Category Archives: New Media

Texts to help parents find fun and education for kids this summer in St Paul

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As a totally unprepared parent, I’m delighted to hear about this new text-based service happening in St Paul. It seems like a communication channel that would be fair easy to replicate for other communities…

Saint Paul Mayor Chris Coleman and Saint Paul Public Schools Superintendent Valeria Silva on Monday announced a new summer-program texting service for parents looking to find activities for their kids while school is out.

“Summertime is a crucial period in our kids’ lives, and keeping their minds active to prevent summer learning loss is essential,” said Coleman. “These text alerts offer an easy new tool for parents to keep up with the many great activities that are available to engage kids during the summer months.”

The opt-in text service includes tips on how to keep kids active and learning throughout the summer, while also providing parents with ideas for how to ‘do the Summer Countdown,’ a key part of the citywide summer learning campaign. The new text service is another tool, in addition to Sprockets’ Program Finder, for parents to keep up with out-of-school programs.

Great use of easy technology. Here are the instructions for singing up…

There are two ways parents can sign up using their mobile phone:

  1. To subscribe for text alerts, text STPAUL SUMMER to 468311

  2. To subscribe for email updates through text, text STPAUL SUMMER YourEmailHere to 468311

Clive Thompson on smartphones and smart users at Top Coast

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Last weekend I attended Minnesota Public Radio’s Top Coast Festival, a conference on politics, pop culture, health care, technology, food and philanthropy. There were two talks I wanted to highlight here: Aneesh Chopra and Clive Thompson. Mostly for the sake of archive, I’ll do this in two posts. (The talks will be broadcast in MPR over the next few weeks. I’m afraid I can’t find a detailed schedule – I’ll add a link if/when I do find it.)

Clive Thompson is a contributing writer for The New York Times Magazine and a columnist for Wired. He wrote Smarter Than You Think: How Technology Is Changing Our Minds for the Better. He is also in a Bluegrass band that does 80s covers. Thompson was interviewed by Neal Justin. The talked about the impact technology is having on users. Fascinating!

Thompson observed that the greatest danger of smartphone technology and status update culture is the focus on now. We are losing interest in our history and to some degree in our future when all we see and all we do is catalog and memorialize the now. What’s funny is that at the same time people are complaining that we’re too focused on the now – they also that we’re not focused on the here. We’re focused on our screens. Thompson, who backed almost everything he said with a study, added that while it seems like people are focused on their phones, studies show it isn’t true. People observed in social settings do not generally spend much time on their phone. He added that it just seems that way, especially if the notion of it bugs the observer.

He did add that while we might not be focused on our phones, we aren’t always present either but paying attention is teachable; we just need to be more mindful of it as a goal. Sometimes changing the format or platform of work can help. So going from a device to writing in pen can provide cause your brain to change its approach.

Another interesting observation comes of those who say “this generation is killing culture!” Nearly every generation has said it about the upcoming generations and people have been saying it about new technology for as long. Back in the day, people were worried that the pen would ruin public discourse and memorization. And to some degree it probably did. But what the naysayers don’t understand is that each new technology opens a new door too

Studies have shown that the workforce is more productive with technology; the problem is that industry has reaped most of the benefits of that productivity. We are now tethered to our office via our devices and smartphones. So at the end of the day does that tethering make us smarter than the phones or vice versa? Time will tell. As Thompson points out, we are really in the infancy of a new way of doing things!

Join the #hackforchange “CodeFind” team next Saturday morning in Minneapolis

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I’m sharing the following invitation with permission and for two reasons. First, maybe some readers would like to go. Second, Steve’s a great example of one person in a community starting a broadband adoption campaign (aka digital inclusion or knowledge worker training or info worker networking). It just takes initiative and maybe some coffee and donuts or beer and pretzels depending on the time of the event. Also as a bonus I wanted to share the link to the experimental CodeFind effort: https://hackforchange.hackpad.com/CodeFind-2qELVqJxuCJ

Join the #hackforchange “CodeFind” team on my patio next Saturday morning in Minneapolis

Ingredients:

1. 90+ http://hackforchange.org events across the U.S. and the world

2. Minnesota’s doing it later in June: http://hackformn.org – so we can be a global resource team

3. Projects at hackathons often re-create the wheel and miss the opportunity to build on on past code/lessons

4. When project groups get settled at a table, they often spend a chunk of time scoping out the problem and looking for lessons from similar projects and open source code to re-use/build from …

however, the success of this research or finding code is varied due to time pressure. So, let’s create a remote research help desk.

