. I need my group messages listed in
date order – not subject order. I want my messages listed in order by
date and time. This is confusing and hard to read. PLEASE go back to
the old format. When you have something that works well, why change
it? I am very unhappy about this and will probably stop trying to read
most of my group list if this is the best that Yahoo can do to present
them.
#
James said,

August 31, 2010 @ 8:06 pm

This new format is awful for what my group of 33,000 members for 7
years are accustomed to, what happened to the rich text for posting
messages, being able to format links, embed photo’s or just to be able
to use html?

No group description or being able to customize home page???

Will there be option to opt out and keep our old format if we were
happy with it??
#
Will Davis said,

August 31, 2010 @ 8:16 pm

Design team – now you’re getting buried on the Suggestions Board too.
Have you looked at that? Or is it Miller Time?

NO ONE WANTS YAHOOFACEGROUPSBOOK. Or any such Frankensteinian
assemblage. Are you listening?!
#
John said,

August 31, 2010 @ 8:20 pm

For the love of Pete. What are you doing at Yahoo.
This new format is terrible. Why not give group owners the ability to
return to the older (user friendly) format.

Do something good for a change and return to the other format.
#
Major Group said,

August 31, 2010 @ 8:29 pm

PLEASE DO NOT FORCE THIS ABOMINATION UPON US.
#
garry w robinson said,

August 31, 2010 @ 8:30 pm

for cryin out loud yall . didnt your mamma ever tell you if its workin
dont tinker with it. this is awfull
#
Major Group said,

August 31, 2010 @ 8:38 pm

It took 2 years to recover from the previous “makeover” :(

I own techical/scientific groups of 10,000 members and 3,500 members.
I have owned these groups since before YahooGroups existed. In fact,
many of my members got their Yahoo ID because of a need to participate
in my groups.

Please do not betray all the group owners and moderators by destroying
what we have built over the past 12 years.

We don’t want a Facebook style or any “social networking” style.

We only want to be able to communicate with each other simply via text
seamlessly on email and web. We will put up with some advertising and
be very loyal if you don’t keep messing us over every few years.
#
Anna said,

August 31, 2010 @ 8:38 pm

Geepers if I want facebook I would use it. I don’t like the change at
all. I find all the things in the postings to be excess. We talk about
things pertinent to the show and want to keep it that way without all
the excess additions. We use the KISS program and enjoy it from what I
see. BTW KISS is keep it simple stupid. The one aspect we do miss is
the fact we can not have chat. We migrated from the old original yahoo
clubs and members are allowed to hide their addresses making us unable
to have a chat room. I hope with this new format we can opt out if we
do not want to be a part of it.


Steven Clift - [stevenclift.com]
  Executive Director - [E-Democracy.Org]
  Follow me - [twitter.com]
  New Tel: +1.612.234.7072

September 01, 2010

Permalink for 'Steven_Clift_s_Notes___Democracies_Online/2010/09/01/Challenge.Gov___Crowdsourcing_National_Challenges_With_the_New_Challenge.gov'

7:45

Challenge.Gov - Crowdsourcing National Challenges With the New Challenge.gov

» ‎ Steven Clift's Notes - Democracies Online

Crowdsourcing National Challenges With the New Challenge.gov
[bit.ly]

Also note:
[gov20.govfresh.com]



Steven Clift - [stevenclift.com]
  Executive Director - [E-Democracy.Org]
  Follow me - [twitter.com]
  New Tel: +1.612.234.7072

August 31, 2010

Permalink for 'Steven_Clift_s_Notes___Democracies_Online/2010/08/31/Governments_that_Block_Social_Media_are_Fundamentally_Anti_Democratic'

8:50

Governments that Block Social Media are Fundamentally Anti-Democratic

» ‎ Steven Clift's Notes - Democracies Online

This is a major problem:
[www.govloop.com]

Governments that can't engage and communicate with the people "where
they are" simply are no longer democratic. Period. The blunt
instrument of blocking essentially the interactive web from government
employees will fundamentally disconnect these institutions from the
people they serve.

This was my reply:

How can our governments represent the will of the people if they close
themselves off from the tools used by the people to communicate?
Group punishment for abuses of a few co-workers online is
fundamentally Un-American - it may be OK in a private business, but
this has no place in general government.

We welcome change and openness; for we believe that freedom and
security go together, that the advance of human liberty can only
strengthen our democracy. There is one sign that governments in the
U.S. can make that would be unmistakable, that would advance
dramatically the cause of freedom and their ability to engage
Americans where there are online. President Obama, if you seek
democracy, if you seek open government, if you seek liberalization,
come here to this gate. Mr. Obama, open this gate. Mr. Obama, tear
down this firewall! (Adapted freely.)


