The invite looks good to me. I only have one or two people for the
strong feelings on. Sending out sooner rather than later seems to make
> that looks awesome. really nice job.
>
> my stuff shouldn't be in there. not as an introduction. i can bring
> it up with people during the discussion before we open to the public.
>
> i'll suggest a few minor edits - but i think that it's basically perfect.
>
> and yeah - i was thinking that now is a bad time to send out invites
> because it's going to be so busy until x-mas - but maybe not. Maybe
> we could invite people to be on the mailing list together and then
> just open to the public after x-mas (like jan 4-5).
>
> But i don't think we should invite people piecemeal (one here, a few
> there). I think if we want them to take it seriously as co-founders,
> then we should invite them all at once - and maybe we should send them
> a standard letter. It seems more credible imho then to send out more
> personalized. If context is required for a specific person we could
> contextualize above / below that standard text.
>
> but that's just a thought. i'm okay with us doing it differently if
> it's important to any of you.
>
> mike
>
>
> On 12/5/05, Tracey P. Lauriault <
[hidden email]> wrote:
> > Hi gang;
> >
> > I had a go at the invite a bit-
> >
http://civicaccess.ca/wiki/Launch/Invitation? I'll frenchisize after
> > your comments.
> >
> > When should we send this out? Should we send to a few people we each
> > have close relationships with really soon and get started? I would love
> > to get my few DataInfo friends engaged while i have them hot - like the
> > next week or so. what so you think?
> >
> > also, michael started an interesting stream on what we do not want the
> > group to be. Did we want to explore how we want to address those issues
> > a bit? I left them at the bottom of the letter.
> >
> > I paste the let & michael's bit below.
> >
> > Cheers
> > tracey
> > **************
> >
> > I think this invitation should be tweakable and targeted as oppposed to
> > general and impersonal. Perhaps for the public launch we can do
> > something a little more general. my guess is each of us has a variety of
> > relationships with the people want to invite so i am approaching this as
> > a template with some cut and paste content. We may wanna get this out
> > soon though!
> >
> > *DRAFT INVITE LETTER:*
> >
> > Hi There;
> >
> > Stephane, Patrick, Michael and Tracey (change order as required!) here
> > and we would like to invite you to co-found a new canadian civic
> > engagement space - Citizens for Open Access to Civic Information and
> > Data (COACID). We are contacting you since we know that you have been
> > thinking and talking about these issues, have been actively engaged in
> > related activities, and also because each or you has unique expertise,
> > knowledge and experience to contribute to this type of activity (i.e.
> > social planning, data access, open source, mapping, technology creation,
> > etc.).
> >
> > We are a group of diverse citizens, who also happen to be technologists,
> > academics, and activists, who share a common belief that civic
> > information and data should be made easily accessible at no cost for
> > non-commercial purposes to citizens and civil society organizations. We
> > are doing this because, we understand that participatory democratic
> > processes require that citizens have access to information and data to
> > inform their engagement and to improve the quality of the decisions they
> > make during that process. But also because, information and data are the
> > essential bits and bytes required to re-imagine, re-envision, visualize
> > and critically anaylze the communities we live in.
> >
> > So far a COACID discussion lists has been created ([WWW]
> >
http://civicaccess.ca/mailman/listinfo/civicaccess-discuss_civicaccess.ca),
> > and a wiki ([WWW]
http://civicaccess.ca/cgi-bin/moin.cgi/) has been set
> > up with some draft content. The wiki is an open source collaborative
> > tool that will host content discussed on the list. In short this is an
> > emerging community of citizens across Canada like you who want to share
> > what they know, do, their skills, information and data and these tools
> > are there to facilitate that.
> >
> > Please join the list and introduce yourselves, navigate the wiki, share
> > your ideas, interests, and add some content and discuss issues you think
> > are important from your unique and diverse perspectives. There is no
> > pre-determined way to do or say things, so feel free to say, modify, and
> > do as you like in this environment. The group remains small and closed
> > at the moment with the hope that once we have been working together a
> > little, and have a better handle on what we are doing, the list and wiki
> > can go public to some targeted some related communities of practice in
> > January or February of 2006!
> >
> > We are looking forward to being engaged in this information and data
> > community building activity with you!
> >
> > Cheers Stephane, Patrick, Michael and Tracey
> >
> > NOTE: so and so can help you with the wiki so and so can help you with
> > the listserve this is what you need to do to get on the Discussion list
> > this is what you need to do to use the wiki
> >
> > **************************** Michael, do we want to discuss this further
> > on the list? I am thinking that having this in the invite would be
> > intimidating, but think there is merit in agreeing to what we do not
> > want along with what we do.
> >
> > A key thing to tell you as possible co-founders of COACID is what we
> > don't want COACID to be. We don't want it to become it's own project. We
> > don't want it to become an ego vehicle for a small group of people. And
> > we don't want it to become something that's chasing after funding. We
> > want it to be a [WWW] third place <
http://user.gru.net/domz/third.htm>
> > for people already motivated in this cause and a place for people who
> > are curious to find out more.
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > CivicAccess-discuss mailing list
> >
[hidden email]
> >
http://civicaccess.ca/mailman/listinfo/civicaccess-discuss_civicaccess.ca> >
>
> _______________________________________________
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>
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>
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