Updates

I have bad news and I have good news in relationship to our board of directors, but the net gain is a positive one!

First, I must announce the resignation of Ellen Williams from our Board of Directors. She has been very helpful during these early stages of our formation, but personal priorities have drawn her in too many directions. Luckily for us, she is astute enough to recognize this before it was able to interfere with fulfillment of her responsibilities. Thank you for your help and guidance, Ellen and we all wish you the best of luck!!

Secondly, I’m happy to announce that we have two new board members. Both are easy to find on Google and bring with them a passion for citizen engagement, a technical understanding of social media, and a whole host of other skills, both relevant and irrelevant!

Noel Dickover impressed me from our first meeting with his grasp of the inner workings of government and his thoughts about, “Putting Citizens on Par with Lobbyists” which he had previously blogged about. Noel day job is as a contractor for the Department of Defense and has been involved in the innovative application of social media in a very rigid, non-accepting environment, most prominently with DODTechipedia. If that wasn’t enough, he also carves pumpkins that will make your head explode – like the 178lb Death Star (scroll down to find it), for example!!

Nisma Zaman and I connected at Participation Camp in early July during my session on Citizen Participation in Congress. Afterwards, we ended up talking extensively about a wide-diversity of topics that included growing up in the 80s, social media, and the value of being able to communicate with your government. She has a past filled with documentary film-making and Emmy-winning, a future as a Master’s student at New York University’s Interactive Telecommunications Program, and a present filled with figure skating in Idaho.

So we’ve expanded the board in its passion for government communication and in its diversity, both of which I think are vital elements for guiding the future of the Open Forum Foundation.

Onwards and Upwards!!

If you’re a regular visitor to the website, you’ll notice a new tab on the right side that says “Donate”. There’s no particular mystery as to what the purpose of this button is, but it’s exciting to have gotten to the point where we’re ready to accept donations.

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I have been doing a lot of research on fundraising, at the same time as I’ve been studying the changing expectations of individuals who are adjusting to living in the information age. In addition, I’ve become increasingly intolerant of people and organizations that use tactics for fundraising and promotion of their issues that treat me like an emotional being that is to be manipulated into supporting their cause.

You know what I’m talking about – it’s the high energy college students working for Greenpeace (or any number of Adopt-a-child charities) in their matching shirts, clipboards, and excessive geniality. It’s the form letters you receive in the mail from faceless alumni organizations touting the value of your dollar for the next generation. It’s the ads on your favorite websites with pictures of unhappy black children in front of a grass hut. And it’s the appeals from acquaintances asking for help in spreading the word on this ‘really important issue – it’ll only take five minutes to make a difference!’

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Wow! What a full and exciting weekend Matt Cooperrider and crew provided at NYU’s ITP last weekend. You can get all the details here: http://mudball.net/pcamp09/, but the reality is that they really pushed the limit on integrating an offline conference with online participation.

They started with skype chats prior to the event, had a room that was dedicated to virtual presentations and interaction during the event, and are still following it up with even more skype interaction!

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Okay, so the name may change but the concept is definitely sound.

In a discussion this weekend with Noel Dickover of CommuniBuild and Andrew Wright of Grasshopr, Noel suggested that we convene a barcamp to focus on citizen’s engagement with Congress. He was right of course, and so the ship has been set to sail – the organization has begun.

Noel sent out an initial email to some people including the Open House Project this morning. I responded, adding on a Google Group to facilitate organizing, and by the end of the day, there were already 19 people in the group with some very healthy discussions around naming and the proper date well under way (currently looking like Sept 11, 12 – but we’ll see).

It’s exciting to stumble upon something that is so in need of happening and to be part of bringing it to fruition. This should be a very fun experience that will bring a lot of benefit to a community of individuals that have yet to be convened. I will not pretend to know the outcome of this event, but I’m pretty sure it will have a strong impact on the ways that citizens engage with Congress.