Monthly Archives: July 2013

young people on the Zimmerman verdict

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(Chicago) According to the latest Pew poll, a majority of young White people are dissatisfied with the Zimmerman verdict, in contrast to older White people, who approve. Nevertheless, just 32% of Whites between 18 and 29 think that the trial “raised important issues about race that need to be discussed,” whereas a majority (52%) say that “the issue of race is getting too much attention.” Pew doesn’t break out young African Americans’ views of those issues, but overall, 78% of Blacks think the trial raised issues about race that need discussion. (See my recent argument that we should be talking about racism in relation to the case.)

According to previous research, a majority of young White people wrongly believe that discrimination is worse against Whites than against African Americans. The age group as a whole is diverse, but young Whites are pervasively segregated from people of color. Only 15% of white students attend multiracial schools. They don’t have much direct exposure to African Americans or much opportunity to observe inequality.

Jonathan Chait wrote recently, “Obama believes America’s racial problem has not only gotten dramatically better over the course of his life — it will continue to do so. Younger people are less racially biased than older people, and Obama believes that process will continue to rapidly transform America’s approach to race.” I think by some definitions of racial bias, that is true. But young White people seem especially prone to believe that racism is a thing of the past, and that may be barrier to actually doing something about it.

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Note from the White House from NCDD Board Chair Marla Crockett

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A big congratulations to NCDD members Steven Clift and Anita Brown-Graham, who were among 15 Open Government and Civic Hacking Champions of Change honored by the White House on Tuesday for their work in connecting communities.  The Obama administration recognized the business, community and social media leaders for using high-tech tools to bring citizens closer to government at the state and local levels.

Steven, the executive director of E-Democracy in Minneapolis, has worked at the neighborhood level since 1994, connecting 1,000 citizens online by starting with what they need, including finding their lost cats. Technology helps break the ice, he said during a panel discussion, and has helped empower people.

Anita, director of North Carolina State’s Institute for Emerging Issues, said the state’s failure to reach people brought her to this work.  Her institute brings residents together from across North Carolina to consider complex problems that affect the state’s competitiveness.  Anita said her goal moving forward is to enhance the quality of deliberation and be an example for other organizations doing this work.

Pictured below are some of the NCDD members present today, including our two “Champs!”  From left to right:  Marla Crockett, NCDD Board Chair, Steven Clift of e-democracy.org, Anita Brown-Graham of NC State’s Institute for Emerging Issues, Leanne Nurse from the Environmental Protection Agency and Wayne Moses Burke from the Open Forum Foundation.

NCDD-Members-at-WH

Upcoming Conference Call on Community Vision and Values

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CM_logo-200pxWe are excited to once again invite you all to join us for a free conference call being hosted by our partners at CommunityMatters and the Citizens’ Institute on Rural Design this Thursday, July 25th from 3:00 to 4:00 pm Eastern Time.  This second call in the three-part capacity building series will feature David Hohenschau of the Orton Family Foundation and Peter Flinker of Dodson & Flinker Landscape Architecture and Planning who will share their knowledge and experience around the call’s theme, “Designing for the Vision and Values of Your Community.”

If you want your project to truly succeed, it must reflect the vision and values of the community. But that’s easier said than done. Join this call to confirm and deepen your understanding of a community’s vision and values, learn how to use that understanding to inform design projects and a range of issues facing communities today, and hear strategies from folks who have succeeded in designing for the vision and values of their community.

Register for the call here, and be sure to mark your calendars for Thursday evening.

For more background on this installment of the call series, you can check out the CommunityMatters blog post here or read the post below.  Don’t miss this great opportunity to strengthen your skills and learn from the experience of these knowledgeable guests!

The Values Behind a Vision

Let’s say your community was recently hit by a hurricane, a drought, or a tornado. Your downtown is devastated and it’s time to plan for recovery. That’s the challenge ahead of Live Oak, Florida, a community hit last year by Hurricane Debby and recently selected to host a 2013 Citizens’ Institute on Rural Design (CIRD) Workshop. But what do you demolish and what do you rebuild? Where do you even begin?

Or say your historic town is in danger of losing local businesses and its sense of place in the face of generic strip development. Lima, New York – another 2013 CIRD host community – is struggling with exactly that issue. How do you take a stand and help your small town survive? How do you create a vibrant and economically resilient future?

These stories are compelling, but not unique. Communities of all sizes face similar challenges and are working to craft futures that build on their strengths and assets. Towns in these situations often start with a visioning process. You pull people together, brainstorm about what you would like your community to look like in 10, 20, or even 50 years, and wait for change to happen.

A community vision is an important starting point, but is seldom enough to begin the transformation process. Broad goals like “building a strong future,” which is hard to argue with, can mean different things to different people. That becomes a problem when you are trying to use a vision to make specific planning or design choices. (How does a goal of building a “strong future” help you make a decision on where to put a park or how to design a block? Anyone?)