Steven Clift - [stevenclift.com]
  Follow me - [twitter.com]
  New Tel: +1.612.234.7072

August 26, 2010

Permalink for 'Steven_Clift_s_Notes___Democracies_Online/2010/08/26/Louisville_opens_its_check_book__Learning_the_lesson_of_Yalova'

8:12

Louisville opens its check book, Learning the lesson of Yalova

» ‎ Steven Clift's Notes - Democracies Online

While continuing my drafting of the Sunshine 2.0 guide:
[pages.e-democracy.org]

I ran into this useful e-transparency brief from the League of Cities:
[www.nlc.org]

The brief profiles the "Your Tax Dollars At Work" website of
Louisville Kentucky. It provides direct access to spending information
in a useful manner (not just a raw context-less data dumps or only
high-level proposed budgets) is revolutionary in government. It
actually suggests that citizens own their government and can be
trusted with information that they will use to promote accountability.

The example is profiled again today with some new features:
Louisville, Ky., Expands Fiscal Transparency Portal to Include Vendor
Contract Details
[www.govtech.com]

Do you know of similar examples we can put on the "leader board?"

Back in 1993 when the State of Minnesota was installing a new
accounting system they had a proposed feature called "Information
Access" which would generate reports for decision-making. I was
staffing a task force on electronic access to government information
at the time. My question to my fellow government employees, "This is
great, when will this be open for public use" was not well received.
They changed the name of the product to "Decision Analysis" or
something like that.  Over the years I'd hear promises about coming
public spending transparency, but nothing comprehensive has ever
emerged in Minnesota. Not even a reform minded former pro-wrestler as
Governor tried to open up such access.

So having left government, I spent years trying to find any government
in the world with detailed _spending_ information online - Iceland -
no, Denmark - no, etc. then about seven years ago I ran into Yalova,
Turkey - [slidesha.re] - slide #14. They provided all sort
of transparency ... current bank balances, a listing of the cars owned
by top officials, etc.  In my "Global E-Democracy Trends"
presentations, this example and an interactive townhall meeting via
Net-based video conferencing in rural India, provided "Holy S&%*!"
moments for the governments who had invited me to speak. There
reaction "If they can do this there, why not here ... gosh, I hope no
one asks for this."

Well, finally in 2010 the public seems to be expressing a real demand
for spending transparency and a few governments are slowly taking up
the challenge. (Even some candidates are beginning to make more
specific transparency promises to get elected ... hey journalists out
there, how about a story on transparency promises by Governor
candidates?) This is awesome.

However, it is important that we learn the lesson of Yalova. When the
party in power that brought about the transparency effort lost, the
next government that came in turned it all off. Online transparency
must be built into the rule of law and be required state by state of
all government units or the foundation we are building will erode over
time and not serve most citizens. Louisville should be one among many,
not a novelty. Governments who take building trust seriously need to
take a pilgrimage to:
[www.louisvilleky.gov]

Steven Clift

Also note this story today:
Online Transparency Remains a Priority Despite Slight Decline in
Citizen Satisfaction
[www.govtech.com]

Steven Clift - [stevenclift.com]
  Executive Director - [E-Democracy.Org]
  Follow me - [twitter.com]
  New Tel: +1.612.234.7072

August 18, 2010

Permalink for 'Steven_Clift_s_Notes___Democracies_Online/2010/08/18/Conf__PEP_NET_Summit__Hamburg__23_Sep_2010__Let_s_Get_Loud_'

14:30

Conf: PEP-NET Summit, Hamburg, 23 Sep 2010: Let's Get Loud!

» ‎ Steven Clift's Notes - Democracies Online

See:
[pep-net.eu]

From: PEP-NET Summit >
Date: Wed, Aug 18, 2010 at 10:09 AM
Subject: PEP-NET Summit, Hamburg, 23/09/2010: Let's Get Loud!
To: 

PEP-NET Summit, Hamburg, 23/09/2010: Let's Get Loud!

Dear Steven Clift,

The calm of Hamburg’s historic Speicherstadt is not usually disturbed
by anything more than the chatter of tourists exploring the
picturesque surroundings in the sun, or a sprinkling of rain sending
ripples across the canals.

But on 23rd September 2010, we’re hoping to make waves that spread
well beyond the canals of Hamburg to the furthest corners of Europe!

Along with the 5 keynote speeches from the movers and shakers of
European eParticipation, we will be hosting 14 half-hour presentations
in our "presentation corners" during the breaks. That’s a total of
seven hours’ presentations of groundbreaking eParticipation projects
in an informal atmosphere, where you will be able to move from one
presentation to another and discuss with other participants.

