Tom Steinberg, whose organisation mySociety has produced some of the most innovative UK websites for civic and community engagement, is shortly off to the US to interest groups in their participatory tools. He's looking for additional contacts.
The tools include WriteToThem.com, by which people can find and contact their elected representatives just by entering their postcode, and PledgeBank.com that enables people to say "I will if you will". Recently mySociety added Placeopedia.com which enables people to connect Wikipedia articles with the places they represent.
You can read here about how mySociety got started, with a video interview I did with Tom two years ago. Tom has also co-authored a Demos pamphlet Wide Open on open source methods and their future potential.
I met up with Tom again this evening when he held a typically informally get together for supporters, with free drinks at a London canalside pub. I just couldn't resist the invite:
The idea is to give people updates on our projects, ply them with drinks, and then trap them in nets and drag them back to our 'volunteers and friends' dungeon.
No nets were visible, or dungeons or dragons, but plenty of willing volunteers geeky or otherwise. My task was to see if I could make a few extra US contacts ... so this is a start. Tom will fly west in six days, going just about everywhere to drum up some export business, so if you are interested do get in touch. More information and contact details here.
Update: UK's Pledgebank pulls US commitment - and cash
Technorati Tags: e-democracy, engagement, socialtech
Tom, I hope you are coming as far as Seattle!
Posted by: Nancy White | September 22, 2005 at 04:21 AM