Visions are strongest when they reflect what people care most about in their towns – specific and widely-shared community values. A values-based vision is the foundation for a thriving community. It spells out who your community is and what it wants to be. Values are often initially captured in broad themes – “small town feel,” “rural character,” or “strong local economy.” But it’s the definition of these broad themes that allows you to make tangible decisions about the future of your community – from park design to downtown revitalization to disaster resilience.

You have to ask, how does a particular community value show up in my town? Or how could it show up? Think about “small town feel.” Is that value driven by a certain type of architecture? By neighbors getting to know each other? By the ability to walk places, the placement of front porches, or the number of street trees? The answer varies in every community. But by drilling down into the things that matter most to your community’s residents, it’s possible to clearly articulate values that are broadly understood and shared. They can then be used to drive clear policies and funding and design decisions that lead to collectively desired results.

Discovering values and vision isn’t just about decision-making. Knowing what your community is (and is not) is also critical to economic vibrancy. Towns across the U.S. are discovering that their prosperity rests in their distinctive character. This character can only be understood when a community takes the time to know itself.

No one said it’s easy, but David Hohenschau, a community designer and planner at the Orton Family Foundation, can give you a good roadmap to getting started. On this month’s CommunityMatters conference call, Dave will walk through the nuts and bolts of how to create a values-based vision. We’ll also hear from Peter Flinker, Principal of Dodson & Flinker Landscape Architects and Planning, who will share examples of how communities have successfully applied their visions to specific planning and design projects.

Join us for this month’s CommunityMatters conference call, hosted in partnership with CIRD, and learn more about how to develop or deepen a strong values-based approach and use it help your town pick up, move forward, and yes, even build a strong future.

This call is the second in a three-part series co-hosted by CommunityMatters and the Citizens’ Institute on Rural Design (CIRD). The series is designed to help people in any community working on a design or planning project get the skills to succeed and the inspiration to get started.O

Original blog post can be found at www.communitymatters.org/blog/values-behind-vision.

Registration page can be found at www.orton.org/civicrm/event/register?reset=1&id=68.

job openings in civic renewal

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Here is an up-to-date list of interesting jobs related to civic engagement, civic education, and community organizing. (I post such lists periodically.)

  • Program Administrator for CIRCLE’s National Study of Learning, Voting, and Engagement. NSLVE is an initiative of CIRCLE and Tisch College. It measures college student voting rates and will create a comprehensive national dataset of college and university student registration and voting rates. Reporting directly to the Director of Initiatives for the Study of Higher Education and Public Life, the Program Administrator will perform an important role in the NSLVE initiative. Key responsibilities of this position include: managing communications and information about participating campuses, working with the Director to recruit colleges and universities to participate by responding to inquiries and reaching out to institutional decision makers; working with the Director to develop recruitment strategies; producing and disseminating individual campus reports; working with CIRCLE researchers to ensure accuracy in the national dataset for research purposes;  maintaining a repository of program information to be used by the Director and other CIRCLE colleagues.
  • Network Organizer at Leading Change Network. The Leading Change Network is a global community of practice of some 100 organizers, researchers and educators.Initiated by Marshall Ganz, Harvard Kennedy School, and others, its purpose is to support its participants in developing the leadership, building the organizational capacity, and improving the ability of democratic organizing to meet the critical challenges of our times. At present, for example, participants in 11 countries work on topics that range from immigration reform, human rights, gender equity, and economic justice to climate change, public health, and domestic violence. The demand, however, far exceeds our current capacity to respond, indicated by a growing data base of over 2000 interested persons in more 25 countries who would like to engage with us. The purpose of our search is to find a person who can enable us to respond. We seek a proactive, creative and “well organized” online organizer to work with a diverse leadership team to build the network, grow the network, and manage network infrastructure (database, web site, social media, etc.)
  • Communications Coordinator, Tisch College, Tufts University. Tisch College generates an enduring culture of engagement by collaborating with schools, departments, and student groups to offer extensive programming for every member of the Tufts community. Reporting to the Communications Manager, the Communications Coordinator will be responsible for identifying, writing, and sharing print and web based content which showcases Tisch College’s work, reinforcing strategic communications themes. Assignments may include writing and managing print projects (such as newsletters, annual reports, and brochures) and digital communications (such as email, web content, social media, and video). The Communications Coordinator will assist in performing a range of editorial functions from brainstorming and researching themes to developing and writing feature stories. The position requires a demonstrated ability to write with style, verve, and brevity with an appreciation for engaging a variety of audiences. Additionally, the Communications Coordinator will strengthen the written research products from CIRCLE.
  • Tenure-track professor in public administration, School of Government, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Desired fields of specialization include collaboration, organization theory and behavior, or human capital management.
  • VP Marketing & Communications at Global Citizen Year. Through strategic marketing, partnerships and PR, the VP of Marketing & Communications will ensure that Global Citizen Year becomes: 1) a household name among America’s emerging leaders, and 2) the national platform to make a global “bridge year” after high school the norm, not the exception in America. The ideal candidate is an entrepreneurial leader, with a track-record building new brands, and driving successful, high-profile communications campaigns.

