[open-government] September "Virtual" and Aug 1, 2 pm San Francisco - New Voices, Civic Engagement in the Digital Age Report Discussion

Tue Jul 16 17:07:23 UTC 2013

Hey all, I've put up the official e-vite for two gatherings:

In-Person - San Francisco - Aug.1:
      http://digicivic.eventbrite.com

Virtual - Tech TBD - Tentatively Sept 18:
      http://newvoicesdigiengage.eventbrite.com

New blog post with additional context:
       http://blog.e-democracy.org/posts/1960

Thanks,
Steve

On Thu, Jul 4, 2013 at 8:22 AM, Steven Clift <clift at e-democracy.org> wrote:
> I wanted to let folks know that based on the success of the small
> group discussion we had on the newer PewInternet.org report on Civic
> Engagement in the Digital Age in DC last month -
> http://bit.ly/digicivic - at the Sunlight Foundation, working with
> folks at Code for America we are staging a repeat event in San
> Francisco.
>
> A key focus is asking questions and looking at the data with from an
> "inclusion" perspective and digging into the numbers about new voices
> and less represented groups. Long story short, the Pew survey
> basically says those who show up civically offline are also dominating
> online and the participation gap may be a wee bit wider online (the
> opposite of what we need if the Net is to be a positive democratizing
> force). Equity in participation, by factors like race, are a bit
> better with social media but "taking action" (and being asked to take
> action) shows a number of huge divides.
>
> So on this Independence Day, I encourage us commit ourselves to
> efforts that use civic technology and open government to raise new
> voices and build power for less represented groups in society. We can
> build on "open to all" access to information, transparency,
> accountability, etc. and add "used by (a more representative) all" to
> our efforts. By digging into the numbers and looking for engagement
> opportunities, I sincerely believe we can use civic tech to build far
> great civic participation.
>
> If you would like an invite (space is limited) or know of people who
> be interested, drop me a note with "New Voices Aug 1" in the subject:
>
>      clift at e-democracy.org
>      clift (at) e-democracy.org
>
> Crucially, we seek a mix of folks from civil rights, digital
> inclusion, civic tech, open gov, civic engagement circles. We had that
> in our DC meeting and it made for a very useful and dynamic exchange.
>
> The DRAFT invite, attendee list and links to the DC meeting notes:
> http://bit.ly/digicivic
>
> Steven Clift - http://stevenclift.com
>   Executive Director - http://E-Democracy.org
>   Twitter: http://twitter.com/democracy
>   Tel/Text: +1.612.234.7072