• Outreach - Reach out to local organizations that would benefit from using CG.
• Issue Area Expertise - Apply your knowledge to help CG serve communities affected by specific issues areas.
• Marketing - Plan and execute strategies (such as advertising) to drive success.
• Programming (Ruby) - Help build version 2 of CG.  Integrate it with other services, including Facebook.
• Video Production - Plan, produce, and edit video to inspire and explain how CG works.
• Writing & Editing - Maximize the written impact and clarity of CG. (User interface, blog, case studies)
• Graphic Design / Creative - Maximize the visual impact and clarity of CG. (Wireframes, mock-ups, HTML/CSS)

• Solid Ruby skills are essential. As a rule of thumb, I’m looking for a year or more of experience. That said, your current skill level and ability to write solid code is way more important than an arbitrary experience requirement.
• Rails experience is important.  However, it looks like the next major release will be on a Merb + DataMapper + jQuery stack. Other important technologies include git and RSpec.
• This will be a 2 month contract position that may be extended if things go well.
• I *am* looking for a developer who wants to join a very small company and grow with it. 
• I am *not* seeking bids from Rails consulting shops, for two reasons. First, I don’t see most consulting shops as having a good alignment with my mission.  Second, I want to build up internal expertise.
• I prefer 40 hours/week of availability.
• I am only considering candidates in the DC area. The highest bandwidth communication happens in person. I have an office in Dupont Circle with room for you.

If you are interested, please email job-080613 (at this domain) with this information:

I enjoyed taking Lodis’ class on Building and Sustaining Local Communities a few years ago. The syllabus had an interesting mix of books and articles pertaining to community development, civil rights, education, and even some philosophy. Some topics we covered were:

• What are some different perspectives on development?
• How do communities build trust and legitimacy?

Each member of our class chose their own research project topic. The project let us apply what we were learning about research methods:

• What are some good, practical ways to structure a research project?
• What are the advantages and disadvantages of various research methods?
• How do theory, method, and practice interrelate?

Lodis reads widely and diversely, so each time the class is offered, he incorporates a slightly different set of readings. So the class evolves over time; in addition, it is very participant-driven. Some students, I think, are a bit surprised by the format and diverse readings. I considered it to be a welcome change from the traditional, more formulaic class style.

Prof. Rhodes helped expand our thinking while also letting us work on projects we cared about. I recommend his class if you are looking to improve your critical thinking abilities and bolster your research.

Here is a quick summary of the questions we asked:

• What voting system(s) do you prefer?
• What criteria are important in voting systems?
• How to pick a voting system to match your particular situation?
• What voting system alternatives should be considered for a petition process?
• Where might innovation in voting systems come from: grassroots, city elections, primaries…?
• How can we create e-voting systems that also guarantee a secret ballot?
• If the public is going to trust a voting system, must it be open source? How important is it to verify the source code? How important is it to verify the ballot data?
• What third-party voting systems exist on the Web?
• How can transparency be designed into a voting system?

The general goal is to learn/share how the web can help us better govern ourselves, support democratic structures, make online civic participation more accessible, convenient, fun, efficient etc.

I hope to see you there! I hope to meet lots of people interested in civic participation online, which is a big theme of CommunityGoals.

eDemocracyCamp will be the first BarCamp with a focus specifically on e-democracy. eDemocracyCamp will connect citizens, researchers, developers, practitioners and anyone else interested in the topic to learn about the current state of e-democracy and share their visions for its future direction. Topics may include (but aren’t limited to): e-democracy, e-participation, e-government, e-voting, online civic engagement, online political campaigning, online dialogue and deliberation. Technical tracks may cover things like the importance of open standards, hacktivism, mashups etc.

Event Schedule

• Coffee hour: Saturday, March 1 (at 3pm)
  Location and event details
• Kick-off get-together: Saturday, March 1 (at 8pm)
  Location and event details
• Sunday, March 2, 2008: 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM
  Josephine Butler Parks Center
  2437 15th Street, NW
  Washington, D.C.
  Schedule of panels and activities

Coming into the studio, I thought it would mostly hands on labs for three days. Instead, the labs were provided as preparatory and evening exercises. The actual time of the studio was spent with a mixture of high level discussions, sharing best practices, and some how-tos.

Should you attend? Well, it depends. What are you looking to learn? The price of the studio probably will factor into your decision as well. I would recommend asking lots of questions to people who have attended to see if it is right for you.