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job openings in civic renewal

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Here is an up-to-date list of interesting jobs related to civic engagement, civic education, and community organizing. (I post such lists periodically.)

  • Program Administrator for CIRCLE’s National Study of Learning, Voting, and Engagement. NSLVE is an initiative of CIRCLE and Tisch College. It measures college student voting rates and will create a comprehensive national dataset of college and university student registration and voting rates. Reporting directly to the Director of Initiatives for the Study of Higher Education and Public Life, the Program Administrator will perform an important role in the NSLVE initiative. Key responsibilities of this position include: managing communications and information about participating campuses, working with the Director to recruit colleges and universities to participate by responding to inquiries and reaching out to institutional decision makers; working with the Director to develop recruitment strategies; producing and disseminating individual campus reports; working with CIRCLE researchers to ensure accuracy in the national dataset for research purposes;  maintaining a repository of program information to be used by the Director and other CIRCLE colleagues.
  • Network Organizer at Leading Change Network. The Leading Change Network is a global community of practice of some 100 organizers, researchers and educators.Initiated by Marshall Ganz, Harvard Kennedy School, and others, its purpose is to support its participants in developing the leadership, building the organizational capacity, and improving the ability of democratic organizing to meet the critical challenges of our times. At present, for example, participants in 11 countries work on topics that range from immigration reform, human rights, gender equity, and economic justice to climate change, public health, and domestic violence. The demand, however, far exceeds our current capacity to respond, indicated by a growing data base of over 2000 interested persons in more 25 countries who would like to engage with us. The purpose of our search is to find a person who can enable us to respond. We seek a proactive, creative and “well organized” online organizer to work with a diverse leadership team to build the network, grow the network, and manage network infrastructure (database, web site, social media, etc.)
  • Communications Coordinator, Tisch College, Tufts University. Tisch College generates an enduring culture of engagement by collaborating with schools, departments, and student groups to offer extensive programming for every member of the Tufts community. Reporting to the Communications Manager, the Communications Coordinator will be responsible for identifying, writing, and sharing print and web based content which showcases Tisch College’s work, reinforcing strategic communications themes. Assignments may include writing and managing print projects (such as newsletters, annual reports, and brochures) and digital communications (such as email, web content, social media, and video). The Communications Coordinator will assist in performing a range of editorial functions from brainstorming and researching themes to developing and writing feature stories. The position requires a demonstrated ability to write with style, verve, and brevity with an appreciation for engaging a variety of audiences. Additionally, the Communications Coordinator will strengthen the written research products from CIRCLE.
  • Tenure-track professor in public administration, School of Government, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Desired fields of specialization include collaboration, organization theory and behavior, or human capital management.
  • VP Marketing & Communications at Global Citizen Year. Through strategic marketing, partnerships and PR, the VP of Marketing & Communications will ensure that Global Citizen Year becomes: 1) a household name among America’s emerging leaders, and 2) the national platform to make a global “bridge year” after high school the norm, not the exception in America. The ideal candidate is an entrepreneurial leader, with a track-record building new brands, and driving successful, high-profile communications campaigns.

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White House to recognize two NCDD members at today’s “Champions of Change” event

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Below is the press release for today’s White House event, which NCDD Board chair Marla Crockett and other NCDD members are attending.  I was honored to have been asked for my suggestions for who should be recognized at today’s event, and two of my four nominees were chosen:  Steven Clift of e-democracy.org and Anita Brown Graham of NC State’s Institute for Emerging Issues.

Congratulations to Steven and Anita!  We’re proud of you and your myriad accomplishments!!

You can watch the event live at www.whitehouse.gov/live right now.

White House Highlights Open Government and Civic Hacking “Champions of Change”

WASHINGTON, DC – On Tuesday, July 23rd, the White House will honor 15 leaders and organizations as open government and civic hacking “Champions of Change.” As entrepreneurs, innovators, organizers, and community leaders, these “Champions of Change” have made a tremendous positive impact by building high-tech tools to help health workers and disaster-response crews better serve communities; piloting innovative programs to involve traditionally disengaged communities in local governance; using new technologies to enhance government transparency and collaboration; and more.

When presenting his new management agenda earlier this month, President Obama said, “… We the people recognize that this government belongs to us, and it’s up to each of us and every one of us to make it work better…We all have a stake in government success — because the government is us.”

The White House Champions of Change program was created as part of President Obama’s Winning the Future Initiative. Through this program, the White House highlights individuals, businesses, and organizations whose extraordinary stories and accomplishments positively impact our communities.