5. Bagels and coffee – start early at 9 am Central and go until 12 Noon … grill available (May 31)

6. My shady cozy patio with granite pavers from East Lake with a solid wi-fi connection and power

7. Hopefully no rain (we will determine a back up coffee shop)

8. This experimental CodeFind effort:

https://hackforchange.hackpad.com/CodeFind-2qELVqJxuCJ

#codefind on Twitter

#hackforchange on Freenode IRC

So, if you want to join me in helping support the CodeFind research help desk on Twitter and IRC, drop me a note to RSVP: clift@e-democracy.org

Put: CodeFind MSP … in subject.

Cheers,

Steven Clift

Hack for MN returns June 21-22

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Hack for MN is a local version of Hack for US. Open Twin Cities is hosting a hackfest June 21-22. Sadly I will be out of town. I really enjoyed the event last year. If you’re in town, it would be worth attending. I would love to see some events happen outside of the Twin Cities too. That may not be realistic given the time frame. BUT if you are interested in spearheading such an event in your community, it might be worth checking out the hack in the Twin Cities to see how it’s done…

Hack for MN 2014 is coming on Saturday June 21st and Sunday June 22nd!

Learn more/register at:     http://hackformn.org

It’s free.

** Hack for MN Returns **

Hosted by Open Twin Cities* – http://opentwincities.org -, Hack for MN

2014 will be the second annual gathering of passionate and engaged citizens given the opportunity to explore and drive solutions for local community needs. It will be hosted at the Nerdery – http://nerdery.com .

Hack for MN is Minnesota’s contribution to Hack for Change – http://hackforchange.org -, the White House sponsored national event that draws citizens, community leaders, government representatives, designers, and technologists to events in 90+ cities around the country to empower communities via new tools and novel ideas.

Hack for MN invites Minnesotans to engage in “civic hacking” – to use the tools available to us to creatively build new solutions for community and civic problems. This will be a fun and enriching event where teams turn ideas into action for the good of the citizens of Minnesota. Expect an extremely active day focused on doing, not just talking.

Thank you to the Knight Foundation for their support. Invite your company/org to join them as an awesome sponsor: http://hackformn.org/sponsors

** Heading Home Challenge – Service Design for Homeless Veterans **

This year Hack for MN will include a track focused on the Governor’s initiative to end homelessness among Minnesota veterans by the end of 2015 – http://mn.gov/governor/blog/the-office-of-the-governor-blog-entry-detail.jsp?id=102-105011

In partnership with the Minnesota Interagency Council on Homelessness and MN.IT, Hack for MN invites people to participate in a facilitated service design track that will explore homelessness among veterans, nurture new tools and processes that address this issue, create prototypes to bring ideas to life, and discuss strategies for testing the effectiveness of these innovations.

** Kickoff on June 20th at DevJam Studios **

With the help of DevJam Studios – http://devjam.com -, we’re holding a Kickoff event on Friday June 20th. Join us Friday evening for an opportunity to discuss your ideas for problems to address and solutions to explore, a chance to meet other innovative community members, and a time to have some fun.

This Kickoff event is optional. Please let us know if you plan to come by answering the Kickoff question during registration.

** RSVP Today **

Register for Hack for MN 2014 today and be a part of this modern take on Minnesota’s rich tradition of civic engagement!

– Register at http://hackformn.org

– Submit and vote on ideas at http://hackformn.org/ideas/recent

– Follow on Twitter for updates at http://twitter.com/hackformn

– To get involved right now, join the Open Twin Cities online group: http://bit.ly/otconlinegroup

Hope to see you there!

How nonprofits and foundations are using the Internet

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I think it’s interesting to take a look at how folks are using broadband in different industries and sectors. Knight Digital Media Center recently posted an article that highlighted how nonprofits and foundations are using the Internet. They came up with five solid tips for use; I’ve included those tips below along with examples from the article…

