<quote who="Jason C Stone"> > > I would appreciate some information from Mr. Thai on the motive and > mission for the mailing lists he is promoting. Does it have any > affiliation to any community organizations or government? Who set it > up? Who manages it? Will it be around tomorrow or the day after?
I'll focus on the Minneapolis list and neighborhood lists I've created to keep it Minneapolis specific. Motive & Mission ---------------- I'd like to see people more involved with their communities -- from talking about issues to taking actions to improve communities. Consistently, groups want to use the same tools to achieve those goals. That tool could be a mailing list, a project management application, or something else. My mission is to provide those tools and know-how for communities through out Minnesota so that process isn't repeated each time a group wants to "do something." Affiliation ----------- There is no affiliation with any government or community agencies. However, I do approach as many agencies and community groups as time allows to let them know what is available to them and to welcome their participations. Your tax dollar is not being spent. There are costs associated with providing those services. Those costs are being paid by myself and others. Management ---------- The lists are setup by me. I've not really promoted them all that much, yet. There are several characteristics behind the scene that one may not notice. There are integrated functionalities to block spams, viruses, and strip HTML emails into plain text. I've also been working on ways to make sure that emails can't be spoof -- to make sure that emails that was sent came from that particular address. Other functionalities allow automated limiting of post per days (which I don't impose), automation of message and subject rating that contribute to a person's own rating. So you can vote on the value of a person's message and that vote carries over to the poster's own rating. If their rating falls below a certain level, then their message could be delayed in the future. If you use the web interface to read/post messages, you could tell the system to skip all messages below a certain rating. These functionalities could be turned on or off depending the the participant's agreed choices. Since the lists are still very new and I've yet to contact various groups and individuals to participate, I'm the only one managing the lists. As the lists gain more participants, I would like to each list to nominate moderators who can decide policies etc. Since so many tasks can be automated as set up by the moderators, management of each lists shouldn't require much time. Still, I would like to see more than one moderator per list as that would add different voices on how a list should be administered. Life Span --------- The service that's hosting the lists is 9 years old. I've administrated that service since day 1. There are many unpredictable events in life that could change our lives dramatically. It's hard to say what will be around tomorrow or the day after. Do I foresee it being around then? Sure. I'm not aware of any effort in any state or locale that *is* providing this many civic mailing lists for communities. This is just the beginning folks... imagine enterprise level applications at your community's finger tips to develop, coordinate, collaborate, and make a difference. I'm also currently talking to Minneapolis and St. Paul schools to promote similiar lists for each school. I think education could use a helping hand by connecting parents, teachers, and administrators. Again, no tax dollar out of your pocket. Thomas T. Thai // Whittier REMINDERS: 1. Think a member has violated the rules? Email the list manager at [EMAIL PROTECTED] before continuing it on the list. 2. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. ________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Un-subscribe, etc. at: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