As many as four presentations will be running in parallel, so it will
get loud in there; but that will only add to the lively hustle and
bustle. With presenters from all across Europe -- Germany, Scotland,
England, Estonia, Slovakia, Greece, the Netherlands, and Denmark --
this will be so much more than just another flashy conference.

During the main sessions, our 5 international experts will share their
thoughts on topics such as citizen participation online, open
government and open data from their varied and unique perspectives.
They are:

-          Thanassis Chrissafis (European Commission)
-          Noella Edelmann (Danube University, Krems)
-          Anke Domscheit-Berg (Microsoft)
-          Paul Johnston (Cisco)
-          Andrea Di Maio (Gartner)

We are organising a dinner on the evening of the Summit and a tour of
Hamburg with an eParticipation focus on the Friday morning, so there
are plenty of opportunities to network.

Places are limited, so secure your place by registering for the free
PEP-NET Summit at: [pep-net.eu]

See you there!

All the best,

Rolf Luehrs,
PEP-NET Co-ordinator
TuTech Innovation GmbH Bengt Feil John Heaven

9:16

Revitalizing Democracy Award - Please help rate and comment on our Neighbors Issues Forums - Inclusive Social Media submission

» ‎ Steven Clift's Notes - Democracies Online

Rate and review here:

    [bit.ly]

We've submitted E-Democracy.org's "Neighbors Issues Forums - Inclusive
Social Media" for the Reinhard Mohn Prize 2011 organized by the
Bertelsmann Stiftung which is focused on "Vitalizing Democracy through
Participation".  The prize is 150,000 Euros.

From:     [bit.ly]

Neighbors Issues Forums - Inclusive Social Media
No. 89 | 13.08.2010
Location: United States, Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota (Also UK
and New Zealand)

Time span: 2008 - Today

Initiated by: E-Democracy.org in association with
government-sanctioned neighborhood councils in Minneapolis and St.
Paul, Minnesota.

Neighbors Issues Forums support online citizen engagement in local
democracy and community. Our special Inclusive Social Media initiative
is pushing this work forward in low income, high immigrant
neighborhoods that are being left completely behind when it comes to
using the Internet for community and democratic participation. Our
Inclusive Social Media effort - [e-democracy.org] - is
the specific program we are nominating within our global Issues Forum
network. This program is likely to expand to support inclusion of
participation actions across many more neighborhoods beyond to the two
pilot communities.

In the Pew Internet and American Life Project's "Neighbors Online"
study it found that 22% of American adults "talk digitally with
neighbors." For households with income over $75,000 the participation
rate is 39% and half that at 20% for just under $50,000 and only 12%
for less that $30,000. Further, among Internet users 15% who make over
$75,000 belong to the most intensive and community empowering
neighborhood e-mail lists and forums like our forums. In comparison,
only 2% of those with household incomes under $30,000 participate, 3%
up to $49,000, only 3% of Hispanics (both English and Spanish
Speaking) (while they don’t measure immigrants specifically, our guess
is that the percent would be even lower), and only 2% of rural
residents.

Our nominated initiative targets the least likely areas and
populations to be served by online engagement - the strong majority
East African Cedar Riverside - [e-democracy.org] -
neighborhood in Minneapolis and the plurality ~40% Southeast Asian
(Hmong) with African-American (20%) and White (20%) Frogtown
neighborhood in St. Paul - [e-democracy.org]

We also host a forum in a lower income, Native American majority forum
called Cass Lake Leech Lake - [e-democracy.org] - in northern
rural Minnesota. This was part of our previous "Rural Voices"
initiative where we expanded to four rural Minnesota communities with
the support of the Blandin Foundation. Those forums remain open with
support, like almost all of our network, from local volunteers.

The lessons from these efforts need to be shared widely. Inclusive
outreach must be spread across online engagement efforts universally,
or the harsh reality is that efforts to use the Internet in governance
will bring anti-democratic results and simply raise the voices of the
already powerful in society.


Lot's more at:

   [bit.ly]

With your help we can make this the most rated and commented upon
initiative in the bunch. Because our government connection (required
for submission) is via government-recognized and funded neighborhood
associations, our submission is likely the most grassroots in the
bunch. Let's show them what grassroots can do online!

