An interesting conversation emerging here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/opengovgroup/permalink/1509380455960212/
Add your ideas! Inspired by an article about "The Brigade" at (not the CfA Brigade): http://bit.ly/sfgatebrigade Startup Brigade will use tech to boost civic involvement Joe Garofoli Updated 5:30 pm, Sunday, July 20, 2014 There is a special corner of the Internet graveyard dedicated to sites that have promised - and failed - to improve civic engagement. Most have tanked because they were too wonky, too earnest, too focused on raising money for a specific candidate or issue. Matt Mahan knows this bleak history. It comes in handy as the San Francisco entrepreneur leads Brigade, the high-profile, highly funded civic engagement platform. Sean Parker - the billionaire early Facebook investor - has contributed the bulk of Brigade's $9.3 million in early funding, with venture capitalist Ron Conway and Saleforce.com founder Marc Benioff chipping in undisclosed amounts. That's about three times as much as other well-funded civic sites usually corral at this stage. The cash infusion has allowed Brigade to hire top Silicon Valley talent. "We love to joke that the way to build the platform to revolutionize politics is to not make it about politics," said Mahan, 31, as the CEO sat in the second-floor headquarters of Brigade's South of Market office. But there is a major challenge in trying to use technology to encourage people to get involved. A smartphone, it turns out, is a better platform for summoning a taxi than participating in a civil discussion about gun rights ... More: http://bit.ly/sfgatebrigade Steven Clift - http://stevenclift.com Executive Director - http://E-Democracy.org Twitter: http://twitter.com/democracy Tel/Text: +1.612.234.7072 ᐧ ----------------------------------------- Group home for Newswire - Steven Clift's Democracies Online Newswire: http://groups.dowire.org/groups/newswire Replies go to members of Newswire - Steven Clift's Democracies Online Newswire with all posts on this topic here: http://groups.dowire.org/r/topic/3RXfE6uRVLeU8zKst9IAEW For digest version or to leave Newswire - Steven Clift's Democracies Online Newswire, email [email protected] with "digest on" or "unsubscribe" in the *subject*. Newswire - Steven Clift's Democracies Online Newswire is hosted by Democracies Online - http://dowire.org.
