A week from today I'll be giving a public speech at the University of Minnesota titled, "Everyday Citizens: Community Life in the Information Age."
Is anyone impressed with how their neighborhood association has integrated the use of the Internet in efforts to involve citizens? Perhaps the lessons of the most "wired" neighborhood (district council) can be shared so our traditional in-person form of participation may be enhanced. What about your block? Did anyone create a public or private e-mail list from addresses gathered at national night out or something? This is something I'd like to do in my new neighborhood. I only need a couple examples of how you have used such an e-mail list. Online organizing success stories from immigrant and minority communities would also be of interest. I plan to put my "E-Democracy.Org" hat on during part of my speech and speculate on how we might extend the Issues Forum concept to interested neighborhoods as well as special topic spaces for information exchange among those working to meet similar public challenges. We will be able to do this more easily when we move to our new open source GroupServer technology (funded by the UK government!): http://e-democracy.org/groupserver Also, I am interested in what online information services you rely on as "citizens" from the city, schools, county, etc. Do you use the personalized e-mail notifications from the city? What else do you like online or them me what would make it easier for you to have a better say as a citizen on what goes on in the community? You can reply to the list, me directly <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, or add a public link here: http://www.dowire.org/wiki/Everyday_citizens Thanks, Steven Clift Minneapolis P.S. The full invite to -both- of my speeches next week and a blog: post http://www.dowire.org/notes/index.php?p=15 ------- Forwarded message follows ------- Date sent: Tue, 12 Apr 2005 16:38:40 -0500 From: Loren Terveen <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> The University of Minnesota Information, Technology, and Everyday Life Initiative (http://www.cs.umn.edu/itel/) invites you to two events featuring Steven Clift, a leading international expert on "e-democracy". Both events are open to all. -------------------- Everyday Citizens: Community Life in the Information Age -- A new speech by Steven Clift, http://publicus.net -- 5:00 - 6:30 p.m., Thursday, April 21, 2005 402 Walter Library University of Minnesota, East Bank Map: http://onestop.umn.edu/Maps/WaLib/index.html Parking details are at the end of this message Join Steven Clift as he ties together the first decade of "e-democracy" with a citizen-centric agenda for building community life and democracy in the the 21st century. The Internet allows citizens to become everyday citizens "anywhere, any time" by deeply connecting them to things local not just global. What ideas, lessons, and models can we import and combine in order to strengthen the quality of life and democracy in our local communities? After a global speaking tours across 25 countries, places as diverse as Mongolia, Iceland, Lebanon, and South Korea, Clift connects the best online realities in an optimistic recipe that will help us defeat Internet-empowered "politics as usual" and counter the emerging virtual civil war among partisans online. A reception follows Steven's talk @ 6 p.m. The reception will be Walter Library 402. ----- Global E-democracy Trends: Leading Governments and E-democracy -- A bonus presentation by Steven Clift -- 3:00 - 4:30 p.m., Thursday, April 21, 2005 402 Walter Library University of Minnesota, East Bank Parking details are at the end of this message For those interested in an in-depth exploration of governments and leading e-democracy practices, join Steven Clift as he presents examples from around the world. A sample of presentation slides used across a many countries are available from http://publicus.net/speaker.html This session includes an eye-opening opportunity to visit leading websites. Recently presented to top staff in the U.S. House of Representatives as well as e-democracy practitioners from the Australian government, this presentation helps those in the public sector, media, as well as citizens discover opportunities and challenges for improving democracy and governance in the information age. -------------------- About Steven Clift -- Full biography at http://publicus.net/about.html -- Steven Clift, a leading global expert on "e-democracy," has spoken hundreds of times in 25 countries. In 1994, he led the creation of the world's first election-oriented web site from Minnesota - http://E-Democracy.Org. He is the editor of http://DoWire.Org, the Democracies Online e-mail list, blog, and wiki with participants in over 80 countries. He shares dozens of the articles he's written for the United Nations, the OECD, the Internet Society, and others from his http://Publicus.Net website. Steven, twice listed on PoliticsOnline.com's "25 Who Are Changing the World of Internet and Politics," is a frequent media commentator on e-democracy. He focuses on the democratically transformative uses of the Internet between elections. A past project coordinator for the Markle Foundation's Web White & Blue project, Clift recently directed four pilot projects for the UK Local E-democracy National Project. Between research contracts and projects, he enjoys life as a professional public speaker on e- democracy. Over the last 18 months he shared his insights, often with governments, and gathered new case studies in Mongolia, South Korea, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Iceland, Denmark, France, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, The Netherlands and Belgium. Steven Clift volunteers as Board Chair of E-Democracy.Org, which is currently expanding its local citizen-based online "Issues Forums" model for citizen engagement beyond Minnesota. E-Democracy.Org is using the new open source GroupServer.Org technology along with a development guide funded by the UK Office of Deputy Prime Minister to launch forums in the UK and beyond. Steven Clift and his wife Laurel live in Minneapolis, Minnesota and can be reached in just about every imaginable way from: http://publicus.net/contact.html -------------------- Information, Technology, and Everyday Life Initiative (ITEL). These lectures are sponsored by the University of Minnesota ITEL Initiative (http://www.cs.umn.edu/itel/). This initiative is sponsoring a series of public lectures at the University and a conference that will bring together visionaries from across the country with scholars at the University of Minnesota to explore a research agenda around information, technology, and everyday life. A primary goal will be to jumpstart an interdisciplinary research agenda that explores these issues at the University of Minnesota Department of Computer Science and Engineering. Contact: Joseph A. Konstan, Computer Science and Engineering, (612) 625-1831. -------------------- Parking Parking is available in the Church Street Ramp http://onestop.umn.edu/Maps/ChurchGar/index.html, the Weisman Museum Garage http://onestop.umn.edu/Maps/WeisGar/index.html or in the Washington Avenue Ramp http://onestop.umn.edu/Maps/WashRamp/index.html ------- End of forwarded message ------- ^ ^ ^ ^ Steven L. Clift - - - W: http://publicus.net Minneapolis - - - - E: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Minnesota - - - - - - T: +1.612.822.8667 USA - - - - - MSN/Y!/AIM: netclift UK Office Hours - 1pm - 11pm - - T: 0870.340.1266 Join my Democracies Online Newswire: http://dowire.org ------------------------------------------------- JOIN the St. Paul Issues Forum TODAY: http://www.e-democracy.org/stpaul/ ------------------------------------------------- POST MESSAGES HERE: stpaul@mnforum.org To subscribe, modify subscription, or get your password - visit: http://www.mnforum.org/mailman/listinfo/stpaul Archive Address: http://www.mnforum.org/mailman/private/stpaul/
