cnewmark

"I got your back"

Okay, I've been trying to better articulate why I do what I do, and some of that crystallized in my brain an hour prior to writing this.

I work with the Iraq & Afghanistan Veterans of America, not as a veteran, merely a board member and advisor re social media. My work, well, it's not such a big deal. (IAVA is a big deal, working with the current Administration to genuinely support the troops, with considerable success.)

They talk about troops under fire, and the mutual assurance that "I got your back."

I can't aspire to that level of brotherhood, not having served, and you should be grateful I've never handled automatic weapons or anything bigger than a .22.

I consistently aspire to that level of mutual protection and interdependence in my customer service work and my public service work. That is, I can't literally support my cumulative community, which in the US alone is well over 100 million.

However, my attitude, on a gut level, is that I got your back, and I mean you, if you're reading this.

My deal is that I have a life-long commitment to significant customer service. I also feel the same way about my idea of public service, focusing on how to enlist my cumulative community, my constituency, for the common good.

Each and every day, I follow through with that combined commitment. You'll notice that my social media work focuses on promoting the work of others, or amusing myself. (Twitter: #squirrel.) Occasionally, I'll do something to defend my community.

It's hard to count, but I'm probably putting in 30-40 hours of customer service per week, and the same for public service.

I can only do the best I can, and it's working.

I got your back.

New! Mystery! Bird!

Mottling on chest suggests it's a juvenile? About halfway in size between a Sparrow and a Robin.

(click for larger)

Learning from Sgt Joe Friday, Homer Simpson, and Mr Ed

I grew up on TV from the fifties and sixties, and let's give TV more credit than usual.

As a nerd, I wasn't so much influenced by Mr Spock as my nerdliness was reinforced. However, a few characters helped, and continue to shape my character.

I watched reruns of a very old show, the original Dragnet, hearing Sgt Joe Friday: "Just the facts, ma'am" though I normally remind people that "brevity's the soul of wit." While I learned the latter phrasing in high school, the Dragnet version is what lives in my gut.

Of course, there's the influence of Homer J Simpson, who's a survivor, and has done remarkably well considering his limitations. I'm happy with that, with only the reservation that I'm feeling a bit like Grandpa Simpson these days.

Finally, I don't want to understate the influence of Mr Ed, the talking horse, as we see in the show lyrics:

People yakkity yak a streak and waste your time of day
But Mister Ed will never speak unless he has something to say.

PoliticalWire, a great political news blog

Well, every day I read Taegan Goddard's PoliticalWire, brief summaries of news, really good, very recommended!

Shirley Sagawa: How National Service and Volunteers Are Transforming America

If you care about communities -- and new ways to solve America's biggest problems -- join the San Francisco Education Fund for an event featuring the new book, The American Way to Change: How National Service and Volunteers Are Transforming America, by Shirley Sagawa.

This book tells the stories of real people who have dedicated themselves to service and the nonprofits that engaged them. When: Thursday, July 15th, 6:00-7:30 p.m.

Where: Books Inc. in the Opera Plaza, 601 Van Ness Avenue, San Francisco, CA.

You can also find the announcement here.

New SAVE award: power to gov't employees to improve operations

The deal here is that the rank and file, the grassroots of any organization knows what's going on and how to make things work better. They need a way to talk about real suggestions and to vote 'em up or down. Beyond that, they need to see commitment from the boss to make the best ideas into reality.

A previous effort in this direction netted 38,000 suggestions, and the winner involved Veterans Affairs. The idea was to let wounded warriors take home from the hospital the meds they hadn't used yet. Common sense, sure, but it required a policy decision, and this kind of change is hard to do in Washington.

Now we got this recent announcement of the new SAVE contest, which uses crowdsourcing to get the full version of this, with voting up and down.(It's from Pete Orszag's blog; I just saw him and reminded him that I'm a much bigger nerd than him.)

Bottom line: better customer service for citizens, and better return for the taxpayer dollar.