  1. Blending digital and real-world engagement Gretchen Minekime noted, “Last December, students from the University of Colorado-Boulder went out on the streets on a frigid day — specifically to talk to people and drive them to that website and Facebook page on Colorado Gives Day(Dec. 10, 2013). We offered a social media scavenger hunt, which was very in engaging people. And a whole lot of fun. Traditional face-to-face activities drive digital engagement and action — and it’s really easy for people to give online, there are great tools for that now. In the next few years this will all blow up in a good way.”
  2. Accountability to donors Good crowdfunding platforms make it very easy for causes, projects, and organizations to not just drive donations and engagement, but to report back about progress and impact. This is especially important since many nonprofits lack the skills, experience, or resources to create effective direct digital engagement and donor accountability on their own.
  3. Leadership and staff buy-in, action on social media Taryn Fort noted that a key part of the Colorado Health Foundation’s social media success stems from how their CEO, Anne Warhover, has very publicly and personally embraced social media engagement — especially Twitter. “Our CEO loves Twitter and she’s really good at it. She shares her personality there. She responds to people, engages people. She’s very influential, and she extends that through social media.”
  4. Jumpstarting social media around events At the 2013 Health Symposium, CHF launched its Instagram presence with a photo booth outside the main plenary hall. “This wasn’t just people hamming for the camera,” said Fort. “We asked people to write on a chalkboard and share what they learned that day, or what they were planning to take home from the event, to get a sense of what was resonating with people. It was hugely successful.”
  5. Providing storytelling support, guidance “We give nonprofits everything they need to empower their donors to spread the mission. This powerful technology means nonprofits only have to do a few key things, and the technology takes care of the rest to encourage donors to become mini-marketers and fundraisers in their own right. That’s incredibly powerful.”

Open Meeting vs Social Media in MN Legislature

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I am a big fan of open meeting laws. I am a big fan of social media. I’m not sure what to make of the legislation to say social media communication is not considered meetings under the open meetings law (HF653). Here’s the proposed bill…

A bill for an act
1.2relating to open meeting law; providing that certain communications on social
1.3media are not meetings under the law;amending Minnesota Statutes 2012,
1.4section 13D.01, subdivision 2.
1.5BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MINNESOTA:
1.6    Section 1. Minnesota Statutes 2012, section 13D.01, subdivision 2, is amended to read:
1.7    Subd. 2. Exceptions. This chapter does not apply:
1.8(1) to meetings of the commissioner of corrections;
1.9(2) to a state agency, board, or commission when it is exercising quasi-judicial
1.10functions involving disciplinary proceedings; or
1.11(3) to participation in social media forums by a member of a public body otherwise
1.12subject to this chapter, whether or not a quorum of the public body is participating, when
1.13participation is intended to augment traditional communication methods. The social
1.14media forum must be generally open to public participation. Simultaneous or serial
1.15participation by a quorum or more of members of a public body otherwise subject to this
1.16chapter in a forum or section of a forum that the members know is not open to general
1.17public participation is not exempt under this paragraph. Participation in a social media
1.18forum shall not replace any required public meeting or hearing and no vote of any entity
1.19otherwise subject to this section shall be taken by means of a social media forum. “Social
1.20media” means forms of Web-based and mobile technologies for communication, such as
1.21Web sites for social networking and microblogging, through which users participate in
1.22online communities to share information, ideas, messages, and other content; or
1.23(4) as otherwise expressly provided by statute.

I’m also a big fan of transparency and encouraging civic engagement. It seems to me as if this is an invitation (or at least permission granted) to talk about public issues on a public forum. As it stands, participation in discussions at open meetings is limited to people in the room during the meeting. Sometimes the door may be open to remote participation – but time is still a barrier. To participate, most citizens would need to take time off work, or get a babysitter, possibly travel to the St Paul. Those are some big barriers.

Inviting conversation online and not in real time makes sense to me. Especially with the caveats listed about:

  • Forum must be public
  • No votes will be accepted via social media

I was a little surprised to read about opposition to the bill in the Post Bulletin…

But critics argue Quam’s bill [HF653] would end up moving important public policy discussions from the city council chamber to online venues.

“It would have converted many public meetings, at least in respect to more controversial issues, basically into ceremonial functions where members show up and vote without much need for discussion,” said Mark Anfinson, a lobbyist for the Minnesota Newspaper Association.

I’ve been to lots of public meetings. They usually include a lot of legislative aides and lobbyists. It occurs to me that conversations are happening outside the open meetings. I don’t think these meetings include a quorum necessarily, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with the conversations, I just think that moving some of the conversation online would help policymakers hear from a wider group of citizens who might get more engaged if it didn’t require time off work, travel and babysitters. (What it would require is ubiquitous access to broadband!)

