The organizations that are using the eAdvocacy application I believe
have all scrounged money for it – not sure the cost – but there must
be great open source eAdvocacy tools out there.

It’d be unfortunate if an organization’s potential for online advocacy &
citizen engagement & taking action was limited by cash.

Open source possibilities would be a great ChangeCamp discussion.

New topic:

If the BC Liberals get in again in May, I think it would be worth considering involving the head of communications (in addition to a key BC gov’t person championing social media internally). She used to be a reporter at CTV. Her level of influence would be important in affecting real policy change in citizen e-participation within the BC gov’t.

I’ll cross-post this to GoogleGroup with Anthony’s post below.

Anthony PETITBOISJanuary 26th, 2009 at 3:52 pm

Hi!

As I just tweeted you this question : “Do you think OpenSource could be a subject at a VanChangeCamp ?”. I wanted to add a few ideas, Open Source is not only changing our technical world (WordPress is FOSS, Linux, Apache, etc…) but also changing our way of sharing information/knowledge to the rest of the world. If you want, I can ellaborate more via email, and why not participate at the event.

Anthony PETITBOIS

I agree that there should be more of a participatory, non-hierarchical format to the camp. I think politicians and business reps would benefit from being part of these round table discussions and that moderators (or self-moderation) should ensure that everyone has a voice (without becoming a PR stunt).

On the other hand, I was involved in the Smart Growth YouMap events this year, where participants were able to map their own neighbourhoods and the opportunities/areas of improvements they were looking for. It was a great way to engage people around local issues and capture both narrative and hard geographical data (GoogleMap) that I believe will be transcribed on the website youmapvancouver.ca. This has gone for review by the Planning Commission of the COV. I’m sure they might have some good ideas around this or at least want to be involved.

It’d also be neat to do some liveblogging initiatives, surveys via laptops/3g devices/phones and other social media initiatives for those who can’t attend the conference directly. Not sure if this is already a part of it, as I haven’t had the pleasure of such a conference yet.

Looking forward to everyone’s great ideas and insights!

As I just tweeted you this question : “Do you think OpenSource could be a subject at a VanChangeCamp ?”. I wanted to add a few ideas, Open Source is not only changing our technical world (WordPress is FOSS, Linux, Apache, etc…) but also changing our way of sharing information/knowledge to the rest of the world. If you want, I can ellaborate more via email, and why not participate at the event.

Anthony PETITBOIS

If all politics are local can web 2.0 link neighbours around local issues or concerns and increase a sense of local / neighbourhood community?

Paul Czene

I am excited about a possible Van Changecamp. I’ll try and make my suggestions brief:

1) Focus purely on civil society. Collective Citizen engagement. This incorporates sustainability but perhaps moves the tone from “how do we, the people, change government” to more of “how do we, the people, collaborate to change [the city, the environment, the economy].”

Distinction: Government and Corporate interaction with civil society becomes a branch instead of the trunk of the event…

2) Encourage only light scale political involvement. A true open space or ‘un-conference’ is like the knights of the round table, all members with equal standing. From what I understand a too-heavy focus on government changes the balance of openness and mutual respect.

3) Reach out to a new, non-technical crowd. Barcamp, Northernvoice Wordcamp Whistler- on some level all seem to be preaching to the same converted few. Would a tweaking to the format and marketing allow for more traditional civil society to enter the conversation?