One outcome of the The Active Citizen in a Digital Age course, now being featured in the main blog, is a new NCP wiki page, Advocacy By and For Community which includes many of the websites featured in the course, some of which have been previously presented on these pages. The course deals primarily with advocacy of desired outcomes within the three sectors of democracy, political, market place and civil society.
◦ Bottom line, we want to do two big things better: Demystify congressional advocacy. We get hundreds of questions every day about what Congress is doing, how to organize locally (see the toolkit!), and how to advocate in different situations.
◦ The Resistance Manual is an open-source platform to harness the collective power of the people to resist the impact of a Trump presidency and to continue to make progress in our communities.
◦ Together We Will: Provide resources and guidance to empower everyday people to organize and act locally; whether new to community organization, returning to a new era of civil rights defense, or seasoned veteran of political and social activism, we will curate and produce resources to serve their needs.
In addition to the technological infrastructure raised by the course, there are also websites providing an underlying infrastructure to these efforts.
◦ The Digital Civil Society Lab at the Stanford Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society created digitalIMPACT.io to support civil society organizations in using digital data ethically, safely, and effectively.
◦ The Open Society Foundations work to build vibrant and tolerant societies whose governments are accountable and open to the participation of all people.
These last two websites speak to the larger, connected issues of Transparency and Open Data in Governance.
Under New Community Paradigms, these efforts are seen as being taken up by the community to impact larger, more powerful and at the same time more distant form of institutional government requiring different sets of tools as featured in Governance and Community Democracy.
Two new tools are:
• Digital Democracy | Search Legislative Committee Hearings
◦ A first-of-its-kind platform, Digital Democracy creates a searchable archive of all statements made in state legislative hearings.
◦ A first-of-its-kind platform, Digital Democracy creates a searchable archive of all statements made in state legislative hearings.
• IssueVoter | Government By the People Act of 2015
◦ Voter Participation By keeping voters informed throughout the year on issues that matter most to them, more people will see how legislation affects those issues, and recognize the importance of voting and engaging with their representative year-round.
◦ Voter Participation By keeping voters informed throughout the year on issues that matter most to them, more people will see how legislation affects those issues, and recognize the importance of voting and engaging with their representative year-round.
Communities help decide upon these issues through direct democratic deliberation or what has been termed People’s Governance In California (putting an emphasis on the home state). The wiki page includes both supporting organizations and guiding principles.
All of this is intended to lead to new Policy Creation taking a more nonpartisan approach (though not necessarily noncontroversial)
• PUBLICAGENDA.ORG - Public Agenda Home Page (improved)
◦ Public Agenda is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that helps diverse leaders and citizens navigate divisive, complex issues and work together to find solutions.
◦ Public Agenda is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that helps diverse leaders and citizens navigate divisive, complex issues and work together to find solutions.
• Common Good
◦ Common Good is a nonpartisan reform coalition that offers Americans a new way to look at law and government.
◦ Common Good is a nonpartisan reform coalition that offers Americans a new way to look at law and government.
On the Kumu Wiki Map, Advocacy By and For Community is seen as a bridge to these other bridges tying together community change efforts.
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