Call for articles for a special issue of the Journal of Information Technology and Politics (JITP) on "Understanding eParticipation" -- efforts to broaden and deepen participation in societal decision making processes by enabling citizens to connect with one another, with public officials and with their elected representatives using information and communication technologies. Processes involved include both directly political ones such as petitioning and consultations and indirectly political ones such as city planning processes. (I checked with the guest editors: their definition of eParticipation includes online volunteers for advocacy groups/efforts and for nonprofits who are engaged in a politically-related activity).Topics include but are not limited to:

• Current and emergent eParticipation technological infrastructures;
  
• Current and emergent eParticipation methods;
  
• Criteria and methods for evaluation of eParticipation initiatives to be undertaken in a systematic and standardised way;
  
• The business case of eParticipation: Drivers and barriers;
  
• Theories and contextual analysis of eParticipation.

Manuscripts should have significant theoretical and empirical roots, preferably in both social/political science and IT, but should at least contain significant content in both areas.

Was honored (after much debate, persuasion, and final clarity about the general laid-backed-ness of the meeting) to be asked by Ed Schipul to lead the July – Houston, TX – NetSquared get together. Have not been to other NetSquared meetings, so can only speak about the attitude of the Houston group, which is more about social issues and passion than technology. I chose to talk about using technology (the internet really) to tangibly support our troops while they are deployed (I’m not talking yellow flags on your car here!) – A topic containing many social issues, all of which I can get pretty passionate about. I’m a Quaker (Nothing to do with the guy in the funny hat) and embrace the Peace Testimony. I also have a brother who is an MP and served a year in Iraq. I find myself in an interesting position with a unique point of view about the “War on Terror.” 

I'm back in Germany at long last, and recovered enough from the San Francisco Bay and air conditioning-induced allergies, and jet-lag, to be able to post online again... I really enjoyed the conference info about how various nonprofits created very positive online "buzz" about a particular issue, or how they countered an opposing political effort through grassroots online organizing, etc. BUT... I also kept thinking of how these efforts are NOT always used for "good", and I brought up how it's been through various efforts, including online activism, that the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) has been so severely maligned, particularly regarding its work in China. I've found myself convincing family members back in Kentucky, and friends back in Texas, that, no, what they read in that church bulletin or heard on some local radio program or read on some online discussion group about UNFPA was, in fact, NOT true. How does an organization effectively counter malicious, seemingly-grassroots online efforts to discredit its excellent work? (I've written to UNFPA directly and encouraged them to respond as well, FYI)

Women not included in technology?  Is it a gender thing or a techy vs. non-techy thing?

My thinking is that by default it is a woman-thing.  Only 10% of women are technical so by default it is a gender thing.

Let's stop apolgizing and start doing.  

Where can we learn:
* webmonkey.com
* any php tutorial you find interesting on the web
* learn css
* take a class at a community college
* find an opensource project, hack it, show it to others

I went to Mills College. 

We want to build our own tools.  

Women:  Where do we go to get tech training? 

Christine said something like, "When you visit a website do you ever think about what you allowed to do on the site?"  She points to how gender does it translate gender representation?

I think this a good question I haven't thought about before.   How do women interact in person?  What are those customs that we use?  Are those represented in online communication models?

I dream up a mom/woman specific operating system from time to time and it often is framed in my social experience as a woman/mom.

What I dream...

You organize things in rooms.  You assign a room to each person in your family.  Mom's room, daughter's room, the cat's litter box, a living room, dining room, and a patio.  Each of those places represented by the OS have objects that we often use - a fridge for keeping recipies, shopping lists; a television where we keep tags of items we want to return to later for entertainment purposes; a closet to bury my mall wishlist.

Marty Kearns - Green Media Toolshed

Price of calling anywhere in the world has gone down

Bowling Alone was wrong -- we have more social ties than we used to to have, it is coming out of sleep and TV. We know about creating individual and organization capacity for facilitating change. We don't know much about building networking capacity.

Networks matter. And now we can map them and see them, and we can use network theory.

The structure of Romantic and Sexual Relations at "Jefferson High School" (see http://researchnews.osu.edu/archive/chains.htm)

Talks about The rise of the "Do Not Call Network", and how fast people signed up Pug lovers network biggest on Meetup. 23,280 memeber in 133 groups. The FUH2 site http://www.fuh2.com/, Mapping craters, Chevy Tahoe commercials

"It's what our crazy aunt sends us that gets passed on." Ain't that the truth?

It's not the things penned by the Executive Director trying to advance the organization.

This may be what the marketing session was talking about in describing "authenticity". 

Aaron Pava (http://www.saveoceanbeach.org, http://www.defectivebydesign.org) 

Online Activity -> Offline Action

This is why I came to this conference.  How to we use virtual connections to connect people in real life?  An then the other way around?

Michael Silberman (http://www.echoditto.com) worked on the Dean for President campaign.

At some point an organizer benefits from understanding the nuts and bolts of how to do an event or activity.  Michael's talk addresses this, but its not what I am looking for in this session. 

I find that these types of tools are great for people that have personalities that already lend themselves to doing events or planning.  But what about the people that are over-whelmed?  Tired?  Busy?  Scared?  Or may not really care?