To watch this event live, visit www.whitehouse.gov/live at 10:00 am ET today. To learn more about the White House Champions of Change program and nominate a Champion, visit www.whitehouse.gov/champions.

Here is the list of “Champs”:

Anita Brown-Graham, Director of the Institute for Emerging Issues at NC State University, Raleigh, NC
Anita Brown-Graham is Director of the Institute for Emerging Issues (IEI) at NC State University, a think-and-do tank focused on tackling big issues that affect North Carolina’s future growth and prosperity. From energy, to fiscal modernization, to improving our systems of higher education, IEI takes the lead in convening state leaders in business, higher education and government to address these issues in a comprehensive, long-term way to prepare the state for future challenges and opportunities. In her role at IEI, Anita led the development of the Emerging Issues Commons, a first of its kind civic engagement tool – both a physical space and an online hub that stands to transform how citizens across the state connect with each other, access information, and take action in the decades to come. Prior to her leadership at IEI, Anita worked as faculty of the School of Government at UNC Chapel Hill for 13 years, training communities in strategic planning to revitalize their distressed rural communities. Her work inspired both rural and urban communities to work together for a better future for the state. Anita is a William C. Friday Fellow, American Marshall Fellow, and Eisenhower Fellow.

Steven Clift, Founder of E-Democracy, Minneapolis, Minnesota
Steven Clift is @democracy on Twitter. He launched E-Democracy.org in 1994 and it is the world’s first election information website. His “government by day, citizen by night” insights were built as leader of the State of Minnesota’s first e-government initiative. He spoke across 30 countries for over a decade from Estonia to Libya to Mongolia on open government and civic participation to support non-partisan, volunteer-powered efforts for inclusive online local democracy. An Ashoka Fellow, today he is E-Democracy’s Executive Director. He leads a dedicated team with the BeNeighbors.org effort to connect all neighbors online (and off) in public life across race and ethnicity, generations, immigrant and native-born, and more. He lives with his lovely wife and two children in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Brad Lander, New York City Council Member, Brooklyn, NY
Brad Lander is a New York City Council Member representing Brooklyn’s 39th District, and a leader on issues of affordable housing, livable communities, the environment, and public education. Named one of “Today’s Social Justice Heroes” by The Nation magazine, Lander is co-chair of the Council’s Progressive Caucus and was one of the first councilmembers to bring “participatory budgeting” to his district, giving residents the power to decide which projects to support with their tax dollars. Prior to serving in the City Council, Brad directed the Pratt Center for Community Development and the Fifth Avenue Committee, a nationally-recognized community development organization.

Alderman Joe Moore, City of Chicago, 49th Ward, Chicago, IL
Known as a pioneer for political reform, governmental transparency and democratic governance, Joe Moore represents Chicago’s 49th Ward, one of the nation’s most economically and racially diverse communities. Moore became the first elected official to bring “participatory budgeting” to the United States. Each year, Moore turns over $1 million of his discretionary capital budget to a process of democratic deliberation and decision-making in which his constituents decide through direct vote how to allocate his budget. Moore’s participatory budgeting model has since been adopted by four of his Chicago City Council colleagues, as well as city council members in New York City, San Francisco, and Vallejo, California.

Steve Spiker, Director of Research & Technology at the Urban Strategies Council, Moraga, CA
Steve Spiker (Spike) is the Director of Research & Technology at the Urban Strategies Council, a social change nonprofit supporting innovation and collaboration based in Oakland for almost 25 years. He leads the Council’s research, spatial analysis, civic innovation, open data, and technology efforts. Spike has research experience in community development, housing, criminology, spatial epidemiology and reentry issues. He loves data, visualization, GIS and strategic technology implementation, especially open source tech. Spike is the co-founder of OpenOakland, a Code for America Brigade and is helping guide government technology decisions and civic engagement in the East Bay. In 2012 Spike was chosen as one of the Next American City Vanguard class. He is an outspoken supporter of open data and open government and speaks across the USA about data driven decision making. He also campaigns to end human trafficking and runs Stealing Beauty Photography.

Travis Laurendine, Founder and CEO of LA Labs, New Orleans, LA
Travis Laurendine doesn’t fit in the typical bio box any more than his hair fits into the typical hat. As a serial entrepreneur he has been on the cutting edge of both the web startup and entertainment industry for nearly 10 years. He launched his first web startup while an Economics major at Vanderbilt University, where he was also selected as the first Vanderbilt student with a film to make it in the Nashville Film Festival. When Hurricane Katrina struck his hometown of New Orleans, he stayed back in the city and found himself wearing the hats of startup CEO, concert promoter, restaurant general manager, standup comic, film/video producer and director, MTV News journalist, band manager/agent, investor, hackathon organizer, Entrepreneur-In- Residence, and cultural ambassador. Recently, he founded Louisiana’s first hackathon organization, CODEMKRS, which is currently being transformed into Louisiana’s only modern code school. This summer he has organized hackathons for giant music festivals JazzFest and Bonnaroo and is currently planning San Francisco’s Outside Lands’ first hackathon. His official job is being the founder and CEO of LA Labs, a startup laboratory focused on the marriage of entertainment and technology that uses New Orleans as the ultimate creative incubator. He is thankful for his loving family and friends and the daily inspiration he gets from the great city of New Orleans.