Nancy Scola explains it lots better at techPresident, and here's some guy talking about it.

A few days at the Aspen Ideas Festival

Okay, I haven't recovered yet from the Aspen Ideas Festival, too many interesting people and genuinely valuable panel sessions. I tried to do my part; here's a very narrowly focused take.

(The photos here also illustrate my fondness for the flora and fauna of Aspen; you'll note that I'm a fan of  Corvids, not only Magpies but Crows and Ravens. Note that you can click on the photos for larger versions.)

In a way, almost too thought provoking, here's one example, a really big deal for me...

The session on social media and journalism was a really big deal for me, included David Kirkpatrick, Vivian Schiller, Arianna Huffington, and Strauss Zelnick. The deal is that social media really is having a deep effect on what really matters in journalism, particularly needs for more investigative journalism, and lots more factchecking. Arianna quoted someone saying "trust is the new black", and even better:

Strauss: "The community is the message." (I need to think more about that.)

Kirkpatrick: "Social media is a truth serum for mainstream media."

These guys really made me think.

That led to my premiering a new phrase at a panel I shared with Vivek Kundra, who's the CIO of the whole US. He's figuring out how to better deal with Federal computer systems to provide better service at much lower cost, focusing on better return for the taxpayer dollar.

The new phrase: "the immune system of democracy" referring to the role of the press in the survival of democracy. We're seeing the emergence of a network of factcheckers to complement the traditional press, like factcheck.org, PolitiFact.org, and the Center for Media and Democracy (sourcewatch.org and prwatch.org.)

My panel was documented by James Fallows at the Atlantic, where he also deems me the Bob Newhart of the Internet. (Usually, I'm the Forrest Gump of the Net.) (The gf reminds me that I'm not as funny as I think I am.)

A good piece by Eric Kuhn from CNN talks about my work regarding accountability and transparency in Congress. However, it gives me way too much credit, which should go to the members of the Transparency Caucus and Sunlight Foundation.

My deal is that plenty happened at the Festival, my head's still swimming, and it might be a very long time before I digest it and then realize what happened.

Be nice to nerds...

Two good ideas from Social Media and Journalism panel

 Okay, I'm happy if I get one good new idea from anything, and here's two from a panel at twitter #aif2010

(From memory, might not get it exactly right.)

Arianna Huffington: "self-expression is the new entertainment"

(my variant: "engagement is the new entertainment" but I've been doing customer service way too long.)

Strauss Zelnick: "the audience is the medium."

Maybe I'm making light of these, but I figure both observations are much bigger deals that we think at first.

(in photo, Strauss on right, and Arianna is to his right.)

Twitter interview today with Todd Park, CTO of Dept of HHS

Hey, today at 3.30 pm Eastern, I'll be doing a Twitter interview of Todd Park, the Chief Technology guy of Health and Human Services in Washington.

The tag is #HCQues, and Todd and his team are at @healthcaregov.

Todd's talking about HealthCare.gov, which will help you, family, business, get the best deals with health care insurance.

He's the real deal regarding this, and is also considered an effective leader when it comes to Open Government.

The Tenderloin Technology Lab

The Dining Room at St. Anthony's serves 2500-3000 people every day in San Francisco.

They house a great computer lab, the Tenderloin Technology Lab (TTL), which serves over one hundred clients per day.  It's a partnership between St. Anthony Foundation and San Francisco Network Ministries, offering technology training classes six days a week to help bridge the digital divide for homeless and low-income residents of the Tenderloin.

The Craigslist Foundation, and me personally, are helping them with that computer lab, getting better systems and Internet connection.

Check them out here and also check out their latest newsletter.

More to come...

"Fireworks & Combat Trauma Politiku"

First, the deal with "politiku" is that it's haiku, with a political or similar bent. You can say a lot in a few words.

Susanna Speier came up with this idea, and I really like it. As she defines:

Politiku is concise and poetic political commentary, that fuses the 5-7-5 syllabic structure of traditional Japanese haiku with online interactive political commentary.

