Policypitch gets our first elected official to “pitch” his bill

State Representative Walker Hines, D-New Orleans, became the first elected official to post a proposed piece of legislation on Policypitch for public comment and feedback.  With Louisiana facing a large budget deficit, his bill to eliminate the Louisiana state income tax for residents age 18-29 attending college or with college degrees was sure to face an uphill battle in the 2009 legislative session.  So, Mr. Hines pitched the idea to his constituents on Policypitch.com – writing an open letter to residents, seeking input and feedback, and asking for their support.  Within a few weeks, the bill easily became the most popular–and polarizing–issue pitched on the website.

March Policypitch Roundup

We got a lot done in March.  A short snapshot at our inner workings:

Headline news:

• Policypitch founder Zach Kupperman was invited for a nomination to Pop!Tech’s Social  Innovation Fellows Program!
• We worked with MakeNewOrleansHome.com on voting for their pitched idea “Outdoor movie screening on the levee,” scheduled to take place in Audubon Park, New Orleans, LA on May 7.  Vote here

A Little Behind the Times?: Federal Court Documents and the Debate Over Charging for Access

Hey PolicyPitch readers, members and supporters! This is my first post here as a member of the PolicyPitch team, one of many I hope. Since PolicyPitch provides a way for citizens like you and me to get involved in our communities, I thought it would be interesting to look at something that affects all of our U.S. readers, whether they know it or not: access to federal court filings and documents, and the cost associated with that access. The next step, of course, is to see what kinds of ideas we can put together to pitch to our local and national leaders to effectively address the shortfalls in the current system. That’s what PolicyPitch members are doing on a daily basis, and it’s something I hope gains a great deal of traction and can assist in more citizen involvement in politics and policy.

Government 2.0 Un-Conference, Un-packed

GovCamp 2.0 took place over March 27-28 in Washington DC.  While the PolicyPitch team was not able to attend the conference, we wanted to give our readers a summary of how the conference went. Originally posted by Amanda Eamich at Government Social Media.

The first-ever government 2.0 un-conference was impressive and invigorating. Coming together with a reported 500 colleagues, enthusiasts and thought leaders in social media and web 2.0 applications was a great opportunity to focus my individual efforts as well as those driven by the Social Media Subcouncil on which I serve. Not to mention, the gathering allowed a forum for our Subcouncil to meet and interact with the larger community.

110 sessions over two days addressed relevant, and sometimes tough, questions that our Subcouncil is working through. I was impressed by the enthusiasm and expertise brought to each session I attended. From exploring how Federal employees can use social media to achieve their mission, how to effectively engage communities to a session drafting a list of transparency objectives for the new administration, every 45-minute session was filled with rich and thought provoking discussion.

Top 5 Internet Priorities for the Next Government

Guest Post by Tom Steinberg on Wednesday, January 7th, 2009 at MySociety.org

To: Anyone thinking of running any reasonably developed country, any time soon.

Preamble

The most scary thing about the Internet for your government is not pedophiles, terrorists or viruses, whatever you may have read in the papers. It is the danger of your administration being silently obsoleted by the lightening pace at which the Internet changes expectations. I’m not going to give examples of this change, others can do this far better than I. But you don’t need experts’ advice to tell which way the wind blows – if you can’t find any examples of changing expectations in your own life, driven by the internet, I can’t help you anyway: please point me to your successor.

The List

This is a list of the top 5 major things any government of any developed nation should be doing in relation to the Internet, as I see it at the start of 2009. They are not in any order, and do not lack ambition – they are for the Next Government, after all.

The new State Department jumps in fast with web 2.0

From Chris Lefkow in Washington | February 23, 2009, Australianit.com

BARACK Obama out-duelled Hillary Clinton on the web during their battle for the Democratic presidential nomination.

But Secretary of State Clinton is giving President Obama a run for the money in the latest web 2.0 sweepstakes.

The former first lady has taken to digital diplomacy with a vengeance, contributing to DipNote, the slick State Department blog, and soliciting questions from the public online, a feature called “Ask the Secretary.”

She also has her aides firing off updates — more than 1000 so far — on the @dipnote feed on micro-blogging service Twitter and posting photos on the State Department Flickr page at flickr.com/photos/statephotos/.

