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To access links, see Steven Clift's blog: http://dowire.org/notes/?p=366 Post: Building democracy online - E-Democracy.Org shares strategic plan, invites participation I am busier than ever building democracy online. As a DoWire member, you wouldn't know that because I've been so light with Newswire posts. With the support of my Ashoka Fellowship I am focused like a laser on building out E-Democracy.Org as a global "local" Internet-era democracy movement. This is fun. This is challenging. This will make a difference. After six months in deep strategic planning mode, E-Democracy.Org is ready to connect with citizens around the world who are excited about strengthening their local community and democracy online. Our detailed 2007-09 strategic plan, with 50 priority tactics, is available from here: http://blog.e-democracy.org/posts/101 Think of E-Democracy.Org as a mix of the emergent era of the service club movement (yeah, Lions, Rotary, etc.) one hundred years ago combined with Internet 1.0 (our practical addiction to e-mail) and Web 2.0. While most are satisfied with efforts that empower individuals or political interests online rather autonomously, we are not. We seek to expand by first connecting small groups of local active citizens with our strictly non-partisan, volunteer-based Issues Forum model and technology. We seek to empower local communities as a whole through equitable two-way online communication - the 24x7 online town hall we call Issues Forums. We bridge partisan divides online through sustained conversation - an very very rare civic experience online. Our growing international network of affiliated "local up" efforts that require real "shoe leather" organizing is a unique approach compared to the popularized Internet ideal that an individual acting alone can simply install some software and "poof" magical democratic engagement. More on E-Democracy.Org's Strategic Plan In addition to intense deliberations, over 300 online survey responses from our participants and supporters informed this effort. Here is our final strategic plan - also in PDF). In summary, together with your help we will: * Dramatically expand local Issues Forum as part of our growing international network to at least 10 new communities * Increase the training and support we provide to local e-democracy committees * Help local communities recruit more participants and raise new and diverse voices from people of different backgrounds and political views * Continue and evaluate our election information and linking efforts * Support the development of open source tools that strengthen our own efforts and can be shared with those who share our goals * Get the next wave of democratic and citizen media innovation ready to share across our local democracy movement * Grow our volunteer network and raise the necessary funds to accomplish these exciting goals How can you get involved? Volunteer - If you'd like to volunteer, reserve your place in our future "Volunteers" online group. This will be a highly active space for day to day collaboration among those volunteering an average of one hour a month. Join: http://forums.e-democracy.org/groups/volunteers Start an Issues Forum - Join our LiftOff group to connect with your peers interested in starting new forums and drop us an e-mail at [EMAIL PROTECTED] to let us know where your community is located. Join: http://forums.e-democracy.org/groups/liftoff Donate - We will be doing a full pledge drive in the near future, but today you can do your part by simply e-mailing us a pledge to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sign-up for Project Blog Posts via E-mail - See the top right box on the E-Democracy.Org Project Blog and get an e-mail when we post a project update there. See: http://blog.e-democracy.org Everyone on DoWire lives somewhere. Imagine what our 2500 member DoWire network could do if we worked to bring 1,000 new communities online with Issues Forums. Let's see that's 1,000 communities X 300 average participants per community forum ... or 300,000 people we can bring into the heart of local democracy. Realistically it will take a number of years to reach 1,000 communities with our built-to-last model, but I challenge you to ask yourself what you can do to help by starting with your neighborhood or local community. Simply calling one meeting or telling ten friends may be all it takes to get the ball rolling and the conversation flowing. Steven Clift Board Chair, E-Democracy.Org Host, DoWire.Org - Democracies Online Newswire P.S. Here are our mission, goals, and strategies (see the full document for the additional 50 tactics we've identified - http://e-democracy.org/e-democracystrategicplan.pdf ): Mission - Expanded participation and stronger democracies and communities through the power of information and communication technologies and strategies. Goal 1 - Engagement: Strengthen, expand, and diversify engagement through effective and meaningful online discussions and information exchange on public issues Strategy 1.1 Expand number of Issues Forums dramatically Strategy 1.2 Deepen support for existing Issues Forums Goal 2 - Information and Civic Education: Increase the use and relevance of information resources about elections, governance, the media, and public affairs to help address public challenges Strategy 2.1 Strengthen election information and voter education efforts Strategy 2.2 Commission special review of non-partisan information and civic education activities and develop proposals for funding network-wide initiatives Goal 3 - Best Practices and Tools: Develop and disseminate best practices and tools to promote community conversation and engagement, civic education, and information exchange Strategy 3.1 Use open source tools to the greatest extent possible and work to ensure that major investments in our primary software platforms are released under common open source licenses Strategy 3.2 Share knowledge and learn from others through participation in national/international conferences, online communities of practice, and national/international organizations supporting democracy and citizen engagement. Goal 4 - Promote Active Citizenship: Empower participants with online skills and experiences to have an impact on their communities and governments Strategy 4.1 Develop special and sustainable projects that support mission and goals Strategy 4.2 Actively engage people from diverse and less represented communities to participate in Issues Forums and other e-democracy projects Goal 5 - Organizational Capacity and Sustainability: Maintain an ethical, stable, and financially strong organization of volunteers and staff that effectively and efficiently responds to growing and changing expectations, opportunities, and responsibilities Strategy 5.1 Build the organizational infrastructure to support goals Strategy 5.2 Develop effective evaluation structures, tools, implementation, compilation, and reporting Strategy 5.3 Fund the necessary organizational infrastructure to support goals Strategy 5.4 Systematize public and media relations work on behalf of E-Democracy.Org Strategy 5.5 Build global structure to support and reflect local needs and broad, continuous expansion *** Democracies Online Newswire - http://DoWire.Org *** To comment/for links: http://dowire.org/notes/?p=366 To network: http://groups.dowire.org Submit posts: http://dowire.org/submit Member profile for Steven Clift: http://groups.dowire.org/main/contacts/stevenclift ----------------------------------------- Group home for Newswire - Steven Clift's blog posts by e-mail: http://groups.dowire.org/main/groups/newswire Replies go to members of Newswire - Steven Clift's blog posts by e-mail with all posts on this topic here: http://groups.dowire.org/r/topic/ For digest version or to leave Newswire - Steven Clift's blog posts by e-mail, email [email protected] with "digest on" or "unsubscribe" in the *subject*. 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