She reflects on what the Fourth of July means to veterans, while noting there are consequences that we often forget:

... most Americans still honor the 4th in some way involving family and fireworks. It’s an altogether awesome holiday — one of the few in this country that truly everyone can be a part of!

For soldiers dealing with combat trauma, however, the explosive blasts can trigger a more visceral fight/flight response because of their similarities to the blasts and explosions experienced in Iraq and/or Afghanistan. Being surrounded by explicit and implicit displays of patriotism and anti-patriotism can further augment a shell shocked combat vet’s sense of displacement.

I want to be clear that Politiku is not therapy. A Politiku writing workshop for vets dealing with combat trauma might be of value to some because it is a journalistic and literary based technique would enable these individuals to condense their complicated, timely and multifaceted experiences into simple and accessible piece of poetry for them to choose to share with others or not.

Susanna also cites the work of Lily Casura, author of the website HealingCombatTrauma.com for additional info on the topic.

ReMind.org: another small effort to help Veterans on the Fourth of July

Hey, folks check out ReMind.org, and considering sending just $10 to help wounded warriors and honor those who have fallen.

We've been enjoying ourselves this holiday weekend, but there are thousands of Americans out there risking a bullet, or worse, for us.

Let's give a little back here.

That ten bucks sent to ReMind.org goes straight to providing resources and support to injured service members, veterans and their families -- to successfully reintegrate our nation's injured heroes.

ReMIND.org is a movement of the Bob Woodruff Foundation.

Hey, folks check out ReMind.org, and considering sending just $10 to help wounded warriors and honor those who have fallen.

We've been enjoying ourselves this holiday weekend, but there are thousands of Americans out there risking a bullet, or worse, for us.

Let's give a little back here.

That ten bucks sent to ReMind.org goes straight to providing resources and support to injured service members, veterans and their families -- to successfully reintegrate our nation's injured heroes.

ReMIND.org is a movement of the Bob Woodruff Foundation.

Smartphone apps from USA.gov, useful stuff!

Okay, the deal is that the Obama Administration is serious about making government work, providing good return for taxpayer dollars, and providing good customer service.

Today, they're providing additional useful tools for the USA.gov site.

The following might be the big part, they're serious:

This change is part of the Administration’s commitment to making government more open and responsive to the wants and needs of the public.

As part of this effort, OMB is working to close the significant IT gap that has developed over the past decade and a half between the public and private sectors, contributing to the productivity divide between the two.

This includes:

• An app for quick access to nutrition information for over 1,000 foods;
• An app that provides around-the-clock access to frequently-requested airline information from the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) including wait times at airport security lines;
• An app for checking the UV Index and air quality ratings from anywhere in the world;
• And an app that provides instant information on consumer safety recalls of toys, food, and more.

The apps currently available on USA.gov are free and most are compatible with iPhone, Blackberry, and Android devices.

healthcare.gov -- real info on new healthcare options

The new healthcare stuff sounds way more complicated than it is, but like with any kind of insurance, there's always a need for a little help.

healthcare.gov just launched, and the folks doing it are serious about getting it right, and helping us all with what we need to know.

The site brings together all pertinent information regarding health insurance plans, and makes it reasonably easy to compare what plans might work for you. It also addresses your rights, and how the Affordable Care Act will help you.

For basics, look at Understand the new law.

Also, check out the Health Insurance Finder.

The site includes:

• Data for more than 1,000 insurance carriers  and 5,561 open products (2,030 in the individual health insurance market and 3,531 in the small employer health insurance market)
• Information on every Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program in the country
• Information on the Pre-Existing Condition Plan in every state.
• An insurance finder: Answer a few basic questions, and it automatically sorts through a huge catalog of public and private coverage options to help you identify the ones that are right for you.   

healthcare.gov makes it easy for you to compare plans from different companies, which means you can choose the better/cheaper plan, which means those companies gotta compete for your business.

