Town Meeting Remote Participation

This is a photo of the computer screen of a 2009 Middlesex Town Meeting remote participant. Yes, it's true! This person was able to participate from home, by watching a video of the meeting, seeing a live chat feed, and calling in to add his voice.

Our fabulous panelist from the 2008 Snelling Center e-State Symposium, Greg Whitchurch, recently sent me some information about this year's Middlesex Town Meeting. Middlesex is working hard to help residents participate in Town Meeting even if they can't make it to the physical location.

This work could be used as a model for other towns looking to use technology to make Town Meeting more inclusive.

"At this year’s meeting, Middlesex voters experienced a first: During traditional floor discussion, the microphone was passed to a telephone, whereby a voter who was participating from home due to medical issues was able to voice his opinion.

Middlesex’s Remote Town Meeting Participation Task Force is working to facilitate town meeting participation by those who physically cannot attend (such as those with limited mobility, or who are abroad in the military), while maintaining an efficient and vibrant town meeting for those who are in the meeting room. How does Middlesex feel about the idea? The response from those attending town meeting offers a hint: the room burst into spontaneous applause.

Remote town meeting participation in Middlesex would not have been achieved without hours of volunteer effort by Greg Whitchurch, along with Lauri Scharf, Chris Reilly, and valuable support from John Riley. Thanks to VITL in Montpelier for the loan of the conference phone. With a web link, a two-way visual connection was also available."

The above image is one I pulled from Greg's photos of the meeting. Here is a link to a web album with this one and more.

Thank you, Greg, for your good work on the Middlesex Town Meeting!

Citizens in a Connected Age

Ten suggestions for Vermonters who wish to stay informed and engaged in an e-state.

1. Get connected. The Vermont Telecommunications Authority website has a wealth of information about the initiative to bring modern communications to all Vermonters by the end of 2010. The VTA is visiting many rural Vermont towns to discuss local Internet connectivity and mobile phone coverage. To find out how to bring them to your town, send an email to info@telecomVT.org.

2. Join the media mavens. Burlington's Center for Media and Democracy hosts free noontime meetings on topics such as increasing your website's traffic or using online video as an organizing tool.

3. Read a book. Clay Shirky's "Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations" is a great place to start. Shirky walks the reader through successes and failures in the digital age with important civic implications. If you find yourself disparaging Wikipedia, lamenting the loss of community as people spend more time online, or yearning to be a 21st century activist, this is an important read.

4. Read a blog. The Snelling Center hosts a blog called Building Community in a Connected Age. And try these on for size - The Ghost of Midnight, Candleboy, DemocracySpace, Blurt, Vermont Daily Briefing, Vermont View, iBrattleboro, Political Animal, Fractals of Change, Young Writers' Project. Too many blogs and too little time? Google Reader can help. (NOTE: iBrattleboro is not a blog, but a citizen journalism site. I would like to see something like this replicated in other parts of the state.)

5. Test drive a tool. No matter your experience level, there are always new things to try on the web. Suggestions (all are free): Collaborate on a document or spreadsheet using Google Docs or the promising new DropBox, share bookmarks on Delicious, get connected with your neighbors using Front Porch Forum or a neighborhood listserve, help a young friend dig math using Visual Fractions, create a brochure or flier online using My Brochure Maker, review a restaurant on Yelp, find handmade things with Etsy, make your own internet radio station on Pandora, or get organized with Remember the Milk.

6. Check out the library. Librarians are on the front lines of the digital revolution. Vermont librarian/tech blogger Jessamyn West shares her insights on her blog, Librarian.net. The Vermont Department of Libraries brought us 23 Things, a Web 2.0 teaching tool. Many Vermont libraries now offer online catalogs and online database access. The New York Public Library has a really good digital gallery.

7. Be a leader. The Snelling Center for Government and Champlain College Workforce Development Center are teaming up to offer a workshop series entitled "Leadership in a Connected Age" in Spring 2009. Stay tuned for more details. For a more comprehensive leadership development program, consider the Vermont Leadership Institute or the Vermont School Leadership Project.

8. Serve your community. Help a neighbor learn to use email or apply for a job online. Or volunteer to teach computer skills at a local senior center or social services organization.

9. Get your dot gov. Does your town have a website? Is information available online about town meetings and other business for those who can't be there in person? Are residents able to submit feedback? The Vermont Legislature website informs citizens about state government by supplying contact information for legislators, up-to-date information about bills and issues, and even live audio streaming of the House and Senate proceedings. The town of Middlesex has an impressive website with a wealth of information, including very detailed town meeting results; Essex hosts town meeting television via CCTV/Channel 17.

10. Listen to a young person. Ask your child or other young friend what they're doing online. It might surprise you. In a good way.

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This list is also posted on our website: http://www.snellingcenter.org/public-policy/e-state/citizens. I'd like to know if you try any of these things or if you have other ideas for a list like this.

Weigh in on the State budget for fiscal year 2010!

