This is just a quick note of introduction and a thank you to everyone who has
helped make this unconference in to what it is today.
I have begun to organize a CityCamp KC. The first step listed on the CC site is
to make an intro on this forum, hence this post. Apologies if it is in the
wrong place - there didn't seem to be an intro topic hub for newcomers. My name
is Jase Wilson (@luminopolis). I am a city planner by training with degrees
from UMKC and MIT, but a web developer by trade, focused on civic web
applications.
Why does Kansas City (desperately) need a CityCamp? Because we are at a major
fork in the road and need the brilliant CC model in order to come together as a
group and chart a well informed direction. We have a bourgeoning tech scene, a
government who wants very much to open up and become more efficient, and some
recent news from Google that will surely usher us into a new era. But we need
the innovation a CC will surely help to foster.
So we're doing a CityCamp. It will be sometime this Fall. Twitter user is
@CityCampKC, hashtag is #cckc. We have the venue, the caterer and a handful of
possible sponsors.
Some further background on why we need CityCamp if you are interested:
As you may know through media or firsthand experience we (Kansas Citians) are
notoriously behind the times when it comes to just about anything...
technology, urbanism... you name it. City governance is no exception. A good
predictor of what civic issue we'll have in our spotlight is to look at what
Denver was focusing on one decade prior. But we lack the cohesive leadership of
Denver and its people so we will usually copy whatever path they took a decade
before, albeit to a lesser extent. This lack of innovative progress is
exacerbated by our metro area's numerous governmental borders. The metro is
divided by a state line running down the center, so we're split between two
very different and generally conflicting states. On both sides of the state
line there are further subdivisions, with more than 100 distinct municipalities
across 12 or more counties (depending on how you define the metro). The region
takes pride in what it perceives as unbridled individualism, so cooperation at
a metropolitan scale is neither very prominent nor effective when it does
happen. More often than not we all end up suffering as a result.
But we recently received some very big news that could help unite us as one
city with a flourishing technology scene. Kansas City, Kansas was selected as
the first Google Fiber recipient, and within weeks Kansas City, Missouri was
selected as the second recipient. So by this time next year we will have one of
the fastest city wide networks in the world (1 Gbps symmetrical). This could be
a great way to bring together our city as a unified metro instead of a
patchwork of competing interests. It could help open up a new era of democratic
participation, tech innovation, government efficiency and more.
But we need to talk about it. We need to get together at the grassroots level
and figure some things out. We see no better way to do this than through a
CityCamp, so we're starting an annual CityCamp with the Google Fiber project as
our focus for year one.
Again thank you all for helping bring together this model. We are excited to
bring it to KC. Any advice, direction or general thoughts you have would be
greatly appreciated.
Jase