It also means more competition for the business from small businesses, since there's not need to rely on information from one agent.

The folks at healthcare.gov have also built in tools for your feedback, so they can make the site more effective. Please use 'em!

Overall, the deal is better customer service from government, and better return for taxpayer dollars, pretty good!

Go Local: easy way to find volunteer needs in your community

Okay, you remember the "craigslist for service", AllForGood.org, a platform which makes it easy for people to find volunteer opportunities in their communities.

The widget for doing so is currently at the top right of this blog.

The next step? We're launching the Go Local campaign, inspired by the new Cities of Service effort. The idea is that people will give each other a break when it feels right.

Jonathan Greenblatt writes way more effectively about this in Everything Counts - Growing Up at All for Good:

Can we alone change the world? Hardly. Can we make a difference? Hopefully. But only if we are participating in the service ecosystem. Perhaps stretching the field in new ways but doing so in collaboration with the remarkable nonprofit organizations, impact-driving businesses and dedicated public servants that endeavor to strengthen local communities and support the causes on a daily basis.

To that end, we are proud to partner with the Obama Administration to enable serve.gov. But we know that we need to do more. We need to proceed with humility to augment the ecosystem, not work around it. We need to share our technology with other innovators, not keep it for ourselves. We need to leverage the social graph, not reinvent it, and empower others to help each other.

Based on these requirements, we are proud today to announce the launch of our Go Local campaign . We think Go Local is an innovative way to build upon our belief that everything counts and everyone matters. We want to share our world-class technology and 200,000+ service opportunities with the city halls and local leaders who are doing so much good in their cities and towns across the US.

This is connected to the Cities of Service effort, which is about getting city administrations to move head with serious volunteer efforts.

More on this to come!

A few words about large scale social change via social media at TEDxMarin

Hey, I recently spoke at TEDxMarin, along with other folks smarter than me.

I'm trying to better effect large scale social change using social media, and here I inadequately try to articulate more about that. (I'll be doing more of the same today at the National Conference on Volunteering and Service.)

Stuff done better in Washington, or, the George Constanza of innovation

Todd Park, CTO of Health and Human Services, and another nerd, talking about HHSinnovates. It's about listening to rank and file employees about how things are really done, then doing better.

A national approach to identity online

Key to preventing fraud and abuse online is the accountability you get when you have a reasonable verified identity.

This could also provide a single signon tool; you'd only have to remember one user id and password.

It does require public/private partnership, where the government and private sector work together to get stuff done. To that end, check out The National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace

...no longer should individuals have to remember an ever-expanding and potentially insecure list of usernames and passwords to login into various online services. Through the strategy we seek to enable a future where individuals can voluntarily choose to obtain a secure, interoperable, and privacy-enhancing credential (e.g., a smart identity card, a digital certificate on their cell phone, etc) from a variety of service providers – both public and private – to authenticate themselves online for different types of transactions (e.g., online banking, accessing electronic health records, sending email, etc.).

Another key concept in the strategy is that the Identity Ecosystem is user-centric – that means you, as a user, will be able to have more control of the private information you use to authenticate yourself on-line, and generally will not have to reveal more than is necessary to do so.

This is a really big deal, and this is the time to get yourself heard, if you're interested. They're taking comments right here.

Need to get two old dogs cross-country

I gotta friend, two old dogs, east coast, need to get 'em back to the Bay area.

Anyone have any good ideas?

(I'm speaking literally; I'm not one of the "old dogs", not in that sense.)

"Healing combat trauma" and "The Brain at War"

Okay, people are supporting the troops in ways that are deeply important, in ways that as a country, we got a lot of work to do. There are physical injuries that even I can understand, but beyond that, there's traumatic brain injury (TBI) and the invisible damage to troops, like post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD.)

