That means you’ll probably find a glitch or two in it, and that’s the point – because we can’t solve them if we don’t what they are.

What is GovLuv, you may ask? As the fancy ad copy says:

“GovLuv is a website that connects government representatives and citizens through Twitter. It illuminates the existing conversations and encourages a more productive two-way dialog. It is a project of Act.ly and the Open Forum Foundation, and is freely available as a public service.”

Check it out and let us know what you think!

Money

That’s right, we’re ready to start bringing it in! We are positioning ourselves for great accomplishments, and although I can’t tell you all of the details until they are formalized, you’ll begin to get an understanding below. Honestly though, we all know what it takes to make great things happen in a short period of time – money!

I have committed my life and skills (and my good credit) to making this happen. Now I need to connect with people who believe in the need for every voice to be heard in the big decisions; with people who see the value of engaging a broader constituency to develop realistic solutions to the issues that we face today; with people who are committed to the ideals of representative government; with people who are willing to share their hard-earned cash with a project that supports their principles.

In the early stages of this project, what we need are a few angel donors who together can contribute a couple hundred thousand dollars in return for the recognition befitting the rare few that are willing to put themselves out front. As Project One gains acceptance and becomes respected as the easiest and most reliable way to communicate with your elected officials, these angel donors will become our Rockefellers and Carnegies, impacting the course of history by ensuring that each individual has a voice in the decisions that shape their world.

(What do you think? It’s my first time writing it out. Do you think it’s too heavy on the ideals or too exuberant in the honor that goes to the angel donors? Let me know in the comments, or send me an email. I would also be happy to be introduced to anyone that you think fits this bill or might know someone who does.)

Partnerships and Advisors

While nothing is official yet, we are in the process of formalizing partnerships with a number of organizations that will bring valueable expertise and technology to the Open Forum Foundation.

Foremost among these is Lou Klepner with Gateway to Gov, located in New York City. Lou has been working on a vision very similar to Project One for a number of years. He has already made significant progress on one of the most difficult components of it, a project that he calls CivicID. CivicID provides constituency verification, and he has already accomplished the difficult task of wading through the administrative mire of 20-some state governments to create the relationships necessary to maintain CivicID. Lou and I are in agreement about the importance of working together to make Project One a reality and are in the process of working out the details of that partnership.

Similarly, I am working on forming partnerships with David Stern of MixedInk, Lucas Cioffi of DeepDebate, and Noam Shore of Idealogue. All three of these organizations have developed software that, respectively, makes online collaborative writing easier, enables online discussion between a large number of people, and enables focused, online, small group and one-on-one conversations. Each of these solutions is a significant improvement over their predecessors – the standard wiki or discussion forums — and their founders are committed to enabling Project One to come to fruition.

In the congressional arena, I have been meeting with the Congressional Management Foundation. While we are still discussing how best to formalize our relationship, they are very supportive of the idea and the work that we are doing. Specifically, they feel that our tact of placing importance on the accomplishment of the solution as opposed to the means of the accomplishment, is critical to creating something that will meet the needs of Congress. Obviously, without getting Congress on board, the project will not appeal to any of the other stakeholders.

Finally, I believe the time has come to create a group of advisors. There are several people that I have come to know who do not fit the role of partner, but whose experience and knowledge will prove incredibly valuable in guiding the development of Project One. While this notion is not yet fully formed, look for more about this in the future.

Progress

As of October 20th, 2008, the Open Forum Foundation is an officially operating organization in the District of Columbia. On that day, we held our first official board meeting to adopt the Organizing Resolutions and Bylaws. This followed closely on the heels of filing our Articles of Incorporation on the previous Friday. If you’re a complete geek or just love the way lawyers write (and I know there are a few of you out there!), you can read all the gory details on the Legal Documents page.

Our founding board is composed of five extremely talented, and busy people (in fact, it took a near-Herculean effort to corral them all together at one time, and its accomplishment serves as further proof of the capabilities that are driving the Open Forum Foundation <wink>). Shadee Malaklou has graciously accepted the position as President of the Board with Ellen Williams as Vice President. Patrick Benz stepped up to fill the role of Treasurer and Kristen Guskovict has taken on the responsibilities of the Secretary. Rounding out the mix is Caroline Kissane. You can read all about them on the Who We Are page.

Close

So that’s us! We’re about to grow by a great deal and the next couple of months are sure to be incredibly exciting. If you’re interested in getting involved, please drop a line or just leave a comment. Thank you for your continued interest in this project and I look forward to hearing from you.