Scott Phillips, Co-Founder and CEO of Isocentric Networks, Tulsa, OK
Scott Phillips is the co-founder and CEO of Isocentric Networks, an advanced data center services company based in Tulsa, OK. He was previously the founder and CEO of a sensor technology company whose work included a project for NASA for use on a manned mission to Mars. Scott is also a founding board member of Fab Lab Tulsa, a 21st Century non-profit community center for innovation, entrepreneurship, and STEM education through a partnership with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Scott’s current passion lives at the nexus of entrepreneurship, the maker movement, and civic hacking, three transformative movements that he believes are democratizing how we live, work and play. According to Scott, it is easy to understand the impact of civic hacking on government when you view it in three steps; give citizens transparency, give citizens a voice, then give citizens ownership.

George Luc, Co-Founder and CEO of GivePulse, Austin, TX
George Luc is Co-Founder and CEO of GivePulse, a social network that matches people to causes and enables nonprofits, companies and affinities to manage volunteers, list events and track service hours in one central community. GivePulse launched earlier this year in 2013 and has since tracked over 100K service hours and mobilized over 5K volunteers in Austin alone. George has a BS and MS in Computer Science from Virginia Tech with an emphasis in Human Computer Interaction. He spent much of his early career developing technology for people with disabilities and has worked with companies like Daylert, IBM, ESO and HomeAway. He serves as a board member of City of Austin Volunteer & Service, Austin Convention Center and Visitor’s Bureau, KLRU, Open Door Preschool, and was a City Commissioner for Austin Mayor’s Committee for People with Disabilities.

Craig Michael Lie Njie, CEO, Kismet World Wide Consulting, Mountain View, CA
Mr. Lie Njie is CEO of Kismet World Wide Consulting, which he founded in 2002. Lie has over 20 years of professional experience and currently consults world-wide on a variety of topics including privacy, security, technology design and development, education, entrepreneurship, management, sales and marketing, and mobile application development. Lie was given his name as an honorarium for his three years of service (2005-2008) as a Peace Corps Volunteer in The Gambia, West Africa, where he designed, deployed, and taught the first two years of The Gambia’s first Bachelor’s in Computer Science program at the University of The Gambia (UTG). Today his program is still successful and sustainable. After returning from the Peace Corps, Lie recruited and managed a volunteer team to build and release the free WasteNot iOS app to help people world-wide share their good ideas for reducing environmental impact. He furthermore helped the United Nations as a technology consultant and researched and documented the privacy risks of health and fitness mobile apps.

Christopher Whitaker, Project Management Consultant at the Smart Chicago Collaborative, Chicago, IL
Christopher Whitaker is a project management consultant at the Smart Chicago Collaborative, utilizing his experience in government and community organizing to advance civic innovation in Chicago. Whitaker also serves as the Chicago Brigade Captain for Code for America, supporting civic hacking events and teaching a weekly Civic Hacking 101 class. He is a graduate of DePaul University (MPA) and Sam Houston State University (BA, Political Science). Previously, Whitaker served with the US Army in Iraq as a mechanized infantryman.

Jessica Klein, Co-Founder of Rockaway Help, Brooklyn, NY
Together with a group of journalists and residents, civic hacker and designer Jessica Klein co-founded “Rockaway Help” in the wake of Hurricane Sandy. Rockaway Help is committed to empowering the community to find solutions for emergency response, preparedness and rebuilding through hyperlocal open news and the development of innovative community-designed technologies. As part of the National Day of Civic Hacking, Jessica lead workshops and hackathons for designers, engineers and Rockaway Beach, New York residents to identify problems and prototype design or technology solutions in the devastated coastal community. Jessica is currently the Creative Lead of the Mozilla Open Badges project where she promotes openness and creativity in formal and informal learning environments and develops ways for learners to design their own unique narrative around their credentials. Jessica created the Hackasaurus project, the Web X-Ray Goggles and Thimble tools to help teens learn how to code through hacking. Over the last decade, she has worked at a variety of institutions dedicated to learning including the Museum of Arts & Design, The Rubin Museum of Art, The Institute of Play, Startl, The Hive and Sesame Workshop. She also founded OceanLab NYC, a project which asked parents, teachers and kids in the NYC community to investigate their urban coastal environment through casual interaction and play.