Recently the NCIRE and The Veterans Health Research Institute, ran the "The Brain at War" conference, which I attended briefly. (I'm not very tough, and this stuff is hard to hear.) This was all about helping vets deal with these real problem. I don't really understand a lot, so I'll get out of the way, and hear from someone with real expertise.

Check out Healing Combat Trauma and specifically, "The Brain at War" Conference in San Francisco:

There were many highlights of the program, including hearing from the National Guard about what they're doing to secure better mental health for their servicemembers, who don't have the same access that other branches do. The California National Guard has a good "Combat Stress Control" program, with handouts like this tip sheet, "Helping a Soldier Buddy in Distress," linked here. They've also got a superlative poster, "Never Let Your Buddy Fight Alone (against PTSD)" that emphasizes the importance of Guardmembers in one another's lives. An U.S. Army National Guard leader, Major Paul E. Gonzales, from Kansas' National Guard, talked convincingly about the challenges Guardmembers face after deployment, accessing mental health services, when they're frequently hours away from the nearest facility.

Also check out more about the Marines Memorial Club, and their very real tribute to troops. (I'm getting involved, more to say later...)

KaBOOM! playground in SF, one year later

Hey, the folks at KaBOOM! get playgrounds built and a lot more.

Last year they got one done in San Francisco, and it really matters:

One year ago today, First Lady Michelle Obama volunteered at one of our KaBOOM!-led builds at Bret Harte Elementary School in San Francisco.

Now, one year later, the kids are playing on the equipment non-stop. The school principal was originally skeptical about whether the kids really needed a playground, and worried that the kids would stop playing asphalt games like kickball. Now, watching the children swarm the play structure, she can’t believe that they had ever been denied the opportunity to play and get active like this. “The kids who want to play kickball and jumprope still do, but I’d never realized that they needed so many different ways to play. They love their new playground... they absolutely love it,” she said. “Now, when the kids come back into the classroom, they’re able to sit down and pay attention, so the teachers love the new playground just as much as the kids!”

KaBOOM! is proud to work with the Let’s Move initiative to help address this play deficit, and is currently supporting communities across the country as they work to get their kids more active through play. We offer tools, tips, and resources to help anyone make their community more playful. Get involved!

Some other guy was involved, the lesson being that power tools and Craig, not such a good idea.

"Celebrate America" photo contest

Hey, it looks like fun, a photo contest run online about the country:

Show us how you celebrate America and your photo could be featured on USA.gov, GobiernoUSA.gov, and our social media channels.

The deadline for submission is 12:00pm Eastern Time on June 30, 2010. For details, please see the contest guidelines.

Muéstrenos cómo celebra América y su foto puede ser presentada en USA.gov, GobiernoUSA.gov y nuestros canales de medios sociales.

El plazo límite para entrar al concurso es el 30 de junio de 2010 a las 12:00 pm hora del Este. Vea las reglas del concurso. 

Post your best, original photo on the site of your choice (such as Flickr, Facebook, Photobucket, personal site, etc.) and make sure it is visible to the public. Then fill out and submit the online entry form

Ardilla mysterioso

(Yes, I'm tired...)

(click for larger)

Heidi Kraft: Rule Number Two - Lessons learned at a combat hospital

You remember MASH from TV, and maybe China Beach. This is really the real deal.

There are two rules of war.
Rule number one is that young men die.
Rule number two is that doctors can't change rule number one.

              --M*A*S*H: TV show

Heidi was deployed to Iraq in February 2004, for seven months with a Marine Corps surgical company, when her boy and girl twins were fifteen months old. More on her site.

A clinical psychologist in the US Navy, Kraft's job was to uncover the wounds of war that a surgeon would never see. She put away thoughts of her children back home, acclimated to the sound of incoming rockets, and learned how to listen to the most traumatic stories a war zone has to offer.

I recently saw her speak very movingly at The Brain at War just held in SF, the focus on veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan. The conference points out:

"Many have served multiple tours - increasing their chances of post-traumatic stress, traumatic brain injury, depression, and suicidal thoughts, among other injuries and conditions."

