BeNeighbors Inclusive Community Engagement Online - Project Information
(BeNeighbors.org is our starting point for the general public.)
The BeNeighbors Inclusive Community Engagement Online initiative is a comprehensive initiative led by E-Democracy. With three years of funding from the Knight Foundation for $625,000 through the end of 2014, it has three main components:
- St. Paul Neighbors Forums - Inclusion, expansion, and engagement to reach 10,000 participants
- Lesson Sharing - Convening, research, and promoting online engagement widely to move the civic tech and open government field
- Innovation and Technology - New features, design, and experiments (working with the open source GroupServer platform and via our support of Open Twin Cities)
The BeNeighbors.org campaign may evolve into a "Got Milk?" style directory of online neighborhood spaces including those beyond the official E-Democracy forum network.
Key Resources
- Proposed "next step" initiative - New Voices Work Group
- Lesson Sharing - Resources for distributing the learning
- Volunteer - Local Neighbors Forums volunteer starting point
Project Partners
Partnership Agreement. Official Partners:
Project Updates
Key blog posts by date - newest to oldest:
- Survey Says – 56% credit their Neighbors Forum for increased community satisfaction and more - February 2015
- Sharing Lessons – New Voices: Civic Technology, Neighbors Online, and Open Government – Video and Slides - January 2014
- Payne Phalen Responds to Violence: Neighbors seek solutions during a time of crisis via E-Democracy - September 2013
- Many more E-Democracy blog posts related to inclusion
- Knight Blog: E-Democracy brings new voices to civic tech - August 2013
- White House Blog Post: Open Communities and New Voices - August 2013
- White House Champion of Change Recognition - July 2013
- Virtual Info Booth with Short Video - January 2013
- 2012 Outreach Highlights and Inside Scoop - December 2012
- Top Six Tips for Networking Neighbors Online - August 2012
- Door to Door to Build Neighbors Online - Youth baseball team volunteers - July 2012
- People Making Community Engagement Online Work - Outreach team - July 2012
- Seeing St. Paul’s Diversity - Maps and charts from CURA - June 2012
- Social Capital and All the Good from Neighbor Connecting Online - April 2012
- Help Us Build an Inclusive St. Paul Online - Join our Outreach Advisory Group - April 2012
- We Need Bubble Popping Bridges - Highlights from the Knight Foundation Media Learning Seminar - February 2012
- Are you ready to BeNeighbors.org – Using online forums to boost deep dish pizza sales – and engage people less likely to participate online - February 2012
Media Coverage
- Contact E-Democracy - Urgent Press Queries to Steven Clift:+1-612-234-7072
- A "Facebook for the neighborhood" expands in Saint Paul - Mar 7, 2012 - Also carried on MinnPost.
- Grant to help online community forums reach minorities - TwinCities.com - Pioneer Press - Feb 16, 2012 (Headline changed to "Internet forum aims to spread democracy" which obscures the real story.)
- E-Democracy shoots for 10,000 in St. Paul - Twin Cities Daily Planet - Feb 16, 2012
- Project Launch Blog Announcement and related Press Release - PDF - February 2012
Project Resources
- Grant Agreement and Grant Narrative Excerpts - Detailed Document in PDF
- Inclusion analysis based on PewInternet.org Civic Engagement in the Digital Era Report - April 2013
- Why Digital Inclusion for Community Voices? - March 2012 White Paper
- Ground Breaking Analysis - Inclusive Social Media Project - 60 Page Participatory Evaluation - Lessons from Ford Foundation funded pilot project - May 2012
- Inclusive Social Media 2010-2011 Project Archive - Pilot funded by the Ford Foundation
Print Materials
- One Pager - Initiative Overview - PDF - with Pictures
- One Pager - St. Paul BeNeighbors.org Campaign - PDF
- One Pager - Lesson Sharing and Online Communities - PDF
- One Page Poster/Flyer - PDF - Please print and hang at your favorite coffee shop
- More Fliers, Sign-up Sheets, Languages, etc.
- E-Democracy Logo People-only - 1.2 MB JPG - All Sizes
Follow Highlights
- Project Blog and E-Newsletter Updates - Blog via e-mail (Our key in-depth "what's new" one-way channel)
- @edemo on Twitter
- E-Democracy on Facebook
Online Communities of Practice
- Projects Online Group - E-Democracy's global volunteer starting point
- Locals Online - For hosts of neighborhood social networks
- More Communities of Practice
