- Image via Wikipedia
Nonprofits have a strained relationship with government. It seems like we’re always yelling at them to open up their data. “Release the fisheries report!” “Publish the grizzly mortality counts!”
Wouldn’t it be great if nonprofits, community activists, policy wonks and government all got into a room and discussed our differences? What if government data defaulted to open, rather than closed?
Sounds kumbayah? Well, it isn’t. In fact, it happened last year. Community activists and nonprofits sat down with representatives from the provincial and municipal government (including Vancouver’s Mayor and BC’s Director of Citizen Engagement). And amazing things came from it, like:
- http://openparliament.ca/– a radical mixup of Hansard. Easy tracking of ANY MP and Bill
- http://data.vancouver.ca/ – a directory of free and open data sources from the City of Vancouver, which was used to map the effects of rising sea levels on Vancouver
- The Province of BC’s Apps 4 Climate Action contest
Join me for Vancouver ChangeCamp 2010
When: Saturday, June 12. 8:30 – 5:00pm.
Where: W2 Storyeum, 151 Cordova W., Vancouver BC
Ticket are $20. RSVP at http://vanchangecamp.eventbrite.com/
What is Vancouver ChangeCamp?
Vancouver ChangeCamp is a participatory web-enabled face-to-face event that brings together citizens, technologists, designers, academics, social entrepreneurs, policy wonks, political players, change-makers and government employees to answer these questions:
- How can we help government become more open and responsive?
- How do we as citizens organize to get better outcomes ourselves?
ChangeCamp addresses the demand for a renewed relationship among citizens and government. We seek to create connections, knowledge, tools and policies that drive transparency, civic engagement and democratic empowerment.
The conference will be participant-driven, with the agenda created collaboratively at the start of the event, allowing participants to share their experiences and expertise.
When: Saturday, June 12. 8:30 – 5:00pm.
Where: W2 Storyeum, 151 Cordova W., Vancouver BC
Ticket are $20. RSVP at http://vanchangecamp.eventbrite.com/