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Last week was a big week on the 800 member Minneapolis Issues Forum
<http://www.e-democracy.org/mpls/>.

On Monday, Doug Grow, probably the most read newspaper columnist in
Minnesota launched his column with, "An ice-cream fight in the Minneapolis
park system has turned into a prime example of e-mail democracy. Or
maybe e-mail demagoguery." Read the full article
<http://www.startribune.com/stories/462/1922367.html>.  It heavily quotes
one few remaining likely less-cyber comfortable elected officials on
our city council who said of forum participants, ""They've got public
officials twisted around their little fingers."  Wow!  To set the record
straight - Minnesota E-Democracy does not seek total world domination,
just Minneapolis. ;-)

The discussion on the list about the article is highly informative about
why these types of forums are important and influencial
<http://www.mail-archive.com/mpls@mnforum.org/msg08568.html> in real
geographic communities and local politics.

Last October, reporter Steve Brandt wrote an important article about the
forum <http://www.startribune.com/stories/462/773948.html> and here are
his comments toward the end of the discussion about the role
of the Mpls list and whether the media views it as competition
<http://www.mail-archive.com/mpls@mnforum.org/msg08877.html>.

The new mayor, RT Rybak, continues to participate in the forum as he did
while a candidate.  The recent police shooting of a Somali immigrant with
mental illness (and a crow bar and machete walking down the street)
brought out this post from the Mayor
<http://www.mail-archive.com/mpls@mnforum.org/msg08622.html> later on the
same Monday.   This helps illustrates how important the "online commons"
is during major events, not just discussions about ice cream vendors in
city parks.  However, the lack of immigrant participation on our forum is
a concern.  Hey foundation people, we need $10,000 for an aggressive,
in-person New Voices outreach campaign - we have two volunteers working
on a grant proposal. Interested? <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>

You can find more on this event, other reactions to the Grow article and
the original DQ discussion by clicking on "earlier messages" from
<http://www.mail-archive.com/mpls@mnforum.org/>.

Below is an e-mail answering the claim that one part of the city dominates
the discussion by David Brauer, our volunteer list manager.

Build one of these in your city today, before it is too late!  Seriously,
what are you waiting for?

Steven Clift
Democracies Online
Minnesota E-Democracy


[Mpls] Where in the world are Mpls-Issues posters?

-----------------------------------------------------------------

From: List Manager
Subject: [Mpls] Where in the world are Mpls-Issues posters?
Date: Mon, 11 Mar 2002 06:49:05 -0800

-----------------------------------------------------------------

So ARE we Southwest-dominated?

Thank goodness there's a list rule asking you to sign with your
neighborhood as well as name. It allowed me to do a little research on
where our posters live in the city. (A reminder: please sign with
neighborhood, not ward or SD # if you can.)

A disclaimer: I can't tell where ALL members live - if you are a
lurker, your location is invisible, too. However, we'll assume posters
reflect overall membership.

To compile data, I chose, arbitrarily, the first 10 days of Jan., Feb.
and March 2000...742 posts in all! I counted posts, not individuals, but
that's because it reflects the actual conversation.

To my surprise, we are NOT southwest-dominated....no matter how you draw
the map. Here are two ways of figuring it - neighborhood specific
results follow.

If you split the city into 5 parts (SE includes the U-area and Downtown
includes the neighborhoods inside the Mississippi-35W-94 freeway ring),
posts break down like this:

        Posts   List%   Pop%
SE      253     38.9    38.2
SW      222     34.1    27.5
DT       67     10.3     5.5
NE       59      9.1    10.7
N        50      7.7    18.2

With the exception of the SW and N sections, list posts reflect the
city's population closely. SW has about a third more posts than
expected, N side about half. But that's a far smaller disparity than I
expected.

Or, if you split the city into quadrants by 35W and the Mississippi.

        Posts   List%   Pop%
SW      254     38.5    31.2
SE      223     33.8    33.1
NE      101     15.3    15.9
N        73     11.0    19.8

The disparities shrink: SW has about a quarter more posts than by
population, while the north side has about 40 percent fewer.

The neighborhood results were extremely satisfying. 63 of the city's 80
neighborhoods were represented in 30 days of posting! As Loki suggests,
we have a lot of Central here, although my neighborhood, Kingfield, is
the champ (thanks to me, Ken Avidor, the Manns, Steve Brandt, and
others.) The big neighborhood and communities (4-neighborhood Longfellow
and NENA) tended to rise to the top. The * indicates one person is
responsible for all neighborhood posts.

SW - Kingfield, 59
SE - Central, 49
SE - Phillips, 49
SW - Whittier, 36
SE - Longfellow Community, 35
DT - Loring Park, 30
SW - Linden Hills, 26
SE - Seward, 25
SW - Lyndale, 25
SE - Prospect Park, 22
SW - East Harriet, 21
SE - Powderhorn, 17
DT - Downtown West, 16
NE - Marshall Terrace, 15*
N - Near North, 15
SE - Standish-Ericsson, 14
NE - St. Anthony West, 14
N - Cleveland, 13
DT - Nicollet Island-E. Bank, 12
SE - NENA, 12
SW - Lynnhurst, 11
SW - Steven's Square, 11
SW - Fulton, 10
N - Shingle Creek, 9*
SE - Cedar-Riverside, 8
SE - Bancroft, 8
SE - Marcy Holmes, 8
DT - North Loop, 7*
NE- Waite Park, 7
NE - Windom Park, 7
NE - Sheridan, 6
SE - Corcoran, 6
NE - Como, 5*
SW - Lowry Hill, 4
SW - Kenny, 4*
SW - Lowry Hill East, 4
NE - Logan Park, 4*
N- Willard-Hay, 3*
SE - Bryant, 3
SW - Tangletown, 3
SW - Armitage, 3*
N - Folwell, 3
SW - CIDNA, 2
DT - Elliot Park, 2*
SW - West Calhoun, 2*
SW - CARAG, 2
N- Hawthorne, 2
N- Lind-Bohannan, 2*
N- Harrison, 2
SE - Field, 2
SW - Windom, 2*
SE - Diamond Lake, 1*
N - Camden, 1*
SW - East Calhoun, 1*
NE - St. Anthony East, 1*
SW - Kenwood, 1*

St. Paul & environs, 58
West Metro, 15
Rest of U.S., 9*
Australia, 1

Also, 45 people posted on DQ in the first seven days....lots of
first-time posters, too.

David Brauer
List manager

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