Future Friday - Citizenville
I've just finished reading Citizenville by Gavin Newsom. I had picked up this book when it came out, but it was just sitting on my 'to read' pile until now. 'Citizenville' is actually a play on the name of the game, 'Farmville', which is wildly successful at engaging people to take virtual action. How do we get people to take civic action?
Participating in Code for America/Code for Hawaii/Open Data projects, I come across a lot of the problems that Gavin writes about, and we've started on a few of the solutions that have already been successful in other cities across America. But there is a bunch of other things to try out.
He stresses five main themes that will build civic engagement in our cities:
We need the government to be absolutely transparent.
We need to encourage people to use data to create useful apps, devices, and tools.
We need to engage people on their own terms.
We need to allow people to bypass government.
We need more people with an entrepreneurial mindset in government.
"Transparency will increase trust...it all starts with information."
I will be pushing for more open data this year because...
"A closed system preserves the status quo."