I just found this on Front Porch Forum's Neighborhood Volunteers forum. A great resource. I haven't participated in a Vermont Interactive Television meeting yet, so maybe this is my chance.

PUBLIC HEARING
Joint Public Hearing on Fiscal Year 2010 budget on Vermont Interactive Television

Appropriations Committees
Monday, February 9, 2009, 4:30 - 7:00 p.m. - The House and Senate Appropriations Committees will hold a joint public hearing on Vermont Interactive Television (V.I.T.) to give Vermonters throughout the state an opportunity to express their views about the State budget for fiscal year 2010.

All V.I.T. sites will be available for the hearing: Bennington, Brattleboro, Castleton, Johnson, Lyndonville, Middlebury, Montpelier, Newport, Randolph Center, Rutland, Springfield, St. Albans, Waterbury, White River Junction and Williston. V.I.T.'s web site has an up-to-date location listing, including driving directions, addresses and telephone numbers, http://www.vitlink.org/.

For information about the format of this event, interested parties may call the House Appropriations Committee office at 802/828-5970. Requests for interpreters should be made to the office by 12:00 noon on Friday, January 23, 2009.

Great things from CCTV

I just have to write something to celebrate all the wonderful work being done by CCTV in Burlington. I won't attempt to cover everything here, but there are two things I want to share with the readers of this blog.

Under the Dome. Have you heard? CCTV is broadcasting coverage of everything from opening ceremonies to public hearings to interviews with members of our fabulous citizen legislature. And you thought you were going to miss the boat...

Communications Security Meeting #2. I know, you are wondering about meeting #1. If you weren't there, never fear - attend meeting number 2 on January 22! I was at the first meeting and am already registered for the second. It's about making sure that our telecommunications infrastructure is constructed, owned, and managed in a way that benefits all Vermonters. Additionally, CCTV has been asked to contribute feedback about internet policy to the new federal administration. So, join in, educate yourself and make your voice heard!

The Edge-Based Organization

Heidi Klein of the Snelling Center clued me in to an article by John Sviokla at Harvard Business Publishing on the power of the edge-based organization. It's a nice follow-up to my earlier posting about lessons from the presidential campaign for nonprofits.

This article talks about how the Obama campaign gave tech tools and decision-making power to those at the "edge" of the campaign, rather than keeping it on the "inside". It's worth reading, as it is an interesting question for all organizations to ponder.

http://discussionleader.hbsp.com/sviokla/2008/11/barack_obamas_edgebased_organi.html

Lessons from the Obama Campaign

How did the Obama campaign run so successfully? I have been asking myself this question. A recent article in The Nonprofit Quarterly is a good starting point. In a Successful Campaign: Lessons for Nonprofits by Paul Schmidtz discusses 5 best practices from the Obama campaign. We might all do well to look at our own work through this lens. Particularly interesting to me was the fact that online tools were so widely and impressively used, yet they are clearly not the whole ball of wax.

Democracy & Civic Engagement e-State Action Team

The Democracy & Civic Engagement Action Team had a fine gathering of folks in South Burlington on 9/12, with remote participants in Middlebury and Montpelier. The focus of this group is to think about increasing participatory democracy in Vermont, namely to explore and promote public officials engaging citizens via technology. Check out the online meeting notes.

Here were the ideas for homework prior to the next meeting:

1. Think about priorities and values in these four areas: Access, Content, Culture, Privacy.

2. What are some ways we can measure critical mass and grassroots demand for civics and community development?

3. Look at Front Porch Forum as a model to know more about the ins and outs and what works and what doesn’t. Ask Michael Wood-Lewis how it’s going. What are people happy with? What would it take to be replicated around the state? Ask him about the four areas mentioned above. Talk to people in the coverage area who have and haven’t joined it, and ask them why and why not.

4. What capacities exist now that we could bring together to provide outreach to deal with the issue of education/fear of being technologically un-savvy or incapable?

5. Review the action ideas from the symposium.

For all of the above, talking to people outside the group and reporting back is encouraged.

Interested? More info is available here.

Information, Communities, Democracy... New Knight Commission

Greetings all. I had the pleasure of address the kick off meeting of a new blue ribbon commission in Washington, DC this week with a similar charge as this blog is covering...

Knight Commission on the Information Needs of Communities in a Democracy

“The charge of the Commission is straightforward,” says Alberto Ibargüen, president and CEO of Knight Foundation. “Articulate the information needs of communities in this democracy; determine where we are today; and propose public policy that will encourage market solutions.”

The Commission was keen to learn about our experiences operating Front Porch Forum in Chittenden County. The full Commission is listed here. And…

The Commission will be led by co-chairs Ted Olson, former Solicitor General of the United States, and Marissa Mayer, Vice President of Search Product and User Experience at Google. Peter Shane, a distinguished law professor at Ohio State University Law School, is the executive director.

The Knight Commission is funded by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and organized by the Aspen Institute.