On Thursday, Jonathan Barrentine, our Americorps CTEP person working with St. Paul E-Democracy’s digital inclusion efforts centered at the Rondo Outreach Library, and I will be attending the Blandin Broadband Conference in St. Cloud, Minnesota. Their policy efforts have a great blog.
With Tim Erickson out clubbing across England, I’ll be spreading the word about our Blandin-funded Rural Voices effort here in Minnesota. When Tim, the Rural Voices project’s coordinator, gets back we will be setting a date to convene our outreach partners as we get started on this new initiative.
Below is the text from the wordiest flier on the planet.
Steven Clift
E-Democracy.Org
Are you interested in coming home to your local community online?
Rural Voices: Online Citizen Engagement and
Citizen Media Outreach led by E-Democracy.Org
E-Democracy.Org recently received a grant from the Blandin Foundation to launch at least three online town hall “Issues Forums†in local areas across rural Minnesota. To start the process, we are hosting five regional online citizen engagement and media “road show†outreach days. To discover which communities are interested in next generation online engagement activities, we need your help identifying active citizen media efforts in rural Minnesota as we also help plant the seeds of interest.
E-Democracy.Org believes rural communities, all local communities for that matter, require compelling online interaction and content that brings local people together. Broadband to the world, with few content experiences across town will further weaken the voice of place-based communities. Let’s shape the local Internet based on our hometown values.
Seeking Partners in Rural Communities for 2008 Outreach Events
Today, E-Democracy.Org hosts online Issues Forums in ten communities across three countries. Before selecting the communities/rural regions for intensive Issues Forum start-up efforts, we seek local partners interested in helping host a regional public outreach session in their area. An evening outreach session will highlight exciting “citizen media†opportunities from place blogging and online video to wikis and online civic forums. Area people active in user-driven content from social networks to blogging would make great panelist as well.
Prior to the evening session, we envision possibilities from a lunch time speech to a local service club to a hands-on citizen media training at a local school or college to meetings with local website leaders in government, local media, local online directories and more.
Ready for an “Issues Forum†– the civil agenda-setting online town hall?
E-Democracy.Org, a 501.c.3 non-profit based in Minnesota, is a unique network of local democracy efforts banded together for mutual benefit and support. While we cost-effectively share technology, our model’s strength is building a community-wide base for local online citizen engagement that matters. A small local steering committee first organizes the Issues Forum – a hybrid e-mail and web forum – for civil, real name-based discussion and exchange of information on local public issues. From that essential low cost foundation, volunteer interest can drive forward additional citizen media possibilities. A free 60 page Issues Forum Guidebook in available from: http://e-democracy.org/if
Interested? Contact Us.
Web: http://e-democracy.org
E-mail: team@e-democracy.org
Skype: e-democracy
Telephone: 612-246-4594
E-Democracy.Org