Some folks seem to be worried about the details…

“What this potentially does is gut the open meeting law,” Rep. Jerry Hertaus, R-Greenfield, told fellow House members.

He added, “If it is a requirement to be a friend on Facebook and to have this serial round robin communication between members about a subject matter, then constituents don’t know and don’t get the posting of a notice or a meeting of when these conversations are happening. And that becomes, I believe, a violation of open meeting law.”

Rep. Kathy Brynaert, DFL-Mankato, told fellow lawmakers she also has concerns with the bill — one being that it’s simply too broad.

“The intent is correct. I think we need to figure out how to appropriately use social media to open up the communication process with our constituents,” she said.

I do understand that concern – but there are ways around it. First, time might not be such an issue. These are ongoing discussions. That’s the beauty as far an encouraging greater engagement! Second, how are people hearing about meetings now? Maybe it’s time to start including links to online conversations at the same time. The conversations are happening (in places like E-Democracy Forums, which are public) this just may be a time to connect the existing conversations with policymakers and invite more people to join in.

Gamification of Civic Engagement via Technology

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Gamification has come up in conversation half a dozen times in the last month – in short it’s using game theory (or not even theory just the idea of a game) to encourage increased participation – maybe in school or in this case with use of apps developed to facilitate citizen engagement. For me it’s come up in the world of hackfests – lots of developers are interested in the idea. It makes sense, almost by definition these hack attendees are techies who are interested in getting more involved in the community. So they’d love to get others involved in the community. For many of them gaming is fun pastime. So gamifying civic engagement is a perfect solution. And I’m not here to say it isn’t. I’m here to spread the word – and David Asp sent me a great article from GCN with some tips on building better civic apps…

Boston’s Office of New Urban Mechanics together with researchers with Emerson College’s Engagement Game Lab recently released a “lessons learned” booklet for developing and deploying innovative tools for engaging citizens. After many years of collaboration, the partners wanted to document their projects and processes to help other cities build on what they had learned.

The Design Action Research with Government: A Guidebook calls for collaboration between academic researchers and government offices, citizen-centered and research-based approaches well as a process that includes both research and iterative design and code.

One example…

One tool DARG is working on is StreetCred. It is based on Citizens Connect (CC), which was originally designed as a 311 app to help residents report graffiti or potholes directly to the right person at City Hall. However, in a survey of CC users, Boston found that, while CC had social features, people weren’t using them; 38 percent of users had never used the app to look at other reports; 41 percent reported they used CC “a minority of the time” and people reported items close to their home.

So when the city designed Street Cred, it incorporated gamification features such as allowing citizens to earn badges, compete with neighbors and share civic accomplishments. It also integrated Foursquare, Instagram, SMS and email to leverage existing mobile social sharing.  A new version is due out this spring

Why doesn’t MN get more funding for civic technology?

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There are always two sides to broadband expansion – deployment and adoption. One of the win-win ways government can get involved in broadband expansion is by promoting adoption. It helps build the business case for providers to deployment more broadband. I think a great way to promote broadband is through civic technology – encouraging use of technology to encourage greater civic engagement. There are at least a couple ways to do this – make government information open and accessible, encourage development of technology tools (such as with the recent Capitol Code hackathon), provide funding to encourage openness and technology development.

There is a bill in the legislature that would support Open Government, Civic Technology and Open Data. The proposal is to appropriate funding for a grant to Minnesota nonprofit E-Democracy to…

1.10promote statewide adoption of open government strategies, the use of technology for civic
1.11innovation, and the wide use of public data sets in the public and private sector.

I am a longtime E-Democracy volunteer. I want to put that out there because clearly that comes with some bias – but I think that increasing access to civic technology would encourage broadband adoption. And Open Minnesota recently made a good case that there is federal funding out there for civic technology and Minnesota is not taking advantage of it…

The Knight Foundation’s exhaustive and widely scoped study of nearly $700 million dollars in investments in ”civic technology” presents a shocking picture of Minnesota’s engagement.

Minnesota accounts for only 0.1% of the amount invested in start-ups and grants in civic technology. Other than some $625,000 invested by the Knight Foundation itself in E-Democracy’s inclusive online community engagement in St. Paul neighborhoods (a grant), Minnesota is completely off the radar.