From hearing her, I recommend her book, Rule Number Two.

For veterans families: a cookie monster and a guy in a furry blue suit

 

Okay, it's Sesame Workshop helping military families:

For over 40 years Sesame Workshop has been dedicated to the founding principle to help all children have a chance to learn, grow and fulfill their greatest potential, and its work with military families reflects continued efforts to address the unique needs of children in the 21st century.  Since its launch in 2006, this program has helped hundreds of thousands of families cope with parents’ deployments and combat-related injuries, build resiliency in times of separation and change, and most recently, help children cope with the death of a parent or loved one.

Through extraordinary public and private partnerships, Sesame Workshop has provided much-needed support to military families through the distribution of 2 million outreach kits, Sesame Street performances at military bases around the world, two award-winning television specials, and a social media site to help military families with young children stay connected.  On the evening of June 2nd, 2010, Sesame Workshop honored the courageous families that are served by these programs at its Annual Gala.

HHSinnovates -- better customer service and savings from Washington

A lot of people in Washington and throughout the Federal gov't are figuring out how to provide much better return for the taxpayer dollar.

That means listening to their rank and file employees and committing to getting stuff done. I've seen that happening at the Dept of Veterans Affairs, and now it's happening at a really big chunk of the gov't, Health and Human Services. It's an internal effort, but the big stuff's in place: getting employees to suggest improvement, and commitment at the highest levels.

46 innovation stories are posted on the HHS intranet site for voting to make 3 team awards. For the inaugural competition, 126 innovation activities were submitted by employees of 9 federal agencies in HHS.

Voting lasts for two weeks, and Secretary Sebelius will make selections. Winners get to tell the Secretary their story of innovation and how it might be applied across HHS and the federal work space, get an award, and $2,500 in cash.  Some of the innovations are about inventing new processes to save time and resources, others are using technology to address health issues, a variety of health information technology applications, etc.

The Awards ceremony will happen sometime during the week of August 2nd and will be webcasted. On that day, HHS will launch its innovations gallery to the public.

"So far, its exceeded all of our wildest dreams"

Ravens watching another soar (8 secs.)

Today's menagerie, from my office

  

Even more attitude...

bird bath in my home office. bird doesn't want to be disturbed.

(click for larger)

Dad

Photo around 57 years old.

(click for larger.)

Really good book on social media from Deanna Zandt

Social media, social networking is changing the way we work with other, and Deanna Zandt has written an effective, down-to-earth book on that I just finished and recommend.

Check out Share This!: How You Will Change the World with Social Networking

AmericaSpeaks: Town halls and more on the national budget

The online grassroots democracy thing is real, gathering momentum. Here's another example of a notable effort, focusing on the national budget.

As I recall, nearly half of the deficit is from tax cuts for the rich, and half regarding the war in Iraq, including missing cash and big-ticket items. (I wish more of that had gone to support the troops, but my bias is showing.) (Please fact-check me.)

Here're the details:

On June 26, AmericaSpeaks will convene 19 large-scale Town Meetings and dozens of smaller-scale Community Conversations across the US -- all linked together by live streaming video and polling software -- for the first-ever National Town Meeting about the federal budget. 

Why a public discussion on the federal budget? While Congress will have to pursue deficit spending in the short term to help our economy recover, publicly held debt is projected to reach 200% of GDP by 2038 if we don't take steps to reduce our long term deficit spending. Most legislators fear voter-retaliation if they take steps in that direction, like raising taxes or reducing spending.

AmericaSpeaks is making a bet that the American public is smarter than politicians give them credit for -- and inviting everyone who wants to leave the next generation with a healthy economy to get together and help sort out how we're going to do that. Coffee Party, AARP, Chamber of Commerce, National Council of La Raza, and many others are encouraging their members to attend -- making this the largest public discussion of the US federal budget to date.

