How Three Startups Are Using Data to Renew Public Trust In Government

How Three Startups Are Using Data to Renew Public Trust In Government | The Governance Lab @ NYUThe Governance Lab @ NYU:

People feel like governments aren’t working for them.We have limited information, visibility and insight into what’s going on and why. Yes, the data is public information but it’s difficult to access and sift through.
Good news. Things are changing fast. 

Innovative startups are emerging and they are changing the way we access government information at all levels. 

1. OpenGov is a Mountain View-based software company that enables government officials and local residents to easily parse through the city’s financial data. 

2. FiscalNote is a one-year old startup that uses analytical signals and intelligent government data to map legislation and predict an outcome. 

3. Civic Industries is a San Francisco startup that allows citizens and local government officials to easily access data that previously required you to drive down to city hall. Building permits, code enforcements, upcoming government projects and construction data is now openly available within a few clicks.

Please see the original article for details.

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Countable Wants To Make Politics A ‘Continual Conversation’

Countable Wants To Make Politics A ‘Continual Conversation’ | The Governance Lab @ NYUThe Governance Lab @ NYU:

Countable, available for iOS and coming to Android soon, presents a succinct summary of each piece of legislation Congress is considering, along with a short one-sentence argument in favor of the bill or against it. You are then able to vote “yay” or “nay.” When you are logged in through Facebook, Countable can automatically generate a message and send it to your representatives based on your location.

Countable also keeps track of how the lawmakers vote and then informs you how your representatives’ votes stack up to your own, generating “compatibility rankings."

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Using The Web to Track the Natural World

Yale Environment 360: How Citizen Scientists Are Using The Web to Track the Natural World:

By making the recording and sharing of environmental data easier than ever, web-based technology has fostered the rapid growth of so-called citizen scientists — volunteers who collaborate with scientists to collect and interpret data.

Several projects are discussed.

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Making cities smarter through citizen engagement

Making cities smarter through citizen engagement | The Governance Lab @ NYUThe Governance Lab @ NYU:

Vaidehi Shah at Eco-Business: “Rapidly progressing information communications technology (ICT) is giving rise to an almost infinite range of innovations that can be implemented in cities to make them more efficient and better connected. However, in order for technology to yield sustainable solutions, planners must prioritise citizen engagement and strong leadership.

This was the consensus on Tuesday at the World Cities Summit 2014, where representatives from city and national governments, technology firms and private sector organisations gathered in Singapore to discuss strategies and challenges to achieving sustainable cities in the future.

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Volunteer your technical skills by helping government

Make the World a Better Place: Apply Now. | Code for America:

Are you a developer, designer, researcher or product manager? Do you want to use your skills for good? We are seeking a new cohort of Fellows for our 2015 Fellowship class, committed to discovering new ways that technology can fix some of the problems that our governments face.

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Citizen participation and technology

Citizen participation and technology | The Governance Lab @ NYUThe Governance Lab @ NYU:

The recent, rapid rise in the use of digital technology is changing relationships between citizens, organizations and public institutions, and expanding political participation. But while technology has the potential to amplify citizens’ voices, it must be accompanied by clear political goals and other factors to increase their clout.

How to Host a Successful Discussion Forum

How to Host a Successful Discussion Forum:

"Discussion forums are one of the foundations of online engagement, and a key part of the PlaceSpeak platform.  Successful forums can encourage community debate and dialogue about complex issues. A compelling discussion forum can inspire people to become more personally invested in the topic at hand, and there communities in general.  Moreover topic participants are more likely to return to a topic page—and share it with their friends and neighbours— when they know that meaningful discussion is occurring."

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May 31- June 1, 2014 National Day of Civic Hacking

National Day of Civic Hacking:

"National Day of Civic Hacking is an international event that will take place May 31 – June 1, 2014, in cities around the world. The event will bring together citizens, software developers, and entrepreneurs to collaboratively create, build, and invent new solutions using publicly-released data, code and technology to improve our communities and the governments that serve them.  Anyone can participate; you don’t have to be an expert in technology, you just have to care about your neighborhood and community."

