Posted by
Michael Lenczner on
Nov 07, 2006; 6:18pm
URL: http://civicaccess.416.s1.nabble.com/update-on-CivicAccess-stuff-i-ve-been-working-on-tp748.html
I've just helped a Montreal non-profit send in an application for a
CivAcc project. They will find out early december if they received
it. The project would be to bring a federal hansard project to the
level of functionality of
http://www.TheyWorkForYou.orgI am trying to figure out with Cory (from HowdTheyVote) how not to
either step on his toes or waste time+effort through parallel
development. He has done great work by stepping up and attacking this
problem and I don't want to disrespect that or simply duplicate it
without adding anything. I think we're hopeful about figuring out the
best way to work together.
The reason I'm working with this local non-project to take on this
project (federal hansard) instead of tackling another one is that I
feel certain that the federal site is *the* killer CivicAccess project
to get things rolling. If it is a convincing, resounding success then
we can use to get other things started. First the Federal one, then
tackling one-by-one the provincial and territorial hansards. Some of
them are easier than others (in terms of the structure of the data)
but after 3-5 of them are done, we should be able to use PR/media
campaign to get the rest of the provinces to fall in line.
(The other reason that I'm focusing on the federal hansards is that
all of the Canadian Community Wireless Networking groups could display
per-MP rss feeds on their portal pages to their users (Wireless
Toronto 4,500 users, ISF 26,000 users, Quebec Sans Fil and
Ottawa/Gatineau Wifi). So we really need that functionality.)
I know that there has been few tangible results from CivicAccess so
far. It's been a good online resource/community, but I know that many
of us want it to much more. An incubator, network, and cheerleader
for projects that empower citizens through better access to public
info. I've been spending a lot of time thinking about how to
accomplish that over the last few months and I will continue to work
on it. I should be sending in 2 grant applications for CA projects in
the next 2 months.
If there are any coders / web people that want to build CA projects
but need help or $$, feel free to let me know. I definitely have time
to help people find resources. I don't have years of experience at
developing these kinds of projects, but I'll help out as much as I
can.
mike