As a state that prides itself on civic innovation and the use of technology, this gap in activity is dramatic. Our window of opportunity to be a place where you invest in commercial and nonprofit social enterprises pursuing digital technology for good strategies is closing as other regions step up and invest in their civic technology ecosystem.

As legislative committees explore opportunities for economic development and broadband promotion with the supplemental budget this session, exploring how to foster investment in civic technology should be included. As the House targets for “government operations” and the supplemental budget are zero, funding for the “open government” half of the Open Minnesota proposal is unlikely. However, the economic development and economic efficiency aspect of civic technology and open government data as an economic resource should be pursued with vigor (#2 and #3 in our plan).

I haven’t been following the bill, but as the excerpt states above the chances of funding aren’t strong – but I think even at the local level openness (providing access to data) and encouragement (such as the Red Hot Hack being planning for the end of April) are tools that support civic technology, encourage broadband adoption and support the business case for broadband deployment. Also local governments might look at the opportunities for federal funding as a means to support civic engagement and broadband.

Open Data / Open Gov possible grants for federal projects

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Apparently I’m all about open data and open government today. Partially because I’m in Ireland – land of the apps. There’s an app for everything here – the buses, most businesses, St Patrick’s Day events… I think apps are bigger here because the use of cell phone (mobiles) has been greater longer.

Anyway – apparently there’s funding to promote and support open government, which I always read as open data. I think the best way to promote open data is to make is usable to the widest group of people and to me that means apps – like the ones I’m using in Ireland, like the ones I’ve seen created as various hackfests. More people appreciate open data when they can use it. This funding is for federal projects – so maybe this is an opportunity to take a local project and make it bigger. Or maybe this is an opportunity to think differently. I’d love to see an app that tracks broadband availability and speeds – seems like that data ought to be available via the FCC (From 702?).

Here’s more info on the opportunity – clearly I’ve spun it a bit, but not out of shape. It could also be an opportunity to digitize government info, which would be a first step to making is more app-able…

OpenTheGovernment.org is announcing to our partners in the coalition the availability of funds for projects to further work on our community’s Open Government Partnership (OGP) policy priorities to promote reform of government policy and practice toward greater openness and accountability.

Since 2011, more than 20 national organizations committed to improving openness and accountability have worked together to identify policy priorities for improving and strengthening federal government openness. We have identified four as areas where there is a real possibility of improvements in the 12 to 15 months.

  • Proactive  Dissemination of All Government Information
  • Improving Freedom of Information Act Processing and Disclosure
  • Transformation of the National Security Classification Process
  • Increased Disclosure of Government Spending

These priorities are reflected in the commitments made by the Obama Administration in the 2nd National Action Plan for its participation in the Open Government Partnership. (“OGP”) The Plan includes commitments to: modernize the freedom of information act; transform the security classification system; increase transparency of foreign intelligence surveillance activities; strengthen and expand whistleblower protections for government personnel; increase transparency in spending; and support and improve agency implementation of open government plans, including new measures on proactive disclosures.

Our intent in funding these projects is to strengthen our community’s contributions to the OGP process, develop new or better approaches for the work of government, and give new ideas and information to the government for its ongoing OGP efforts. It is strongly urged that any proposed activity be accomplished in coordination with other civil society organizations.

The initial application process is open until 26 March 2014.  A committee made up of OTG partners will review all applications and make recommendations to the full Steering Committee at its upcoming 16 April meeting.

Applications (see attached document) should be sent to Amy Bennett abennett@openthegovernment.org

We look forward to hearing from you.

ProtectMyRep: social media tool for teens, made in MN

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Sometimes I talk to high school classes about online reputation management. I’ve learned that kids have not heard of LinkedIn. It doesn’t always occur to them that a SnapChat picture might not disappear after 10 seconds – if an enterprising recipient is quick with a screen capture. They don’t realize that even if they do have privacy settings on, if their friends don’t, I can probably learn a quite a bit about them from the friends – especially if their friends are my friends. Something to consider, especially in a small town. They are users of social media but they’re not strategic. To be fair a lot of us weren’t that strategic at age 16, but we weren’t leaving digital fingerprints behind.

I was excited to read about a new website (ProtectMyRep) that helps kids learn about how and why to take control of their online reputation. It was created by a program at the University of St Thomas. The site includes stories from college kids about their mishaps online, a few words from decision makers (such as college admissions) about how they use social media to research candidates and how to manage privacy settings and clean up a less-than-stellar online reputation. The Minneapolis Star Tribune describes the site and the role it’s playing in local schools…

Protectmyrep.org is part instruction and part reality check. It shows teens how to increase privacy settings and repair past mistakes. Teens can watch short videos in which an employer, college counselor, Army recruiter and others describe how they monitor social media and judge young people based on what they see.

Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman explains that teens have free-speech rights. But when a teen threatened to shoot up EdinaHigh School and posted photos of himself holding a gun, Freeman’s office had to take the threat seriously.

Now schools are inviting ThreeSixty’s staff members to come and help their teachers, parents and teens understand the great power and lure of social media — as well as its risks. One of the state’s new Common Core standards requires that high school students learn to “recognize ethical standards and safe practices in social and personal media communications, and understand the consequences of personal choices.”

Few teachers feel equipped to tackle this massive task. They need training and good resources. And they need help from parents, coaches and other adults who care about teens.

I think it’s a good site. When I talk to classes, I like to add that it’s more than protecting your reputation – it’s building and managing a reputation that will get you into college, into a job, into an apartment and maybe out on a nice date. You can approach it the same way a business looks at brand management: decide the story you want to tell (Are you an artist, a geek, an athlete?), use social media channels to tell and reinforce the story and make sure your friends stay on script too.

Hyper-Local Social Networking App Developed in MN

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I love to hear about great things, especially technology, coming from Minnesota. I read about the following in TECHdotMN…

In that spirit, a new app called Turf is focusing heavily on ease-of-entry and community-based networking in an effort to cut through the noise and provide users with what they really want: the ability to connect with those around them in a meaningful way.

Growing up in Pine Island, MN, Colton Sinning learned the social benefit of becoming ingrained in one’s community. In a small town, everybody knows everybody else, and staying up on local news and events is simply a matter of paying attention. Sinning believed that social networks should mirror that dynamic.

So he came up with the idea for Turf, a location-based app — currently available on iOS and soon  Android — that makes it easier than ever to interact with people in the same proximity. –

Pinterest is to young designers as YouTube is to rising rock stars…

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I have written about Target’s use of Pinterest in the past. I think it’s interesting to see the role that social media is playing in certain fields – like music and now design. It’s the whole flattening of the world. I like to see a Minnesota company on the edge of making it happen. I would love to see Minnesotans get found through these channels. It’s just one more way that folks without broadband are at a disadvantage.

According to Fast Company…

Could Pinterest be the place to find design stars? Target thinks so. The retailer has built its brand by creating unique product lines with big-name talent like Michael Graves, Cynthia Rowley, and Philippe Starck among others and will continue to do so. But Target is now testing the waters with fresh faces, partnering with three top pinners–Joy Cho, Jan Halvarson, and Kate Arends, all of whom write blogs and work in design in various capacities–on a series of limited-edition collections featuring party products that will be sold in stores and online.

“Social media creates so many great opportunities for talented up and comers, and we definitely see today’s top Pinners as expert curators of style and design,” says Rick Gomez, Target’s senior vice president of marketing of the decision to work with the trio. “We think their unique point-of-view will resonate well with our guests who regularly rely on Pinterest for inspiration and ideas.”

Hackathons and Coding Jams – Great events coming up for civic minded coders and others!

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The hot topic at the big broadband conference in St Paul last week was infrastructure – people learning and talking about infrastructure. But – my favorite sideline at the broadband conference this week was the talk about applications, open data and getting citizens involved through applications, open data and access to technology, which includes broadband.

One of the Cool Tools we showed at the conference was the Office of the Secretary of State’s test Socrata site. It features open data sets in a format that is very user friendly. Open data and open data sets are the underpinning of many civic apps. The example I often use is Adopt-a-Hydrant, which maps hydrants in a city and allows residents to claim a hydrant in their area. The new foster parents for the hydrant takes on responsibility for making sure the hydrant is accessible (aka shovels around the hydrant.) This is only possible because the data set on hydrant location is open an accessible. (In fact, I read recently that the County Boards of both Hennepin County and Ramsey County will be adopting resolutions on Tuesday, February 11 to make their public geospatial data freely and openly available, which is great news for advocates of open data.)