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New technology fellowship seeks to serve low-income people

New Technology Fellowship Seeks to Serve Low-Income People | EngagingCities:

"For years, leaders in the technology world have acknowledged that the field can better serve low-income people, but have struggled with how best to do that (a challenge we have documented at some length, including here). A new fellowship hosted by Significance Labs, a program of the Blue Ridge Foundation in New York, is taking that challenge head-on."

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November 23-29, 2013 World Forum for Democracy

World Forum for Democracy - Home - Council of Europe:

• The Council of Europe is in a unique position to bring together elected politicians and civil society leaders to discuss the impact of technological change on established democratic structures and institutions.
• The Forum will look into the opportunities and risks of a number of participatory initiatives and test their solidity and longevity in an open debate with elected politicians.

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Keypads may be useful in deliberative forums and meetings

PUBLICAGENDA.ORG - Click to Engage:

• We are particularly focused on the use of keypads to support deliberative forums and meetings tied to collaborative problem solving. Such meetings are often designed and run by impartial facilitators, who bring a broad range of stakeholders together across perspectives to increase mutual understanding, work through difficult issues and move toward productive collaborative action.

Download the PDF of the Report.

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September 8, 2013 virtual gathering: Can you hear me now? The troublesome democratic divide online

Can you hear me now? The troublesome democratic divide online – Sept. 18 virtual gathering | E-Democracy.org – Project Blog:

• Today, the New York Times shared a story on the millions of Americans who remain unplugged and we invited our Digital Inclusion Network members to offer their two cents. Our view is that democratic divide is much wider than the digital divide, so therefore we must proactively use civic technology to help build stronger and more inclusive communities and democracies and not wait for everyone to be online.
• ... to raise new and more representative voices online, you need to reach out to people of color and to people in the political center to make up the most ground. As a non-partisan, non-profit online civic engagement project, we have a special responsibility to make up for .com and .org advocacy efforts whose bottom line is either to reach the most advertiser sought out people or to reach those most willing to speak out for their cause.

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Outline.com takes policy discussions online

Digital democracy: Outline.com takes policy discussions online - Knight Foundation:

• ... given recent advances in web applications, nearly all the steps of static policy analysis can be abstracted away so that assessments can be generated instantaneously based on a set of inputs. This in turn can be translated into easy-to-understand visualizations that can be starting points for our political conversations.
• Shifting these conversations online leads to a more efficient and participatory process. And it makes it easier for our electorate to voice coherent – and informed – directives to their government representatives.

See a video presentation of Outline.com at the above link.

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June 5-6, 2014 Personal Democracy Forum 2014

Personal Democracy Forum 2014 | Personal Democracy Forum:

• Personal Democracy Forum begins its second decade at the hub of politics and technology. June 5th and 6th, 2014, people will gather in NYC from dozens of professional, political, and cultural stratifications, from down the block, and across the world. 

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How Net Parties Are Changing the Rules of Politics

How Net Parties Are Changing the Rules of Politics | Occupy.com:

• “The party is a platform, not an ideological stance.” “The party is a tool used to convert the 'one for many' structure, into a 'many for many' conversation.” “The party should be both a movement and a platform.” “The party aims to develop a method, not an ideology.”
• These aren’t mere political slogans. These are statements which define, respectively, the essence of the Wikipartido (Mexico), Partido de la Red (Argentina), Rede Sustentabilidade (Brazil) and Partido X (Spain). All four first appeared in recent months. And together they seem to pose a question to representative democracy: If the Net is changing every aspect of society, how is it that democracy remains based on 19th Century form and technology?
• ... technology isn’t just a set of tools for spreading ideas. Technology is the new process that changes the way we work, make decisions, and communicate.

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September 8, 2013, 1pmET Virtual Event on Civic Engagement in the Digital Age

Virtual Event on Civic Engagement in the Digital Age:

• E-Democracy.org will be hosting an online event, September 18, 2013 at 1pm Eastern Time:
• New Voices – Civic Engagement in Digital Age Meeting
• 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.

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