Caitria O’Neill, Co-Founder of Recovers, San Francisco, CA
Caitria O’Neill is a co-founder of Recovers, a disaster preparedness and recovery technology company in San Francisco. After a tornado struck her hometown, Monson, MA in 2011, Caitria and her sister Morgan worked within their community to connect survivors with local skills and donations. This kind of seat-of-the-pants organizing happens in every neighborhood, after every storm. The Recovers team has turned the best practices of many efforts into a user-friendly tech toolkit for risk mitigation and community response. In less than two years they have helped hundreds of thousands of people find information, aid, and ways to pitch in. Caitria holds a BA in Government from Harvard University, FEMA NIMS/ICS certifications, and was named an Up-and- Coming CEO by Forbes Magazine. Her work has been featured by CNN Opinion, TED.com, and Bloomberg Businessweek.

Gerrie Schipske, Councilwoman on the Long Beach City Council, Long Beach City, CA
Councilwoman Gerrie Schipske is currently serving her second term on the Long Beach City Council. She has championed open, transparent and accountable local government since she took office in 2006 by being the first elected official in Long Beach to disclose their calendar and to communicate daily via blog, email, Facebook and Twitter. In January 2012, she took public education and transparency efforts one step further with her “Open Up Long Beach” initiative and website which provide residents increased access to the city’s every day affairs and documents, and includes opportunities for residents to “ go behind the scenes” of city operations. These efforts were lauded in California Forward’s report: The State of Transparency in California: 2013. Gerrie also brought transparency to the Medical Board of California on which she serves by initiating the requirement that members disclose each meeting any contacts they have had with interested parties. Gerrie earned her JD from Pacific Coast University School of Law, her MA from George Washington University, her BA from University of California, Irvine and her RNP from Harbor UCLA Women’s Health Care Nurse Practitioner Program. She is the author of three books on the history of Long Beach, California

Robert Davis, Co-Founder of RadSocial, Cooper City, FL
Robert Davis is a recent marketing graduate from Nova Southeastern University in Davie, FL. His day job consists of managing a social media consultancy for small to medium sized businesses, and at night one can find him at the local maker and hacker spaces around Fort Lauderdale and Miami. Robert is a Code for America intern alumni (’12) and an avid supporter of creating civic tools with open data for the public good. Along with fellow Floridian Cristina Solana, the two created the Florida Bill Tracker, forked from the MinnPost and redeployed to easily track controversial Florida legislation. Robert is also an avid traveler and surfer, and hopes to inspire others to change their world regardless of age or expertise.

Deborah Parker, Tulalip Tribes Vice Chair, Tulalip, WA
Deborah Parker Tsi-Cy-Altsa (Tulalip/Yaqui) was elected to the Tulalip Tribes Board of Directors in 2012. As Vice-Chairwoman, Deborah brings to Tulalip leadership nearly two decades of experience as a policy analyst, program developer, communications specialist, and committed cultural advocate and volunteer in the tribal and surrounding communities. Serving as a Legislative Policy Analyst in the Office of Governmental Affairs for the Tulalip Tribes from 2005-2012, Deborah engaged in the legislative process on behalf of the Tulalip Tribes by providing quality analysis of issues most pertinent to the exercise of sovereignty and tribal governance, with particular emphasis in the areas of education, finance, taxation, and healthcare. Before joining legislative affairs Deborah developed two unique outreach and education programs for the Tulalip Tribes. Young Mothers was a culturally relevant program for teen mothers, and the Tribal Tobacco Program sought to inspire responsible tobacco use among tribal members, while acknowledging tobacco’s sacred place in Indigenous cultures. Prior to her work for the Tulalip Tribes Deborah served as Director of the Residential Healing School of the Tseil-Waututh Nation in Canada, and in the Treaty Taskforce Office of the Lummi Nation, where she was mentored by American Indian leaders such as Joe Delacruz, Billy Frank, Henry Cagey and Jewell James. As a passionate advocate for improved education for tribal members, and a belief in the inherent right of all Native Americans to expect and receive a quality education, one that is free from racial or cultural bias, Deborah is focused on educational reform, which includes developing curriculum that is a true reflection of an Indigenous ethics and knowledge system. Deborah remains committed to education by volunteering her time in the local schools where her children are enrolled. Deborah graduated from the University of Washington with a Bachelor of Arts degree in American Ethnic Studies and Sociology where she distinguished herself as a scholar and a young Indigenous leader. Deborah lives in Tulalip with her husband Myron Dewey (Paiute/Shoshone) and their five children.

what we should talk about? (notes on Trayvon Martin and the state of national dialogue)

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(Albuquerque, NM) After Newtown, President Obama “direct[ed] the Departments of Health and Human Services (HHS) and Education to launch a National Dialogue on Mental Health.” This presidential directive led, in turn, to “community conversations,” including a big meeting here in Albuquerque on Saturday. I am here because I serve on the board of Everyday Democracy, which helped to organize the Albuquerque deliberation.