This resonates with multiple perspectives that I’ve heard recently. First, in Getting Real, 37Signals explains that Web developers should build products that polarize; the product should really excite some people and really turn off others. In other words, don’t try to be everything to everyone.

Second, many user experience designers (such as Kathy Sierra) talk about creating passionate users.

For a good period of time, I was unaware of my own edge when it came to the Web. After attending several conferences, meeting some great people, and having lots of conversations, it is becoming clearer.

My edge is straightforward:

We must use the Web to make people’s lives better!

We must give people a meaningful reason to spend their time on the Web. (Guy Kawasaki emphasizes that entreprenuers should strive to make meaning rather than to only make money.)

What does this really mean? Anyone can make the marketing claim that “we are making people’s lives better.” But think deep down, beneath your own marketing message, and ask yourself the philosophical question: “Am I making the world a better place?”

Again, there are lots of ways to make people’s lives better — and lots of room for diverse ways to do this. But I have to ask this: is Twitter making your life better? I think we need to be more skeptical of technology.

Please do not try to market products to customers that do not make their lives better. Don’t try to “capture” their eyeballs. People are already overloaded with information and decisions to make. Don’t trick or confuse customers. Give them real choices; don’t bundle options in such a way that people cannot make meaningful choices.

Evaluating New Technology

Personally, I am not particularly energized or fulfilled by making technology unless it makes meaning — even if it employs cool technology such as social networking, tagging, RSS feeds, or AJAX. Along those lines, I have two somewhat complementary ways to evaluate the merits of Web technology:

• Technology can be a means to an end. Is the end valuable? To individuals? To groups? For example, technology that helps groups solve grassroots problems together is meaningful to me.
• Technology can enable processes that help people do good things. Is the process valuable? For example, show me technology that helps people think more clearly, that helps people make better decisions according to their values, that helps a country function better — that is what excites me.

I try to ask these questions when I see new technologies and businesses. I am naturally opinionated and cannot help from judging technologies by the above criteria. However, I also try to be open minded: technology is changing the ways we communicate and opening doors we had not thought of before. Some technologies that were considered toys or frivilous yesterday are now becoming meaningful. (Update: Jane McGonical spoke at ETech about games that also have social meaning, I think her work is fantastic. Stay tuned for World Without Oil, slated to launch on April 30.)

I went to lunch with a former co-worker recently. She told me that she is bothered that many young people are looking more to MySpace for their identity, and less to traditional places such as family, real friends, and neighborhoods. She has concerns about safety and trust in their virtual communities. She is also worried that young people are more and more susceptible to marketing through these kinds of mediums. The point is not whether I agree or disagree. What is important is that we were talking about the core of what is meaningful to her. I encourage entrepreneurs to get to their core and find their meaning — and build a project, company, or community accordingly. It will fuel you in a more satisfying way than just striving for dollars.

This year, SxSW suffered from growing pains. I feel like this year’s conference lacked some of its former self, particularly regarding the community ethos. In the past, attendees bumped into each more frequently. Random conversations spilled over into lunch. Startups were launched. Burritos were eaten. You get what I mean.

This year, there was less attendee-bumping, startup-starting, and burrito-belching. A shame!

But I know why (you don’t really believe me, do you?) and maybe we can fix it for next year! One problem was the layout of the conference; we were scattered across floors of the convention center. I have mixed feelings about the numerous parallel tracks (as many as eight!). The diversity of panels is certainly good, and the panels were well-attended, but as a result of eight(ish) simultaneous tracks, I think the conference as a whole lacked a coherent theme or vision. Perhaps SxSWi is trying to be too much for too many people?

Many of the panels were great. I particularly enjoyed the “Widgets for Good” panel. I also learned from panels that talked about building online communities. As an entrepreneur myself, I found the sessions about real-world experiences and statistics from launching Web sites to be very elpful. Alex Steffen gave an inspiring talk about WorldChanging. Bruce Sterling did not disappoint with his insights into what the technology world will bring. (One of his more memorable quotes was something like this: subscribing to Twitter was like being pelted to death with croutons.)

My take-away from SxSWi? The Web is a big place; people are using it for all sorts of purposes: commercial, philanthropic, social, fun, and so on. There is room for everybody and you can learn the greatest things from the strangest places. The Web is a dynamic place, a place for innovation and creativity. I’m looking forward to what people are going to cook up next!