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This presentation gives an overview of the MyGovernment.org initiative and web platform for engaging citizens and their elected leaders in addressing issues that face our country.
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Internet & Politics 2008: Moving People and Ideas Wednesday, December 11-12, 2008
The Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University
Where citizens & elected leaders meet to make change happen.
Obama's core idea is that citizens are at the center of politics. Not private individuals, not the government, not politicians, but people working together in public, on public matters.
Campaigning in New Hampshire in 2006, he said, "There's a wonderful saying by Justice Louis Brandeis once, that the most important office in a democracy is the office of citizen. ... All of us have a stake in this government, all of us have responsibilities, all of us have to step up to the plate."
~ Peter Levine, blog Nov 5, 2008
Background
What is MyGovernment.org?
• A digital "town hall forum" that activates the average citizen to engage with their own government leaders
• Combines tools and resources for informing, engaging, and mobilizing
• A site from the citizen’s perspective — their portal into civic engagement
• New relationship between citizens and their elected leaders
• Platform to make our leaders and government more transparent and accountable
• Maximize the current excitement and belief in on-line tools as catalysts for off-line civic engagement
• This could scale and become integrated into every level of education and citizenship
Why MyGovernment.org?
Our Goal Our Approach
Informing debate and decision-making by leveraging citizen
expertise"Wikipedia for policy options"
Citizen participation in policy making process by engaging
elected leaders
"Change.gov for every elected leader”
Effective change campaigns through community organizing
"My.BarackObama.com for every change campaign"
What is MyGovernment.org?
Jim Shue — South Orange, NJ
• Students in national Bonner campus network have begun populating elected leader profiles and policy news & options — integrated user submission option
• Using wiki approach to leverage citizen expertise for PolicyOptions Issue Briefs — recruit issue area experts to serve editorial function to ensure quality and neutrality
• Feeds from OpenCongress.org, OpenSecrets.org, Congresspedia and other news and information sources
• Elected leaders and change campaign organizers will use tools for sharing news and promoting engagement
Content on MyGovernment.org
• Mobilizing thousands of students in the 100+ Bonner campus network to nudge their elected leaders to join
• High profile elected leaders inaugurate site — invited Mayor Cory Booker (Newark, NJ) and placeholder for Republican elected leader
• Press outreach — Jimmy Wales and Andrew Shue on TV-newspapers, stories in Tech President & other popular blogs, websites, etc.
• Hope to announce through My.BarackObama.com before January 20, 2009 — outreach to 13 million supporters committed to changing relationship between citizens and their government
Launching MyGovernment.org
Campus Network Will be a Catalyst
see BonnerNetwork.pbwiki.com
• Andrew Shue — leader in internet entrepeneurship (co-founder CafeMom.com and Do Something)
• John Palfrey — leader in internet and democracy (director, Harvard’s Berkman Center for Internet & Society)
• Jimmy Wales — leader in democratizing knowledge (co-founder, Wikipedia)
• Robert Hackett — leader in campus civic engagement (founder, PolicyOptions.org & VP, Bonner Foundation)
• Henry Poole — leader in open source technology (co-founder, CivicActions)
Who’s leading MyGovernment.org?
• Andrew Shue — [email protected]
• Robert Hackett — [email protected]
• Henry Poole — [email protected]
Lead Contacts
