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

March 11, 2010

Permalink for 'Steven_Clift_s_Notes___Democracies_Online/2010/03/11/Webcast___Future_of_Civic_Engagement_in_a_Broadband_Enabled_World'

9:57

Webcast - Future of Civic Engagement in a Broadband Enabled World

» ‎ Steven Clift's Notes - Democracies Online

Video:
[civic.mit.edu]

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
[web.mit.edu]
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 - [stevenclift.com]
  Executive Director - [E-Democracy.Org]
  Follow me - [twitter.com]
  New Tel: +1.612.234.7072

March 10, 2010

Permalink for 'Steven_Clift_s_Notes___Democracies_Online/2010/03/10/Sunlight_Foundation_Launching_Campaign_Taking_Transparent_Government_to_the_Next_Level__opengov__gov20'

15:11

Sunlight Foundation Launching Campaign Taking Transparent Government to the Next Level #opengov #gov20

» ‎ Steven Clift's Notes - Democracies Online

This is really big news:  [sunlightfoundation.com]

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: [e-democracy.org] - 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 - [bit.ly] - and if you are locally
interested, the CityCamp online group is taking on a life of its own:
[e-democracy.org]   If you have a hard time tracking all
the "online groups" see: [pages.e-democracy.org]


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


From: Jake Brewer >
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:

[sunlightfoundation.com]

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!

[bit.ly]

8:33

TalkStandards - Sunshine Week Live Online Forum - March 18 - Noon Eastern

» ‎ Steven Clift's Notes - Democracies Online

16:00 GMT is 12 Noon Eastern next week.

(Speaking of standards, this is approach we will be exploring with
[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:
[www.talkstandards.com]

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

March 09, 2010

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

11:28

Citizen Journalists Guide to Open Government

» ‎ Steven Clift's Notes - Democracies Online

See:
[www.kcnn.org]
[www.kcnn.org]
[www.kcnn.org]

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

March 08, 2010

Permalink for 'Steven_Clift_s_Notes___Democracies_Online/2010/03/08/Great_news_article___Neighbors_connect_online_from_TCDailyPlanet__hyperlocal'

15:20

Great news article - Neighbors connect online from TCDailyPlanet #hyperlocal

» ‎ Steven Clift's Notes - Democracies Online

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:

[www.tcdailyplanet.net]

A must read.

I've added an extended blog report with detail here:

    [blog.e-democracy.org]

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:

   [pages.e-democracy.org]
   [e-democracy.org]

In related news, our friends with the Front Porch Forum in Vermont are
featured in an article as well - great job:

   [www.yankeemagazine.com]

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:

   [e-democracy.org]
   [pages.e-democracy.org]

Now is the time to make this happen.

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

March 05, 2010

Permalink for 'Steven_Clift_s_Notes___Democracies_Online/2010/03/05/From_Face_to_Face_to_Online_Dialogue___An_Example_from_New_Hampshire'

11:59

From Face to Face to Online Dialogue - An Example from New Hampshire

» ‎ Steven Clift's Notes - Democracies Online

I thought you might be interested in an "online event" we are hosting
with folks in New Hampshire:

   [e-democracy.org]

Press release:

   [www.unh.edu]

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:
[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 -
[www.nh.gov] - 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:
[e-democracy.org]

The topics as they unfold in detail:
[forums.e-democracy.org]
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: [forums.e-democracy.org]

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:
[forums.e-democracy.org]


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

March 03, 2010

Permalink for 'Steven_Clift_s_Notes___Democracies_Online/2010/03/03/Another_e_mail_matters_article___Social_media_users_still_check_e_mail_more_often_than_others'

21:48

Another e-mail matters article - Social media users still check e-mail more often than others

» ‎ Steven Clift's Notes - Democracies Online

From:
[bit.ly]

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.

...

[bit.ly]


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

March 01, 2010

Permalink for 'Steven_Clift_s_Notes___Democracies_Online/2010/03/01/Conf___Open_Democracy_Camp___Berlin___8_9_May_2010'

15:12

Conf - Open Democracy Camp - Berlin - 8-9 May 2010

» ‎ Steven Clift's Notes - Democracies Online

See:
[wiki.liqd.net]

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

11:25

PewInternet.org - Understanding the Participatory News Consumer

» ‎ Steven Clift's Notes - Democracies Online

See:
[pewinternet.org]

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

11:18

Torkington: Rethinking Open Data - Lessons learned from the Open Data front lines

» ‎ Steven Clift's Notes - Democracies Online

From:
[radar.oreilly.com]

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:
[radar.oreilly.com]


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

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

Webcast - Future of Civic Engagement in a Broadband Enabled World

Sunlight Foundation Launching Campaign Taking Transparent Government to the Next Level #opengov #gov20

TalkStandards - Sunshine Week Live Online Forum - March 18 - Noon Eastern

Citizen Journalists Guide to Open Government

Great news article - Neighbors connect online from TCDailyPlanet #hyperlocal

From Face to Face to Online Dialogue - An Example from New Hampshire

Another e-mail matters article - Social media users still check e-mail more often than others

Conf - Open Democracy Camp - Berlin - 8-9 May 2010

PewInternet.org - Understanding the Participatory News Consumer

Torkington: Rethinking Open Data - Lessons learned from the Open Data front lines