In addition to longstanding websites State.gov and America.gov, there is an official State Department YouTube channel at youtube.com/statevideo and a State Department Facebook page which instead of friends has “fans.”

Ms Clinton is not just using the web for public diplomacy.

One of her first acts after taking office was to create an internal State Department website, “The Sounding Board,” to solicit feedback from department staff, who have the option of posting anonymously if they prefer.

Social Media, New Orleans, and the 2010 Mayor’s race

With the 2010 New Orleans Mayor’s race heating up, we decided to reach out to some of the potential candidates and see how they are using social media.   To clarify for our readers, wikipedia defines social media as:

primarily Internet- and mobile-based tools for sharing and discussing information among human beings. The term most often refers to activities that integrate technology, telecommunications and social interaction, and the construction of words, pictures, videos and audio. Businesses also refer to social media as user-generated content (UGC) or consumer-generated media (CGM).  Social media comes in many different forms, including  blogs, wikis, podcasts, pictures and video. Examples include Wikipedia, MySpace, Facebook , YouTube, Second Life, Flickr, and Twitter.

Beyond a candidate’s typical use of social media for getting themselves elected, we wanted to find out how they intend to use social media once they are elected to increase direct democracy,  improve transparency, and help rebuild New Orleans.  James Perry, the Executive Director of the Greater New Orleans Housing Association, is the first mayoral hopeful to discuss social media.

How are you currently using social media to promote your campaign?   Do you have any additional plans to increase your usage of social media as the campaign moves forward?

If there is a web 2.0 application, we are using it. Facebook is such an incredible tool now for organizing. It allows people to see our activity, see pictures of events, and invite their friends to be our friends.  The best part is that it’s all free. Our “Convince James Perry to run for Mayor” Facebook page shut down for more than five hours, because so many people invited their friends to the group. Last I checked, over 4000 people had been invited. We also have a political fan page that gets feeds from our blog on our website, which is done through Word Press.  We also use Twitter extensively. The more updates you do, the more “followers” you get. Through google analytics (we also integrate google on our site with the maps and calednar feature), we are able to track where our traffic comes from. And it turns out that we get thousands of hits from twitter and facebook. Since bloggers are a crucial part of a 21st century campaign, we also add photos to our Flickr page, so that writers can use photos for their postings about the campaign.  We routinely provide bloggers with ideas for posting that relate to the campaign. The key to any successful website is constant activity. We are very busy on the campaign trying to reach as many people as possible and we want that to be reflected on these social media tools.

How do you think social media is changing the way politicians can govern (as opposed to merely campaigning)?

The Obama administration, as usual, is on the forefront of this approach.  He used and is using change.gov and recovery.gov to rally citizens in support of the stimulus package and to make sure citizens understand it.  We see a comparable approach to engaging citizens.  We’ve discussed using a Facebook style web 2.0 application to allow citizens across New Orleans and the country to share information and learn about important matters affecting the City.  The ability to instantly share documents, video and photos can allow people at home and the office to be part of government.

How do you intend to use social media if you are elected?

A key component to a more efficient city government is access to public records. New Orleanians should be able to access as much data as they want. A transparent goverment starts with good, hard data. We also will use new social media concepts to transform the city contracting process. A major part of our campaign is to implement the “blind” contracting process. If elected, we will have the Inspector General dedact the names of the contractor and a committee will be created to judge a proposal based on its merits rather than how much they donated to an elected official’s campaign. Citizens will be able to see online the names of all the contract proposals and will have the opportunity to judge the best one as well.

What are top two biggest problems facing our city’s recovery?  Do you see any opportunity solve those problems through an increase in civic engagement through social media?

I’d like to bend the rules a bit and offer three problems not necessarily in order of priority:  crime, housing and transparency.  Each area relies on availability of data to properly understand the problem, gain the trust of citizens and ultimately solve the problem.  Social media allows a community to do this instantly.  Housing recovery is a great example.  It is extremely difficult to find out what is happening in neighborhoods from a housing perspective.  But a Facebook style application that listed all properties that were blighted, had permits, had liens, water service and power service would make it easier for a Katrina evacuee to determine what was happening in his or her neighborhood and a make an informed decision about returning. Soon, most if not all government web applications will rely on a web 2.0 approach.

