around in my head ... I think it is because I had the opportunity to
submit $3 million dollars worth of ideas into two idea challenges.
They are major long-shots, but I am sharing them widely because I'd
like to work with you to make them happen.
If any of this inspires you, drop me a note - <email obscured> -
and join our Project volunteer group: http://e-democracy.org/projects
So first up the Forever St. Paul Challenge - "What would you do with
$1 million to make St. Paul great?"
3333 Community Sparks - Connect Every Block, All People Across St. Paul
http://www.mnideaopen.org/node/19519
Judges will first pick semi-finalists and then a final three. My goal
is to be a semi-finalist so we can recruit "sparks" right now in our
current http://BeNeighbors.org effort to pilot the idea. If we get
into the top three, then there will be an online/mobile/State Fair
vote and people outside St. Paul can vote too!
Second is the Knight News Challenge.
As a recent Knight grantee, it is premature for us to be pushing or
future funding through typical grant processes. So this is more of an
opportunity to plant seeds by answering the question - what can you
build on top of the nation's most *inclusive* local online
community/civic engagement project?
We are building the "egg" with major outreach -
http://blog.e-democracy.org/posts/1816 - for neighbor connecting
online right now. So, what is the chicken?
I want to contrast our approach that says the foundation for open and
inclusive *mass* online civic participation starts at the block and
neighborhood level with what I see around me. Online neighbor
connecting needs to be integrated with options for engagement that
move people up into community problem-solving, etc.
While it is great that people are creating zillions of isolated local
Facebook Groups these days, they need to be networked up into _public_
engagement. My approach is also a direct contrast to the social/racial
divisions I see coming from local everywhere resident-only private
"virtual gated communities" being pushed by venture funded .coms.
Scary stuff. If Facebook wasn't eating their lunch and turning those
investments into donations, I'd be more vocal about the short comings
of one size fits all restricted neighborhood networking online.
OK, so here is my detailed proposal:
100,000+ Participants. Local. Inclusive.
Open Government will fail without inclusive outreach that inspires
vastly more representative participation. E-Democracy's
BeNeighbors.org initiative is primed for “awesome” by innovating with
next generation civic tech to reach 50%+ of households.
http://kng.ht/105amg9
Let me know what you think!
Join and post here: http://e-democracy.org/projects ... or comment here.