Our blog about technology
and civic issues

Bootstrapping Community Engagement

By Nick Grossman | Published: July 21, 2010
Localocracy has a nice way of expanding into new communities.  They avoid the “tumbleweeds” problem by building support for the initiative before it starts, in a kickstarter-ish sort of way.  This is, of course, not a new idea, but I think Localocracy does a nice job of executing on it.  E-Democracy has long used a Read more...
Also posted in Incentives, community | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

The State of Open Government

By Philip Ashlock | Published: May 26, 2010
What’s the state of the open government movement? What are the good examples and where is more attention needed? This overview goes through many of the open government initiatives that have been formalized as official government policies and looks to see what they say about the overall state of open government. Data.gov just recently had it’s Read more...
Also posted in Activity Feeds, Open Standards, all, open data, open government, open source | 3 Comments

Living Plans

By Nick Grossman | Published: December 3, 2009
At last night’s PlanningTech workshop, we diagrammed out planning processes to see where the insertion of technology might have been helpful.  The processes we looked at ranged from seemingly simple (getting a bike rack installed on your street) to massively complex (advocating for funding for MTA’s capital plan). Keep an eye out for digitized versions Read more...
Also posted in urban planning | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Mapping the Planning Process

By Nick Grossman | Published: November 24, 2009
At the recent Technology for Participatory Planning workshop, one of the suggestions for follow-up was to look back at a completed planning process, map it out step-by-step, and find places where inserting technology might have improved things.  Frank from RPA blogged it out here.  Even just the first step, mapping out a planning process, is Read more...
Also posted in events, urban planning | Tagged | 1 Comment

Planning/Tech Workshop: The Aftermath

By Nick Grossman | Published: November 17, 2009
We were blown away by the great turnout at last Friday’s Tech for Participatory Planning workshop.  Thanks to RPA for hosting with us, and to everyone who came out for a great afternoon of lightning talks, brainstorming, and discussion.  It’s clear that we just scratched the surface here, and we raised way more questions than Read more...
Also posted in Community Involvement, events | 3 Comments

Text-to-voice

By Nick Grossman | Published: November 9, 2009
On their blog today, Mobile Commons explains how AARP used text-to-voice to mobilize senior citizens around health care reform. It’s not news that mobile (and particularly phone and sms) are the tech tools that connect with the widest audience, but I’m continually impressed by the way that Mobile Commons has built a platform that makes it Read more...
Also posted in Community Involvement, open government | Tagged | 4 Comments

Workshop: Tech for Participatory City Planning

By Nick Grossman | Published: November 3, 2009
Dear friend / planner / city staffer / community organizer / software engineer / entrepreneur / planning geek: The Open Planning Project and the Regional Plan Association would like to invite you to an upcoming workshop to brainstorm new technology for participatory city planning. When: Friday, November 13th, 12:30 – 5:30pm  (followed by a happy hour on Read more...
Also posted in Community Involvement, open government | Leave a comment

Wanted: Volunteer Web Dev for City Planning App

By Nick Grossman | Published: October 28, 2009
Are you a web developer with Python and Geo chops, looking for a fun side project?  Even better, are you also a resident of Greater Boston, interested in city planning and civic engagement?  Do you know someone who is? If so, let us know.  The Open Planning Project is partnering with the Somerville Community Corporation to Read more...
Also posted in Community Involvement, Jobs | 8 Comments

The Root, Branches, and Fruit of Government as an Open Platform

By Philip Ashlock | Published: September 23, 2009
Tim O’Reilly often describes the government as a platform, John Geraci provided us with the The Four Pillars of an Open Civic System, and Micah Sifry offered the Three Branches of We.gov. Here I present The Root, Branches, and Fruit of Government as an Open Platform. The recent Gov 2.0 Summit was primarily focused around “Government Read more...
Also posted in Open Standards, Platforms, data, open government | 7 Comments

Community Almanac Redesign

By andy | Published: August 20, 2009
We’re very excited about the new version of the Orton Family Foundation’s Community Almanac that we’ve been working on at TOPP Labs. In this post I’ll share some of the design decisions that went into that project and some of the reasons why things have changed.
Also posted in Activity Feeds, Community Involvement | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments