Could your town's website get a date?

An interesting article mysteriously appeared in my in box this morning (perhaps Glenn?) It's exciting to see how much experimentation is going on among local and state government folks. In Missouri, they created a job kiosk in Second Life (virtual world). Wonder what kind of applicants it's attracting? In Delaware, the human resources director fretted that her town's website would get very few dates on Match.com, so they redesigned the site.

http://www.governing.com/conf/tech/report.htm

How to add a comment to the blog

Here at the Snelling e-State Blog, we welcome your comments. Did you know you can add a comment to any of the blog posts? I'll walk you through it.

For example, I am going to add a comment to Sue McCormack's post about Vermont's aging population. Here's is the post.


In order to add a comment, I am going to click on the words "0 comments".

When I click it, I will get a new page with a blank text box. I type my comments into the box.


Below the box, I need to show my identity. If my name appears already, it is because I am already logged in with my google account. No need to change anything. Just click the Publish Your Comment button.

If my name isn't already there, I can choose Name and then just type my name in the box that appears. Then click Publish Your Comment button. Here's a picture.


Voila! Comments are the wonderful part about blogs. We want to hear from you! Please try these steps to add a comment and let me know how it goes... By adding a comment to this post, of course! If you get stuck, email me at karynvogel@gmail.com.

Economic and Workforce Development Action Team

I am proposing to hold the first meeting on Thursday, September 18th. The location will depend on where the interested parties live or work; it may be in the Burlington area or somewhere in Central Vermont.

Since this team is just getting organized I can’t really say right now what level of commitment may be required. We may find that there is a lot to do (holding some meetings in various parts of the state in order to create more involvement is a possibility) or we may find that there are a number of initiatives already underway and our job could be as simple as cataloging those efforts and trying them into future work of the Snelling Center E-State Initiative. Or the folks may have a completely different idea of how this should come together. There are no pre-conceived notions other than there appears to be a need to come together and see what there might be to do.

I hope that you will agree to participate on this team. If you can commit to a meeting on September 18th, please let me know. If that time is out of the question for you but you want to propose a different time to meet, I’m happy to consider that as well. I can be reached by Email at david.tucker@state.vt.us

But if you can commit to at least one meeting, please let me know. Thanks!

VT population aging, diversifying - e-state implications?

How do you think these trends will affect the way we use our increasing connectivity? What are the opportunities? Challenges?

http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080807/NEWS02/808070314/1001/NEWS

Education action team meeting

Last night I attended the first meeting of the e-State action team focused on the topic of Education. Ellen Thompson, Director of Instruction and Information Services for the Essex Town School District hosted us at the district offices.

We had a great group and some interesting discussion. See Ellen's meeting notes as well as some thoughts from a few folks who couldn't make the meeting on the Snelling e-State wiki by clicking here.

One of my takeaways from this meeting was that there are many promising projects, ideas, and initiatives happening around the state related to technology and education, including right here where I live in Essex. We'll be working to connect the dots and providing opportunities to share and collaborate.

Should our next President be tech-savvy?

Yesterday I was reading the print edition of the Sunday New York Times and came across an article called “Hail to The Twitterer” by Marc Leibovich. Online it is called "McCain, The Analog Candidate". Not sure why there are different titles.

The article is about how John McCain can’t use a computer and whether that’s OK. He’s trying to change his image—he says he reads emails now when his staffers show them to him. I’m not sure if that should count as technological literacy.

Of course, not everyone needs to embrace technology. But there are certain jobs (President being one) where it would be helpful. White House staff can handle the email and Google look-ups, but if the leader of the country has little direct experience with the technology that is transforming our world it could have serious implications.

What do you think?

The author even harkens back to Abraham Lincoln, who apparently was an early adopter of technology. He was out there chatting with his Civil War generals via telegraph when others were still hoofing it. I will include the NYT excerpt from Abe's “Discoveries, Inventions and Improvements” (1859) lecture here, because how many opportunities will there be to quote Abraham Lincoln on this blog?

The great difference between Young America and Old Fogy is the result of Discoveries, Inventions and Improvements. These, in turn, are the result of observation, reflection and experiment. For instance, it is quite certain that ever since water has been boiled in covered vessels, men have seen the lids of the vessels rise and fall a little, with a sort of fluttering motion, by force of the steam; but so long as this was not specially observed, and reflected, and experimented upon, it came to nothing. At length, however, after many thousand years, some man observes this long-known effect of hot water lifting a pot-lid, and begins a train of reflection upon it. He says “Why, to be sure, the force that lifts the pot-lid will lift anything else, which is no heavier than the pot-lid. And, as man has much hard lifting to do, cannot this hot-water power be made to help him?” He has become a little excited on the subject, and he fancies he hears a voice answering “Try me.”

Knight Foundation's big impace on local democracy

Steven Clift, writing on the MediaShift Idea Lab, shares a summary of "e-state-like" activity undertaken by the Knight Foundation and then offers some advice:

The Knight Foundation is beginning to make some waves in local democracy circles. And I am not just saying that because they fund this blog.

Earlier this year they hosted a conference with community foundations on the Information Needs of Communities in a Democracy, then they announced the Knight Center of Digital Excellence focused on universal access to the "digital town square," and most recently announced a commission on the Information Needs of Communities in a Democracy and $24 million in matching funds for community foundations (see my collection of online civic engagement resources for community foundations referenced in a Council on Foundation's e-newsletter).

These investments represent the largest basket of resources I've seen to date on e-democracy/citizen media in the United States focused at the local level. What comes of this matters.

Click here for the advice...