You're invited to join the "AmericaSpeaks: Our Budget, Our Economy" National Town Meeting on June 26. Find a meeting near you, or sign up to host one, here: http://USABudgetDiscussion.org/Participate

To find out more about the National Town Meeting: "A National Discussion Our Founding Fathers Would Love", follow them on Twitter: http://twitter.com/usabudget, or join the discussion on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/usabudgetdiscussion.org

Why I RT/retweet a lot

When on Twitter, I retweet (RT) the posts of other people a great deal.

Two reasons:

-- easier than having an original thought.

-- it's nice to share, that is, it feels right to distribute others' stuff to a broader audience.

(two of my pals outside home office; click for larger)

Please vote: Campus Progress National Keynote Contest

We hear that students aren't getting involved in politics post Obama election, but the reality looks different.

Campus Progress and HuffPost College have put together a national keynote contest that will give 3 young people the chance to attend and address the 2010 Campus Progress National Conference, July 7 in DC.  The videos of the top six contestants contradict what we've heard. They make clear that many in this new generation are staying involved and have important things to say:

they're challenging the parameters of what's possible.  David, an undocumented immigrant, a UCLA student, and a great speaker is putting his story out to advocate for immigration reform.  Not only have they not checked out but they're boycotting marriage in support of the LGBT community, as Alok has done.  They've taken painful pasts, family stories that are tragic and heart breaking and used them as a catalyst to prove that it's not where you're from but where you're going that matters - as Jamira and Kevin have done. They fought for health care- even when the pundits ignored them, they formed organizations like Jennifer has done, and they've pushed back on the notion of family values as Michael has done.

In general, check out HuffPost college.

Crowdsourcing election monitoring in Guinea: your help needed!

Okay, the deal is that people have mashed together technologies to enable people on the ground to report what's going on, but they need your help figuring out the big picture.

The people at Alliance Guinea will get people to report what's happening:

Be a Guinea election monitor from home!! Alliance Guinea and AfricanElections.org, in partnership with the National Independent Election Commission and others in Guinea are about to launch “Guinea Vote 2010 Witness” – an SMS- and internet- based election monitoring effort using Ushahidi technology.  Through GV10 Witness, election monitors, journalists, and ordinary citizens on the ground in Guinea will be able to use their cell phones to share information about election challenges and successes with the entire world.

What we need now are volunteers to help process this information – and that means YOU! All you need is access to a computer, a few hours in the next two weeks and a passion for democracy.  Sign up now and we’ll get you oriented and ready to help from the comfort of your home.

Ushahidi is key to this, their tools provide the mashup, already successfully used to report problems in the aftermath of the Haiti earthquake. This is a really big deal where people can work together to get stuff to happen.

Organization of Pakistani Entrepreneurs (OPEN) Silicon Valley

Lot's more good stuff occurs in the Bay Area than we hear about, and the OPEN folks just had a good conference. You can hear more about them on their site:

OPEN is an inclusive organization, focused primarily on the promotion of entrepreneurship and business leadership. OPEN Silicon Valley community is several thousand-strong, and includes corporate professionals, entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and banking professionals, social leaders, academics and students.

They held their annual conference at the Computer History Museum this year attracting 600+ attendees. This years theme captured the mood of optimism as our economy gradually bounds back and allowed attendees a chance to explore avenues to capitalize on this momentum.

Highlights from the morning sessions included panelists on the Social Entrepreneurs talk featuring Tabreez Verjee, Board Member from Kiva and Leila janah CEO of SamaSource who discussed the new generation of innovative thinkers, where global social impact is a primary driver and the promise of IPOs a distant second on the business agenda.

Gov 2.0 hero day!

Hey, there're a lot of people making government more effective and more responsive to citizens, providing better customer service.

They never get much credit, so let's see what we can do.

Check out Gov 2.0 Hero Day on govfresh.com and check out the individuals so honored.

... and maybe Like their Facebook page and look what people tweet

I'd appreciate it, speaking as a libertarian pragmatist.