Best,
Wayne

A Realization

I have come to the conclusion that the keys to Project One’s success are flexibility, and the understanding that solutions are about people and not about technology. By building relationships with the end users, we can create a solution that actually meets their needs and is brilliant. If we start with the creation of technology, independent of its brilliance, it may never be accepted. Flexibility will allow us to bridge the diverse needs of different groups and make it all come together in a seamless interface. Our focus must remain on the needs of the end users and not on our own pre-conceptions.

Status

We are dangerously close to being an official organization and having the ability to accept donations. We have a founding board and expect to incorporate and begin operations legally within the next week. By the end of the month, we expect to have a fiscal sponsorship contract signed. That means that November will be, in large part, about fundraising! If you have any tips you’d like to share about how to do this or recommendations of individuals or foundations that may be interested, please take a moment to send them to me at wayne@openforumfoundation.org.

The founding board is Patrick Benz, Kristen Guskovict, Carolyn Kissane, Shadee Malaklou, and Ellen Williams – all amazing people. You can read about them on the Who We Are page. We are also reaching out to two more potential board members, but these things take time!

September and October were excellent months for community building. I am making and strengthening connections around Capitol Hill, with advocacy groups, with programmers, and with experts in dialogue and deliberation. I have to acknowledge that I have not been pursuing designers as much I probably should be, so if you know anyone that may be interested, send them my way (of course that holds true for any of the above categories).

I am about to establish a formal partnership/support program for Project One. I have made a great number of connections with people that are too busy to be actively involved, but would be happy to consult or advise on specific, relevant issues. Consequently, I’m going to establish a means by which their support can be publicly registered on our website and we can keep them all organized to take advantage of their expertise while minimizing their time commitment.

Well, I think that’s all the news that’s fit to print. Please pass this on to anyone that you think may be interested and keep sending in the good feedback.

Thanks,
Wayne

Status

The website and wiki are live and open to the public – one big hurdle accomplished! If you haven’t checked it out yet, you really should! It needs you. This marks a serious accomplishment as it is much more than just an informative site. It is the summation and expression of many months of deliberation. It is an open forum for the improvement and development of the ideas that are presented there. It is the foundation for a collaborative resource that will allow projects with a similar focus to share ideas and develop common data standards, greatly increasing their longevity and geographic applicability. It is, however immodestly, the base which will enable the Open Forum Foundation to give every person around the world a voice in the decisions that affect their lives (see Mission Statement).

This naturally opens the way for a whole raft of new hurdles, but that’s what makes life fun! Here’s the current status of the organization (click through for more details or to contribute your ideas):

• Working on Articles of Incorporation, ByLaws, and the identification of Directors for the Board. We’re working with a really good lawyer named Beth Kingsley.
• Reaching out to multiple communities to find the people who are interested in this sort of project, including:
  • Technology-based government-related, aka e-democracy, open government, etc…
  • Open Source programmers
  • People in government, especially on Capitol Hill
  • People that work for Advocacy Groups
• Searching for a fiscal sponsor – someone to accept donations for us under their tax-exempt status until the IRS approves ours.

Things we need

1. Critiquing. What? I know – everyone’s good at it and it’s fun, but why would I ask for it? Well, because the site needs it! I’m sure there are spelling mistakes and bad ideas and false assumptions all over the place. Am I effectively explaining what we’re trying to accomplish, or just talking to myself in mumbo jumbo? Without YOU to tell me, how am I gonna find them? This is not my project, it’s everyone’s project. Critique away!
2. People. Tell everyone you know that may be interested. This is their project also! Post it on your blog, on MySpace, on Squidoo, or Digg. Send people to the site. It’s that simple. We need people to visit, gain an understanding of what we’re doing, and tell their friends that really care enough to get involved.
3. Design assistance. If you or someone you know wants to design (or help design) the first prototype for the web interface, this is a great time to get involved. It’s literally a blank slate right now and people don’t really grasp a thing until they can see it. Well, let’s give ‘em somethin’ to look at!
4. SEO assistance. Are you a web guru? Know someone who is? We need to perfect our search engine optimization – you know, make it easy for people to find us on Google and Yahoo, etc..

That’s about all there is to report for right now (without boring you to death). If you want more, there is TONS of information about the Open Forum Foundation on our website – almost all of it actually. We are completely transparent and accept full engagement from anyone who is interested. I’m sure there are a few things that haven’t made it up there yet, but feel free to call us on it and we’ll get it fixed.

Thank you for your support, and I hope to see you online!

Wayne