Note that the whole effort began in response to the Newtown shooting, but the focus shifted—for understandable, if debatable reasons—from guns to mental illness. Now, several months later, it is very hard to talk about gun violence without thinking about George Zimmerman and Trayvon Martin. And the president has called for a national dialogue on race.

These shifts of topic raise a general and urgent question about framing, or, in blunter terms, What should we talk about?

For instance, if you are concerned about the Trayvon Martin killing, it may be because you despise anti-black racism and oppose “stand your ground” laws. If you are still thinking about the Newtown murders today, you probably want to regulate or ban assault weapons. On the other hand, if you oppose gun control and think (as most white Americans say they do) that anti-black racism is overemphasized, then you may want to change the focus away from Trayvon Martin and away from Newtown. You may find urban crime a more congenial topic, because the accused are disproportionately Black, and gun control has been used locally without seeming to work. See, for example, Pat Buchanan.

Incidentally, people like Buchanan have helped to make the Martin case a major news story by talking about how “the media” is overplaying it. Within their own circles, they want to talk about the Zimmerman trial, which reinforces their views about race and guns. (It allows them to remind everyone that men who look like them can act as the law.) The debate about whether we should be talking about the Trayvon Martin case actually increases attention to the case and serves the interest of the hard right as well as civil rights groups.

As a participant in political debates, you are entitled to try to shift the focus. Each framing pushes the conversation in certain directions instead of others. So it is not intrinsically wrong to say, in response to the Trayvon Martin case, “Let’s talk about the 500 murders committed in Chicago last year.”

In fact, I also want to talk about urban crime, including the crimes committed by young Black men, which produce many victims and also partially explain why nearly 1 million African American men are incarcerated today. Not only Pat Buchanan but also the NAACP want people to know that African Americans are disproportionately convicted of crimes.

So what is the right conversation for us to be having in this situation? I would say we need to be able to talk both about urban violent crime–in which Black people are disproportionately perpetrators and victims–and racially motivated violence against African Americans. One of those topics must not be eclipsed or trivialized by invoking the other one. If the phrase “comparisons are odious” means anything, its wisdom emerges in cases like this. It would be true but odious to say that almost as many German gentiles died in WWII as Jews died in the Holocaust. It’s not that the German lives were valueless and we shouldn’t care, but the comparison trivializes. Likewise, a person who cared about all these victims would not casually juxtapose 500 homicides in Chicago against 27 in Newtown and one in Sanford, FL.

Although no one should try to eclipse one topic with the other, they may be related in various important ways. For instance, maybe we teach most Americans (Black as well as White) to think that Black people’s lives are cheap. Then Zimmerman’s decision to shoot had something in common with decisions that are taken nearly every day in cities like Chicago. It is also true that many people are sincerely afraid of crime, and their fear is legitimately part of the conversation.

One place where both police (or vigilante) violence against Black people and crime committed by Black people are extensively and continually discussed is within the African American community itself. At “Frontiers of Democracy,” Peter Pihos gave a great historical talk about Chicago around 1970, when crime was rising rapidly and mass incarceration was just around the corner. He focused on several African American leaders who very explicitly opposed both “genocide” (by the white government) and “suicide” (by the Black community) and connected them to each other. That was an important moment, but similar discourse has been constant and vibrant. After all, compared to the national population, African Americans are disproportionately represented in urban police forces, corrections departments, and among the citizens who call the police and sometimes complain about slow and inadequate responses. So this is a subgroup of Americans on both sides of the prison industry and well aware of that.

A right-wing trope holds that we don’t pay enough attention to crimes committed by Black people because that discussion would violate political correctness. We may indeed not talk very well about race and racism, but our actions speak loudly. We spend about $27 billion a year simply incarcerating African Americans,* to say nothing of the costs of policing and the judicial process. Michigan, whose great city is bankrupt, spends one fifth of its general fund on prisons. California spends more on prisons than on its once-vaunted system of public higher education. The relative silence on this topic in venues like the US Congress is indeed problematic, but we can’t let that silence be filled by the kind of words one sees on open comment forums about the Zimmerman trial. It must be a conversation about how to treasure and protect all human lives.

*I extrapolate from the total cost of prisons ($68 billion) and the proportion of all prisoners who are Black (roughly 40%).

The post what we should talk about? (notes on Trayvon Martin and the state of national dialogue) appeared first on Peter Levine.

Registration open for Aug 7th Confab call with Rich Harwood

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We have a special guest lined up for our August confab call — Rich Harwood, president and founder of The Harwood Institute for Public Innovation in Bethesda, Maryland. The call will take place on Wednesday, August 7th, from 2:00 to 3:30 Eastern (11-12:30 Pacific), and registration is now open!

