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.

---

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!

Email Scams

I am not an alarmist, and I don't think that there are criminals lurking at every turn, trying to steal my passwords and bank account information. I do my banking online, make purchases online, share information online and I'm comfortable with that. However, I have gotten some interesting scam emails lately that could have fooled the uneducated computer user. And, lately, I've heard friends and colleagues wondering about security and privacy on the internet.

Here is a video that I think does a good job of describing how to detect a dangerous email and what to do about it.

Leadership in a Connected Age Survey

The Snelling Center for Government and Champlain College's Workforce Development Center are embarking on an exciting new partnership to pilot a workshop series in the spring on 21st century leadership skills.

Please take a minute to respond to this brief survey so that we can create these workshops with your preferences in mind. And, if you read my earlier post but haven't tried SurveyMonkey yet, this is your chance!

Thank you for your interest! Click here to take the survey.

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

SurveyMonkey

Here at the Snelling Center we are getting a lot of mileage out of an online tool called SurveyMonkey. I thought I'd post a little note about it in case any of you haven't heard of it yet.

SurveyMonkey is a wonderful thing. You can write your own survey and then email the link around. We do this a lot when we want to get feedback about a program, get input on a public policy issue, or even just ask one little yes/no question. It's far easier than getting lots of emails back and sorting through them by hand. SurveyMonkey will tally the results for you and make it very easy to get the answers you were looking for.

Recently, the Snelling Center hosted a conference on repairing Vermont Roads and Bridges, then followed it with a SurveyMonkey survey that gleaned over 400 responses! Not bad... You can learn more about this important public policy work and read the report here: http://www.snellingcenter.org/vermontroadsandbridges/