Steven Clift
E-Democracy.org

Steven Clift - [stevenclift.com]
  Executive Director - [E-Democracy.Org]
  Follow me - [twitter.com]
  New Tel: +1.612.234.7072

August 16, 2010

Permalink for 'Steven_Clift_s_Notes___Democracies_Online/2010/08/16/Wide_cost_range_for_upgrading_local_council_online_offerings_in_the_UK'

11:50

Wide cost range for upgrading local council online offerings in the UK

» ‎ Steven Clift's Notes - Democracies Online

One of my hopes with CityCamp and LocalLabs (
[e-democracy.org] ), is to help connect expert "digital
citizens" in the know with those in local government doing web work to
help make sure our governments get the best value for the money they
do spend on tech/the web. The general sense is that a lot more value
could be generated if spent right with some real openness to input
along the way. - Steve


See:
[www.telegraph.co.uk]


Councils spending millions on website redesigns as job cuts loom
Councils are spending millions on redesigns of their websites despite
facing the biggest funding cuts in their history, the Telegraph can
disclose.


By Conrad Quilty-Harper and Sarah Clark
Published: 8:45AM BST 16 Aug 2010

53 Comments

The fees for the revamps, which come on top of salaries and other
external costs, were criticised by campaigners who say the money would
be better used ensuring residents have workable access to the
internet.

One council refreshed the look of its website eight times in a decade,
another paid more than a thousand pounds for a spellchecker that comes
free with word processing software.

The wide differences between town hall website budgets - which were
revealed in Freedom of Information requests by the Telegraph - suggest
that some are paying well over the odds.

A redesign and revamp of the technology underlying a council website,
for instance, costs half of the councils which replied less than
£15,000, but the Telegraph uncovered 10 examples of councils paying
between £100,000 and £600,000.

These examples are in addition to Birmingham City Council's admission
last year that it had spent £2.8 million on a redesign of its website.
Essex County Council told the BBC last month that it had spent
£800,000 on a new website.

...


Steven Clift - [stevenclift.com]
  Executive Director - [E-Democracy.Org]
  Follow me - [twitter.com]
  New Tel: +1.612.234.7072

August 13, 2010

Permalink for 'Steven_Clift_s_Notes___Democracies_Online/2010/08/13/US_Open_Government_Framework_Research_Project_at_Center_for_Technology_in_Government'

15:34

US Open Government Framework Research Project at Center for Technology in Government

» ‎ Steven Clift's Notes - Democracies Online

See:
[www.ctg.albany.edu]

Summary

This project supports the efforts of the US General Services
Administration’s Office of Citizen Services and Innovative
Technologies (GSA OCSIT) to expand the knowledge base related to
supporting citizen services. Focused on supporting GSA OSCIT’s new
initiatives in citizen services and open government, this project will
yield two deliverables: 1) a practical resource to assist GSA OCSIT in
their efforts to build out the thinking and strategies to support
citizen services, and 2) a full research proposal that lays out the
research questions surrounding emerging technologies, open government,
and citizen services.

The practical resource will be an Open Government Framework based on a
value driven approach to thinking about and acting on the principles
of open government: transparency, collaboration, and participation.
The Framework will provide a bridge between the concepts of open
government and the pressure to "just do it.” The framework will be a
tool for government managers to use in implementing their open
government directives; supporting them as they move from ideas to
action. The framework is grounded in a focus on public value creation
and provides a tool for agencies to place stakeholders and public
value creation in the center of their efforts. It will categorize and
describe the attributes, characteristics, enablers, barriers, and
potential assessment criteria for each of the open government
principles so that agencies can create a shared understanding of the
stakeholders served by each strategy and the potential impact of each.

The full research proposal will set forth a plan to tackle the most
challenging research questions and seek to develop new knowledge about
open government.


More:
[www.ctg.albany.edu]

Scope of Work

With the release of the White House Open Government Directive, there
is an emphasis on citizen engagement and participation initiatives
that offer new opportunities for expanded and enhanced customer
service. The open government imperatives engage citizens in new ways
and provide opportunity to create innovative collaboration models. As
such, agencies need new ways of thinking about their relationships
with citizens and with each other to realize the full customer service
potential. In order to do this, it is critical to first create a
shared understanding of transparency, collaboration, and
participation, and how various investments in open government related
initiatives serve diverse stakeholders so that new initiatives can be
designed, implemented, and evaluated.