Thanks, James!  We also want to welcome all other candidates out there to get in touch with us to discuss your plans for social media, New Orleans, and the 2010 Mayor’s race!

San Diego Mayor to crowdsource public policy

The mayor of San Diego is seeking public input on new policies for the city, beginning with budget suggestions on how the city can address the current economic crises.   The Mayor’s website states that “each of your suggestions will be reviewed carefully by my staff. They may also be forwarded to department directors and members of our financial management team.”

In addition to just soliciting policy recommendations, some of the suggestions will be posted online for “the goal of sharing ideas and elevating our civic dialogue.”  While posting the submissions online is certainly a step in the right direction for transparency, will the mayor’s efforts produce results?

So far, policy suggestions include ending car allowances for elected officials, reducing the number of firefighters per truck, and  legalizing marijuana.    Another suggestion calls for the city to “stop enforcing the booze ban”:

Stop enforcing the booze ban

I have lived in Mission Beach for two years, and since the ban on alcohol went into effect last year, I have watched numerous policemen heckle beach-goers about what liquids are in their cups. It seems as if the amount of police patrol has actually increased since the ban began, which makes me wonder, “Why are you wasting so many tax payer dollars patrolling a beach, and hassling its patrons?” The policemen are on ATV’s, on bicycles, and standing on the boardwalk… there are so many, that you cannot turn a corner without seeing one. It is a blatant waste of money which the city claims to be necessary for the “good” of the people, I see it as superfluous and outright ridiculous. Send them to areas of San Diego which have real crime issues- not just a bunch of drunks in bikinis- or spend your money elsewhere.

While seeking policy suggestions from the city’s residents is laudable, the question remains whether the submissions will have any real influence on the city’s policy.  We will have to wait and see.

Utah Senate a pioneer in use of social media

Part 2 in our series about how the Utah Senate is effectively using social media to increase transparency and provide for a more participatory democracy.

In addition to the amazing initiatives by the Utah legislature discussed yesterday, the Senate has an entire web page dedicated to web 2.0 technology entitled “Your Government 2.0 Lab.”  Citizens can connect on  Facebook or Linked In, and even keep constant tabs on Twitter.

Some of their government 2.0 initiatives to increase transparency, proliferate information, and promote citizen engagement include:

• The Senate Site (.com): the award-winning blog site we’ve been having fun with since 2005.

• Senate Radio: our podcast.

• SenateMobile: important updates from the senate – sent as text messages to your cell phone.

• The Senate Channel: great collection of short videos on YouTube.

• SenateCam: a user-controlled web cam usually stationed in the president’s office.

• SenateTube: live-streaming video for press conferences and special events.

• Twitter Site: tweets from the senate.

• Facebook: Laura is building it at this very moment. Email her with suggestions.

• Legislative Town Meeting: experiment using web 2.0 technology during a 2007 site visit.

• Senate Floor Debate : historic archive (audio and now video) of discussion on the senate floor.

• Committee Meeting Podcast: you can visit any committe’s info page to subscribe to the RSS feed.

In their own words:

The Utah State Senate is committed to making government work the way it was envisioned: a stable republic maintained by an informed, engaged citizenry. Web 2.0 offers a few new tools that might help. We’ll see.

Got ideas? We’d love to hear them. If you are on LinkedIn, consider joining Government 2.0, a network of citizens and professionals exploring the use of New Media tools in government communication.

Utah Senate a leader in transparency, government 2.0, and social media

The Utah Senate is using technology to make their inner-workings transparent and open to all.   The Utah Senate now has written, audio, and video blogs by Senators, links to past senate floor debates, and the ability to sign up for text message updates on your cell phone.  They also launched Senate Tube, which provides streaming video in real time of action on the Senate floor.   There is even a camera in the Senate President’s office, continuously rolling and streaming the video online for all to see and hear.

This is a great first step by State legislatures in engaging their constituents and providing a more transparent process.

What other political bodies are using social media to improve transparency and engage their citizens?