The University of Washington is planning to contract with a smartphone applications developer who will build an app for iPhone and Android to promote events, information resources, testing and research to help gay men avoid or manage the HIV virus and other sexually-transmitted diseases. Using Emerging Opportunities Grant funds of up to $15,000 from the UW Center For AIDS Research, UW Medicine will engage with a vendor who according to contracting documents will be asked to integrate the app with the Seattle Gay Scene (SGC) website’s newsfeed and calendar as well as their Facebook and Twitter accounts. Details of the plan are found in a Request For Proposals from vendors and an accompanying Q&A document.
Collaboration in Civic Spheres
Archive for the ‘Public Engagement’ Category
UW plans mobile app for gay men at risk of HIV
by Matt Rosenberg May 9th, 2012
Audit: Iraq elections contractor falls short, wins renewal
by Matt Rosenberg April 26th, 2012
An audit by the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) of the federal government’s USAID agency says that what turned into a seven-year, $102 million contractor-driven effort to bring fair and open elections to Iraq has failed to become sustainable by Iraqi officials without outside help. Yet despite that concern the USAID contractor, the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES), whose board of directors is composed of high-octane Washington, D.C. insiders and business and non-profit luminaries, got a $36 million extension for follow-up work for another three years from October 2011 to October 2014.
Shoreline parks smoking ban survey draws pointed views
by Matt Rosenberg March 19th, 2012
With a planned discussion of a recent citizen survey and a presentation of what could be the final draft of a new ordinance, the Shoreline City Council March 19 is poised to move one step closer to a scheduled vote March 26 to ban all tobacco use in all parts of all the city’s parks and other city outdoor recreation spaces. Enforcement would be voluntary, by parks patrons, not police, and city costs for signs would range from $3,000 to $5,000. Although almost 70 percent of respondents in the online survey supported the proposed blanket smoking ban in Shoreline city parks facilities, comments varied widely. In a special information packet on the policy, for the council’s review March 19, city staff provide the survey results including a broad sampling of residents reactions; while also sharing the proposed final draft of the smoke-free parks ordinance.
In the non-scientific survey accessed at the city’s Web site, ban opponents argued that smoking is legal, not very harmful outdoors, and that peer-to-peer enforcement would be risky. Among their comments:
TVW video of Seattle conference panel on open government’s future
by Matt Rosenberg March 13th, 2012
In 1972 Washington state voters were concerned about government accountability and ethics for a wide variety of reasons, some emanating from within the state and some from without. As a result they approved Initiative 276, creating an initial version of what is now the state’s Public Records Act, as well as the state Open Meetings Act and the state Public Disclosure Commission. The PDC daylights and regulates campaign contributions to and financial interests of elected officials. The successful citizen activists who launched and propelled the I-276 campaign later morphed into what is now the Washington Coalition For Open Government.
This past Saturday March 10, WACOG held a conference looking at the impetus leading to I-276’s passage, while also celebrating the present-day successes of citizen activists for public transparency, and looking at what the future holds. I was honored to be part of that latter panel on behalf of the 501c3 Public Eye Northwest and our Public Data Ferret project. Other guests were civic apps developer Ram Arumugan of Cascade Software Corporation; City of Seattle CIO/CTO Bill Schrier; and TVW President and CEO Greg Lane. Moderator was Mike Fancher – Vice President of WACOG and former Seattle Times Executive Editor.
Right below we’ve got the full 60-minute video of that forum, as aired on TVW, Washington state’s non-profit public affairs TV channel. Fancher began by framing the conversation in the context of the Knight Commission’s special report in 2010, “Informing Communities: Sustaining Democracy In The Digital Age,” which he helped author. Among the findings that still resonate strongly, he said, are that:
- “…the information health of communities is as vital as safe streets, clean air, good schools and a vibrant economy, but…we don’t tend to think of information health in that way;” and,
- “…the same technology that is disrupting professional media and causing the loss of so many journalistic resources in so many communities is also creating great opportunities for journalism and democracy.”
Here’s the video on the panel looking at open government’s future, including the role of technology and new media.
TVW has also posted the video of the day’s panel, “Open Government’s Past: Birth and Survival of I-276.” It features David Ammons, former AP Olympia Bureau reporter and now communications chief for Washington Secretary of State Sam Reed; Karen Hildt, widow of I-276 campaign leader Michael Hildt; and former U.S. Sen. Slade Gorton.
RELATED:
Ram Arumugan, Cascade Software, “How Technology Should Be Used To Spur Open Government,” Geek Wire, March 11, 2012.
Matt Rosenberg, Amplify Accountability, Technology To Boost Open Government,” Knight Commission blog, March 12, 2012.