The development of the Open Government Framework will follow four
high-level steps:

    * Preliminary framework development. Drawing on past work,
literature, examples of practice, and interviews with key open
government thought leaders, CTG team will develop the preliminary
framework.
    * Testing and refining the preliminary framework. CTG and GSA
OCSIT will work together to identify the key leaders in 6-8 federal
agencies to attend an expert workshop. The goal is to select several
people within each federal agency who are responsible for a range of
citizen services and open government functions. The workshop will
focus on testing the applicability and utility of the framework.
    * Open Government Framework and Final Report. Based on feedback
from the expert workshop and continued conversations, CTG will develop
a final report that lays out the framework and provides use cases to
support agency adoption.
    * Develop a large scale research proposal. Using insights gained
from this project, CTG and GSA OCSIT will develop a full research
proposal focused on an examination of the challenging questions
related to open government



Steven Clift - [stevenclift.com]
  Executive Director - [E-Democracy.Org]
  Follow me - [twitter.com]
  New Tel: +1.612.234.7072

10:15

OpenTech - 11 Sep 2010 - London

» ‎ Steven Clift's Notes - Democracies Online

From: Sam Smith >
Date: Fri, Aug 13, 2010 at 10:05 AM
Subject: [mySociety:public] OpenTech - 11th September - you should come
To: general purpose discussion list mySociety public
>

If you're on this list, you'll probably be interest.

Sam

  * Ticket reservations now open - Please Redistribute Freely *

                      OpenTech 2010
                 sponsored by data.gov.uk

       Saturday 11th Septmber - ULU, Malet Street, London, WC1E 7HY

          [www.ukuug.org]

 OpenTech 2010, from UKUUG and friends,
 Saturday 11th September
 ULU, Malet Street, London, WC1E 7HY

 Tickets only £5
 Students Free Entry

 Welcome to OpenTech 2010.

 40 talks across 3 tracks over 7 hours, on crowds, earthquakes and
 battlefronts, which hope to challenge, inspire or talk about something that
 makes you want to get involved.  OpenTech 2010 includes earthquakes of the
 metaphorical and physical kind, ForTheWin, enlightenment and the environment,
 and with plenty of time to talk in the bar after sessions which challenge,
 inspire or talk about something that makes you want to help how you can. The
 last two times we have sold out in advance, so you are strongly advised to
 pre-register.

 This year's line up features...
      * Another 500 years of Enlightenment from Bill Thompson
      * Tales from the Battlefront from No2ID
      * For the Win: Game-space and Public Engagement
      * Just Do It: The Documentary by Director Emily James
      * Climate Change: how screwed are we? by AMEE
      * OpenGeoScience: not just earthquakes
      * Keeping the web open - Mozilla Drumbeat
      * 10:10 global from Technical Director Robin Houston
      * Crowdsourcing Data Context from Hadley Beeman
      * Lessons and futures from data.gov.uk
      * Today's Guardian
      * Who's lobbying?
      * and much much more besides

 The full schedule is at

[www.ukuug.org]

 Brought to you by UKUUG and friends. Sponsored by data.gov.uk

 Tickets are £5, paid for on the door; but you should pre-register
yours online at

[www.ukuug.org]

 * Want to help out? *

 OpenTech is organised by volunteers and we are now looking
 for volunteers to help out on the day. In return for free
 early entry and our eternal gratitude, we're in need of a
 few people to show up a bit earlier and help us set the
 venue up, and a few people to help with the audio recordings.

 If you're interested, or have random other questions, email
 us on 

 One thing we're doing this year is giving everyone related
 to OpenTech the chance to post their projects on a page,
 and say what help they need. Offline or on, whether you're
 after tech people or just more helpers, you can ask the
 OpenTech community to help out what matters to you:
       [ukuug.org]

 Final programme may be subject to alteration. OpenTech is a
 not for profit event open to everyone so please help spread
 the word online and offline. Thanks for reading!

 Saturday 11th September- ULU, Malet Street, London, WC1E 7HY

        [www.ukuug.org]

 When signing up for your tickets online, why not tick the
 box to hear a little more from us, or just send an email to
  . Your address will
 only be used to contact you about OpenTech and will not be
 passed onto third parties.

  Saturday 11th September - ULU, Malet Street, London, WC1E 7HY

[www.ukuug.org]

  Final programme may be subject to alteration. Thanks for reading!

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Steven Clift's Notes - Democracies Online (10 unread)

New Zealand Combines Open Data with Public Engagement Online

YahooGroups changes ... what people say to you when you change stuff they rely on

Challenge.Gov - Crowdsourcing National Challenges With the New Challenge.gov

Governments that Block Social Media are Fundamentally Anti-Democratic

Louisville opens its check book, Learning the lesson of Yalova

Conf: PEP-NET Summit, Hamburg, 23 Sep 2010: Let's Get Loud!

Revitalizing Democracy Award - Please help rate and comment on our Neighbors Issues Forums - Inclusive Social Media submission

Wide cost range for upgrading local council online offerings in the UK

US Open Government Framework Research Project at Center for Technology in Government

OpenTech - 11 Sep 2010 - London