Inclusive Civic Tech blog post - innovative grant proposal, events, etc.

Here is a meaty post. In the spirit of openness and we can't do this
alone, it links to the narrative from a grant proposal we submitted
for Engagement Tech/Open Twin Cities.

We'd love to connect with other projects seeking to move the needle at
the intersection of civic technology and inclusion around the world.

Thanks,
Steven Clift
E-Democracy.org


>From (links on blog):
http://blog.e-democracy.org/posts/1960

Innovating with Inclusive Civic Technology – Open Twin Cities
Proposal, New Voices and Digital Engagement Gathering

Written by Steven Clift


The other month we summarized with some “Clift’s Notes” the Civic
Engagement in the Digital Age report from the highly respected Pew
Internet and American Life Project. Despite all of the potential for
the Internet to raise new and less represented voices, in aggregate it
is not yet closing the democratic divide. If left to its current path,
online engagement might actually widen the democratic divide (my
take).

This week, a great conversation on the Code for America Brigade online
group highlights the challenge of connecting the growing civic tech
movement with broader social good and inclusion in local communities.
In short, we need to bring today’s changing America to the table in
each local community to help design and build the civic apps of the
future and not just hope people from very diverse backgrounds and
different needs or priorities are somehow magically served by nifty
top-down or solo ideas.

So building on our BeNeighbors.org field effort of our Knight
Foundation-funded Inclusive Community Engagement Online initiative,
here is what we are doing to take action:

Engagement Tech – Open Twin Cities Proposal - Whether the regular
civic tech meetups, the Visualizing Neighborhoods or Hack for MN
code-a-thons, or the tech and design talent joining the Open Twin
Cities online group the civic tech/open gov movement is on fire in the
Twin Cities.
Co-founded by Alan Palazzolo, a one-time Code for America Fellow who
now works at MinnPost and Bill Bushey, E-Democracy’s Technology
Coordinator, the civic tech ecology in Minnesota is coming into its
own among efforts nationwide. We are emerging as a leader in middle
America.

The (Archibald) Bush Foundation based in Minnesota, put out a call for
Community Innovation Grants. It will be extremely competitive and
we’ve found the local foundation world very cautious with anything
technology related. Together with over ten signed on the dotted line
potential partners we responded with the Engagement Tech – Open Twin
Cities Proposal. If funded (up to 100K each year over 2 years), it
will create the nation’s most inclusive effort to build a regional
civic technology movement. It will generate useful civic apps, ideas,
and direct government, media, and nonprofit online services action. We
just found out that the MSPBus.org mobile website developed at the
HackforMN event has been invited to the White House’s Champions of
Change event next week.

With current partners and additional partners (letter of support
template) putting real in-kind value on the table, we hope that this
potential funding source and hopefully others will invest in this
crucial effort to unleash technology for civic good and open
government in Minnesota. Here are the letters of support we have
received thus far:

City of St. Paul, City of Minneapolis, Center for Urban and Regional
Affairs at the University of Minnesota, State of Minnesota: MN.IT,
Minnesota Secretary of State, Minnesota High Tech Association, the
Immigrant Bridges Email Network, local companies DevJam, GovDelivery,
and WareCorp and nationally letters of support from the Sunlight
Foundation and Code for America.

Companies like GovDelivery and individuals like Ben Damman have
already signed on as Open Twin Cities/CityCampMN event sponsors, and
so can you without delay. Contact Bill Bushey for details.


New Voices and Civic Tech and Engagement Convenings – E-Democracy.org
goes deep locally and convenes and connects nationally and globally
for lesson sharing, knowledge exchange and more. Sparked in part by
the timely and disturbing numbers in PewInternet.org’s Civic
Engagement in the Digital Age report, we are leading national efforts
to convene interested groups around inclusive civic tech and open
government.

Long story short – to have a democratic impact and generate strong
social benefits, civic technology must raise new voices and build
power for less represented groups in society. It must build bridges
across differences and be designed to help all kinds of communities
solve problems together by unleashing their capacity. Different voices
that are demographically similar to those with power and influence
today are well covered by typical election campaigning and advocacy
online. Market-based social networking is doing a fine job connecting
people within existing circles of trust (within ethnic communities,
within highly homogenous neighborhoods, among like-minds on political
issues, etc.), so where are the gaps that need intervention and will
inspire volunteer spirit or generate the most unmet community benefits
when scarce funding is available?

Join us August 1st in San Francisco at Code for America to discuss the
Pew report

Highlights from our initial DC gathering at the Sunlight Foundation

Both the Personal Democracy Forum in New York and the MIT/Knight civic
media gathering in Boston surfaced strong and new inclusion themes in
June

Join us in September for a virtual New Voices gathering

What’s next? As we have gathered leaders in the civic tech/open
government space and connected them with digital inclusion, civil
rights, civic engagement circles, and government policy makers we see
a crucial need for convening and collaboration among these diverse
sectors. We’ve even had post-DC telephone briefings with staff in the
White House’s Office of Science and Technology Policy who work on open
government. Right now I am gathering input on potential next steps and
opportunities for collaboration. What are ways to help current civic
tech and open gov efforts reach far more people, new voices? What
works? What doesn’t? Send me your thoughts.

Digital Inclusion Network – With nearly 500 members, our simple online
group for digital inclusion in general is a great place to land. We
are working to introduce civic engagement as one of the key challenges
for digital inclusion on top of access to technology, computer skills,
digital/information literacy, etc. Learning to apply for a job online
is great, so is learning how to contact your elected officials to have
your say in local democracy.


Steven Clift - http://stevenclift.com
  Executive Director - http://E-Democracy.org
  Twitter: http://twitter.com/democracy
  Tel/Text: +1.612.234.7072

Received on Tuesday, 16 July 2013 17:18:44 UTC