RichHarwoodEarlier this year, Rich was asked to facilitate a series of meetings in Newtown, CT to help the grieving city decide what to do with Sandy Hook Elementary School, site of the horrific mass murder of children and school personnel last December. We’ve asked Rich to talk to NCDD members about his work in Newtown, and the broader work he and his colleagues are doing at the Harwood Institute for Public Engagement. (Read the amazing story here.)

He brought 25 years of experience to the task in Newtown. Through community conversations, constant innovation, and nationwide research, The Harwood Institute has developed an approach that’s helped cities, organizations, and individuals “Turn Outward” and build on public aspirations to get things done for the common good. Rich has worked in struggling communities such as Newark, Detroit, and Flint, Michigan and has created a group of “Beacon Communities” to develop a critical mass of public innovators. He’s partnered with influential organizations like United Way Worldwide, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and the American Library Association in order to enhance their relevance and impact in the communities they serve.

His latest book, The Work of Hope, asserts that fixing our politics shouldn’t be our top priority. “The central task in our society is to restore belief in ourselves and one another that we can get things done, together.” It was that philosophy which guided Rich’s work in Newtown and brought about an emotional, yet harmonious, decision.

NCDDs’s “Confab calls” provide opportunities for members to connect with each other, hear about exciting projects in our field, and explore our most difficult challenges. And since many of you may be hosting and facilitating conversations on mental health as part of the White House’s initiative, we hope you’ll sign up and benefit from the conversation about Rich’s experiences in Newtown.

Register for the August 7th Confab today to reserve your spot!

Using the Debt Crisis to Steal Public Assets

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Now that the City of Detroit has declared bankruptcy, one of the most critical questions will be what assets will be put on the table to pay creditors – and what assets, if any, will remain inalienable, that is, not capable of being sold.  You see, there are moves afoot to sell off priceless paintings and artworks from the Detroit Institute of Arts to pay off the city’s debts.  The stash of assets include works by Bruegel, Caravaggio, Rembrandt and van Gogh. 

Normally the market value of large art collections is not calculated except as needed for blanket insurance policies.  But now that a pack of hungry creditors wants to be made whole, many people are starting to look yearningly at the estimated $2 billion that could come from liquidating the museum’s collection, or substantial portions of it.

The whole scenario is of a piece with other enclosures driven by finance capitalism.  The investor class has gone way beyond privatization; now it wants to use the debt crisis to gain outright ownership of public assets and start charging for the use of them.  As economist Michael Hudson has put it, cities are selling sidewalks and citizens have to start paying to walk on them. 

The fate of the Detroit Institute of Arts’ collection will say a great deal about how far we Americans are willing to go in monetizing our cultural heritage.  Museums are supposed to act as permanent trustees of a community’s priceless heritage.  Donors are willing to give works to museums only because they believe that the works will be there forever, and not sold off to satisfy some unrelated financial claim against the city.   In other words, the artworks held in trust for the public by a museum are supposed to be treated as the priceless heritage of the citizenry, beyond any market valuation. That principle may be breached very soon.

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Crowdsourcing Off-Road Traffic Legislation in Finland

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A paper by Tanja Aitamurto (Tampere) and Hélène Landemore (Stanford) on an interesting crowdsourcing exercise in Finland.

Abstract

This paper reports on a pioneering case study of a legislative process open to the direct online participation of the public. The empirical context of the study is a crowdsourced off-road traffic law in Finland. On the basis of our analysis of the user content generated to date and a series of interviews with key participants, we argue that the process qualifies as a promising case of deliberation on a mass-scale. This case study will make an important contribution to the understanding of online methods for participatory and deliberative democracy. The preliminary findings indicate that there is deliberation in the crowdsourcing process, which occurs organically (to a certain degree) among the participants, despite the lack of incentives for it. Second, the findings strongly indicate that there is a strong educative element in crowdsourced lawmaking process, as the participants share information and learn from each other. The peer-learning aspect could be made even stronger through the addition of design elements in the process and on the crowdsourcing software.

The first two things that come to mind when reading this, are:

  1. If there is a “strong educative element” in the crowdsourcing process, we have an argument for large-scale citizen participation. The more citizens take part in a process, the more citizens benefit from the educative element.
  2. If we consider point 1 to be true, there is still a major technical challenge in terms of having appropriate platforms to enable large-scale deliberative processes. For instance, I have some reservations about crowdsourcing efforts that use ideation systems like Ideascale (as is the case for this experience). In my opinion such systems are prone to information cascades and a series of other biases that compromise an exercise in terms of a) deliberative quality and b) final outcomes (i.e. quality of ideas).

There’s still lots to learn on that front, and there is a dire need for more research of this type. Kudos should also go to the proponents of the initiative, who involved the authors in the project from the start.

Read the full paper here [PDF].