Access to open data, coding skills, an idea and citizens who are ready to lean in can be the tools to making technology increase and improve civic action and citizen involvement in community needs and help capitalize on the many hands make light work approach that has helped with other technology projects such as crowdsourcing and crowdfunding. Hackfests (aka hackathons or code jams) are events to promote the idea of technology for public good. They are real events in real locations that gather the tools mentioned about and provide the space, bandwidth and support to create apps to improve life in a community. Two such events are coming up…

Capitol Code: An Open Data Jam is coming Saturday, February 22 to CoCo in Uptown. 

Hosted by the Office of the Minnesota Secretary of State, Capitol Code will be a gathering passionate and  engaged citizens given the opportunity to explore and drive solutions using public data from the Secretary of State, including (but not limited to) data and election results, as well as information from the office’s Business Services Division.

This will be a fun and enriching event where teams of community leaders, developers, public servants, designers and government officials will turn ideas into action, for the good of the citizens of Minnesota. This will be an extremely active day focused on doing, not just talking.

Register for Capitol Code today and be a part of realizing the future of open data in Minnesota: capitolcode.mn.gov and follow on Twitter for updates at @MNSecofState, @CapitolCode, and #CapitolCode.

We’re also holding a pre-event Ideation Jam, Wednesday February 12 at SoMakers at DevJam Studios. From 5:30-7:30 we’ll hear from some of the agencies that will be supplying data, meet your fellow Capitol Coders and begin brainstorming project ideas for the big event. You can indicate in your registration whether you can make it.

red rot hackRed Hot Hack April 26-27 – Make it a Weekend Getaway!

Hosted by Red Wing Ignite:

  • Create applications that make use of Gig connectivity (YES – a Gig in Red Wing!!)
  • Come ready to jump in no matter what stage you’re at fresh idea or nearly finished project
  • Can’t code? That’s OK all skills are needed
  • Expand your relationships and networks.

We’re working with team, organizations and individuals from Red Wing, the Twin Cities and beyond!

Learn more: http://www.redwingignite.org/

Open Data promotes public-private civic solutions

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Today the Minneapolis Star Tribune ran an article on open data access in Minneapolis and the state. It sounds a little geeky and it is – but here’s the hook for everyone – access to open data is the underpinning for a lot of civic apps. Bill Bushey, co-founder of Open Data Twin Cities does a nice job describing the connection…

“The real end is making new tools or new analyses for the local community or the city or the government,” said Bill Bushey, an organizer for Open Twin Cities. Minnesota’s open records law already defines what data is public, but open data advocates say it should be in an easily analyzed format — for instance, spreadsheets rather than PDFs.

Here’s an example of one app…

Among them was Tony Webster, a developer who used an open records request to create a searchable database of city restaurant health code violations spanning two years. He speculates that Minneapolis is one of a few major cities without one. Webster also used Chicago’s towing data to create an app that tells drivers if their cars have been towed. But he has encountered major obstacles trying to obtain simple housing information — or any real-time data sets — from Minneapolis.

“Making that information more easily accessible would only further the goals of the city by ensuring those who can advocate, report on, or research urban problems have the data in hand,” Webster wrote in an e-mail.

The Secretary of State has been working on making open data sets more accessible with a company called Socrata. They make the data very accessible. I am pleased to report that they will be at the Border to Border Broadband conference this week – in the cool tools room. The Secretary of State is also hosting a hack later this month.

The open data discussion is an interesting one. The technology is there to make the information accessible and useful. Part of the concern with open data is ensuring that the information is presented in the aggregate that data does not reveal specific details about individual citizens. Format of data becomes a big issue when it comes to access and privacy. It is much easier to use and remove sensitive data from survey results kept in a database or spreadsheet than survey results in PDF format – or worse paper copies of individual responses. So there are a number of potential hurdles to overcome with open data – ensuring privacy and getting data in share-able formats. But I think helping people understand the potential benefits will help build the case that open data is worth promoting and supporting.

Upcoming Open Data Events: First step in community app development

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I am excited about open data because it’s the backbone of so many civic-minded applications. For example, Adopt-a-Hydrant only works because it’s easy to map hydrants in a city. The first step creating, supporting or even suggesting a lot of mobile apps is understanding the nature, format and platform of government data. With that in mind, I wanted to share information on two upcoming meetings on data. One is online; one is in the Twin Cities. And while I suspect they will be fairly technical in nature, I think the target audience could/should go beyond techies to include civic-minded folks and government employees who might have an interest in supporting or suggesting apps to be developed.