Amplify accountability, technology to boost open government
by Matt Rosenberg March 10th, 2012
Don’t confuse government “open data” with open government, warn two graduate students from Princeton and Yale in a new paper. Harlan Yu and David Robinson say open data may actually improve government transparency but it also:
…might equally well refer to politically neutral public sector disclosures that are easy to reuse, (and) have nothing to do with public accountability. Today a regime can call itself “open” if it builds the right kind of web site — even if it does not become more accountable or transparent….Technology can make public information more adaptable, empowering third parties to contribute in exciting new ways across many aspects of civic life. But technological enhancements will not resolve debates about the best priorities for civic life, and enhancements to government services are no substitute for public accountability.
What open government needs to look like in the coming decade and beyond involves at least three core considerations: 1) inclusive dialog around potential changes to laws on open records and open meetings; 2) the melding of Internet and mobile technologies with ideals of government accountability; and 3) nourishment for a reformulated news and information ecosystem to fulfill the public interest with robust accountability-driven reporting, teaching and collaboration. We’re going to focus here mainly on 2), and a bit on 3).
Voluntary government disclosure is growing
Baseline voluntary government transparency utilizing the Internet has grown impressively. A wide array of meeting documents, special reports and data are routinely posted online by governments at all levels, in the U.S.
Congressional Facebook Hackathon report maps legislative transparency solutions; now what will Congress do?
by Matt Rosenberg February 13th, 2012
Imagine if instead of emailing or calling your U.S. Congressman or Senator with concerns about pending legislation, you could re-draft a portion of the bill text online, or endorse the revisions of another reader, knowing you’d be heard by decision-makers? In fact, there’s a very beta version of that called Madison, unveiled by U.S. Rep. Darrell Issa (R.-Calif) and U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) to harvest legislative text revisions from the public to privacy and transparency bills such as OPEN, PIPA, and earlier, the controversial SOPA or “Stop Online Piracy Act.” This open real-time bill markup tool is just one of the public tool concepts outlined in a recently-released report on the first Congressional Facebook Hackathon.
The bipartisan public-private forum was held in early December to explore how social media and technology can make the U.S. Congress more open, accessible and participatory to stakeholders. Below we’ll hit some highlights of the report. In addition to real-time public markup of legislation, they include an online Git repository of legislative text; crowd-sourced committee hearings; and a constituent casework tracking portal. Still unclear is what happens next, and to what extent the tools envisioned could be developed under common technical standards, and a similar look and feel for end-users, on a state-by-state basis.
North Creek Forest conservation gets big boost from Bothell
by Matt Rosenberg November 14th, 2011
A community-driven and grant-funded effort to preserve a forest for recreation, conservation and environmental learning in the heart of suburban Puget Sound has received a big boost with the City of Bothell okaying a purchase from the Boy Scouts of America for 35 acres of the North Creek Forest, straddling the border of King and Snohomish counties on the side of Maywood Hill just west of Interstate 405. The sylvan swath is within walking distance of 9,000 students at eight different schools, including the University of Washington-Bothell, Cascadia Community College, and public and private elementary, junior high, and high schools.
North Creek Forest includes another 29 acres held by other owners, which conservationists also hope can be acquired, and is home to 34 nesting bird and nine mammal species, nine wetlands, seven streams and an uplands coniferous forest. Pending an environmental assessment of the property to be completed by December 15, and with a land sale closing deadline of December 31, the initial purchase can now proceed following the unanimous approval of Agenda Bill 11-210 last week by the Bothell City Council at a regularly scheduled meeting.
The bill authorizes the city to complete a $450,000 purchase and sale agreement with the Boy Scouts plus $10,351 in closing and acquisition costs for 35.66 acres comprising the northern portion of North Creek Forest. The land buy is funded by a series of grants the city was awarded with much of the legwork done by two local groups, Friends of North Creek Forest, formed only last February, and the longer-standing Help Our Woods. Awarded to the city were a Snohomish County Conservation Futures grant of $200,000, a Washington State Department of Commerce grant of $193,987, a King County Conservation Futures grant of $33,182, and another $33,182 from the King County Proposition 2 Park Expansion Levy.
Surveillance Cameras Coming To King County Parks
by Matt Rosenberg November 11th, 2011
Frustrated by years of continuing vandalism in the parks and natural areas it operates, King County has quietly announced it is seeking bids for surveillance cameras to watch over some of those facilities. Next Thursday November 17 is the revised deadline for formal responses to a request for bids to provide, install and train personnel in the operation of four new surveillance cameras per year for the next five years, at an estimated annual cost of about $28,000. Although the original bid request didn’t specify where the cameras would be used or what for, potential bidders wondered, and so in an addendum the County specified that “the security camera systems will be used primarily to monitor various King County Parks facilities to prevent theft and vandalism.”