A proposed online community of practice
Steven Clift
I've spoken with a handful of you about the opportunity to create a local/state/federal online group for practitioners in the "democracy online" field specifically for the U.S.. I've been doing this internationally since 1998 through Democracies Online - http://dowire.org, but there was never enough U.S. interest in non-partisan circles beyond election years to sustain niche information exchange. I believe we've finally made it. I think the Open House Project is really helping waking people up to opportunities outside of online advocacy and campaigning to use the Internet to improve public participation. More projects are likely in the years to come at all levels and we need to help each other out.
I have a draft group up here:
http://groups.dowire.org/groups/us
Would you like to be a co-host? I'd like a few at different levels (local, state, national) and from different "democratic sectors" from e-government portals and legislative websites to voter education and online news. Drop me a note: cl...@publicus.net
A co-host simply need to share something interesting once a month and would help recruit their practitioner peers to join us.
Cheers,
Steven Clift
DoWire.Org
E-Democracy.Org
Greg Elin
Can you expand on who practitioners might be? At Sunlight our mission effectively keeps us grounded around workings of Congress. But "democracy" is legitimately a b - i - g word.
It's an unfair question, I know, but I'm trying to get a hold of the goals for this list. Can you briefly speak to the items below. (They probably all apply, but then the list seems almost to diffuse maybe?)
1) Workings of elected representatives
2) Workings of executive branches v. legislative (and courts?)
3) Data about gov't activities v. data about gov't v. data about the public (ex: local crime, bankruptcy)
4) Elections/electioneering/political parties
(4.5 - e-voting, e-democracy)
5) Advocacy
6) Citizen activities, responsibility to gov't, other citizens
7) online access to DMV, IRS, other info and administrivia?
8) National emergency (e.g., epidemics, earthquakes)
Greg Elin
Chief Data Architect
Sunlight Foundation (http://sunlightfoundation.com)
Sunlight Labs ( http://sunlightlabs.com)
ge...@sunlightfoundation.com
cell: 917-304-3488
Steven Clift
What do other feel would be most useful?
With the initial draft text on the site - http://groups.dowire.org/groups/us - I was working from the assumption that sites like Politics Online, the epolitics blog, etc. cover the wide swatch of e-politics/e-campaigning/e-advocacy and that the niche to fill is for us front-line interventionists and policy reformers.
What I mean by interventionists is that there are a growing number of us who are changing the way things work using the Internet, etc. in government/politics/community for the benefit of all (hopefully). I'd also like to attract folks from the online news/portal worlds that send the most eyeballs to political information online.
Those who primarily use the Net to gain power and influence would be welcome, particularly since many of those leaders also have joint interests that benefit all (Save the Internet). Also when they take power e.g. Pelosi or the next team building WhiteHouse.Gov, their access to folks who are into convening all Americans across political lines online would be useful in governance.
Ultimately the real scope is determined by those who show up. Your input will help make showing up compelling.
Cheers,
Steven Clift
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
http://stevenclift.com
Sent via mobile: +1 612 203 5181
> Sunlight Labs (http://sunlightlabs.com)
Greg Elin
Thanks for reply.
I like thinking in terms of "interventionists" and "practitioners" (as in community of practice) as a criteria for the list you are proposing. I think Sunlight qualifies as a practitioner b/c we are actively have our hands on tools that make data available. Someone using advocacy tools seems to me to be further away from the goals of the list than someone who has operational control/direct access to particular websites that disseminate (or receive) data associated with policy and policy makers.
Does that align with you?
Greg
> Sunlight Labs ( http://sunlightlabs.com)