White House Safety Datapalooza – Tue Jan 14

On Tuesday, the White House, the U.S. Department of Transportation, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture will host a “Safety Datapalooza,” featuring innovators from the private, nonprofit, and academic sectors  who have utilized freely available government data to build products, services, and apps to advance public safety in creative and powerful ways. The event will feature safety data resources in areas ranging from transportation to food to consumer product safety, as well as tools to improve disaster preparedness and emergency response and to help empower Americans with information to make smarter, safer choices.

Over the past few years, this Administration has launched a series of Open Data Initiatives, which have released troves of valuable data that were previously hard to access in areas such as health, energy, education, public safety, and global development. These data are being used by innovators, businesses, researchers, and the public to create new services and applications that benefit Americans.

DATE:  Tuesday, January 14, 2013
TIME:  9:00 a.m. ET until approximately 12:00 p.m. ET

KEYSPEAKERS:
·         The Honorable Krysta Harden, U.S. Deputy Secretary of Agriculture
·         The Honorable Seth D. Harris, U.S. Deputy Secretary of Labor
·         Todd Park, Assistant to the President, U.S. Chief Technology Officer
·         The Honorable Rich Serino, Deputy Administrator  of the Federal Emergency Management Agency
·         The Honorable Robert Adler, Acting Chairman of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission
·         The Honorable Gregory Winfree, Administrator of the Research and Innovative Technology Administration, U.S. Department of Transportation
·         The Honorable Janice Jacobs, Assistant Secretary for Consular Affairs, U.S. Department of State
·         The Honorable Patricia Hoffman, Assistant Secretary for the Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability, U.S. Department of Energy
·         The Honorable Dr. Nicole Lurie, Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

The event will also feature demonstrations of safety tools, apps, and resources by a range of developers, startups, businesses, researchers, and innovators.

REGISTRATION:  To attend in-person, media must RSVP to Yewande.Addie@oc.usda.gov with the name, media outlet, phone, and email for each person planning to cover the event by Monday, January 13 at 4:00PM ET, with the subject line “Safety Datapalooza”.  On the day of the event, media must enter Wing 5 of the United States Department of Agriculture South Building on Independence Avenue, SW.

WEBCAST: This event will be webcast live at http://www.Wh.gov/safetydatapalooza
For more information, visit  http://www.whitehouse.gov/ostp

After the session, E-Democracy is hosting an online hangout to extend the conversation. Unfortunately I’ll be training at that time but I love the diea. Here’s more info…

After the three hour webcast, those at the in-person event will be connecting via small group brainstorms.

Why not the rest of us too?

Time for a virtual video “hangout” to go in-depth beyond the pithy #safetydata hashtag.

E-Democracy.org is working with folks at the MIT Media Lab, the Smart Chicago Collaborative, and a bunch of volunteer facilitators to host …

*** Unofficial White House Safety Datapalooza Live Video Hangout ***

We are using a network of Google Hangouts combined with MIT’s experimental Unhangout tool.

RSVP for limited slots now:

http://e-democracy.org/civictechhangout

This unofficial hangout will center on a 45 minute brainstorming dialogue being fed into short discussion summaries that will be forwarded to interested White House and government staff we have engaged directly in recent weeks.

There are a mix of general and thematic break-outs based on interest.

Our video “lobby” will open at 12Noon and officially start our program at 12:30 p.m. Eastern (for those in the UK, that’s 7:30 p.m.)

As official government links emerge we are also linking them here (webcast, Twitter, and more):

http://e-democracy.org/civictechhangout – To tune into to two-way exchange during the event outside of video, see:

1. Twitter #safetydata – http://bit.ly/safetydatatwitter
2. Safety Data LinkedIN Group – http://bit.ly/safetydatalinkedin  (experiment)
3. Safety Data Facebook Group – http://bit.ly/safetydatafacebook (experiment)

Also check out Smart Chicago’s Datapalooza Resources blog post: http://bit.ly/smartchicagosafetydata

Open Twin Cities: Discuss Open Data Policy with Minneapolis’ CIO

Monday, January 27, 2014
6:00 PM

Minneapolis IT
310 4th Avenue South – Suite 400
Minneapolis, mn

Otto Doll, the Chief Information Officer of Minneapolis, has been charged with developing an open data policy for the City. To help develop this policy, Otto is inviting the civic tech community to his office to have a discussion about what that policy should look like. If you have experience with requesting data from Minneapolis or thoughts on how the city should implement open data, please come and help shape this important policy of transparency and innovation.