Sarapis Page 3
Sunlight Foundation has a tremendous amount of projects with which to collaboration.
Participatory Politics Foundation is a New York based nonprofit that built OpenCongress and is working on a similar application for open city and state governments.
Office of DC CTO is a primary mover in the open city government movement.
Code for America "Connecting city governments and Web 2.0 talent."
OpenPlans is a New York based nonprofit that helped create Open311 and other technology intensive open government projects.
Knowledge as Power: "KAP allows you to track legislation, communicate with lawmakers, and impact the laws of your state – it's quick, easy, and timely."
Open Source for America is a technology industry open source advocacy coalition.
GovLoop is a social network geared towards government employees with over 35,000+ members.
ProPublica is an honest nonprofit news organization that loves analyzing open government data.
Open Forum Foundation "are facilitators, working with government and technologists to ensure the future of government is in responsiveness."
Open Identity Exchange "The goal of OIX is to build trust in the exchange of identity credentials online."
Open Data Foundation "provides a place where the members of different communities can come together and work on the alignment of technology standards and software tools which will facilitate visibility and re-use of data at all levels of the statistical information chain. By promoting automated access to statistical data and metadata in this way, better decision-making becomes possible in many fields of research and policy-making."
Open Data Commons "is the home of a set of legal ‘tools’ to help you provide and use open data."
Insert non-formatted text here Development Seed DC - Drupal, creators of Open Atrium, a Drupal based project management system being run on GaryJohnson2012.com.
Phase Two Technology: DC - Drupal, creators of OpenPublic, a Drupal CMS distribution for federal government projects.
Bridge City Studio Portland - Drupal has a nice resources page.
CivicActions Berkeley - Drupal, CiviCRM constituent relationship management system of Drupal and Joomla.
Brattcollective.com is "a worker-owned and operated technology collective, focused on workplace democracy and promoting a democratic society while supporting like-minded businesses and organizations by providing open-source website development and consulting." They work with Aspiration Tech.
Radical Designs "is a full service web development group focused exclusively on the needs of non-profit and grassroots social change organizations."
Socrata "Complete, Turnkey Open Data Solutions for Government"
News and Commentary
The status of policy implementations of Open Government Data by Joshua Tauberer's Blog
GovFresh is a news organization that "inspires government-citizen collaboration and build a more engaged democracy."
OpenGovTV "provides Open Government and Gov 2.0 News, Information & Resources for businesses, government agencies, and constituents to more effectively participate in and benefit from the emerging technologies designed to restore this nation's economy and create jobs as a result of an Open Government."
All US Government IT Projects Under Review
Denmark urges government support for open source
Open Source for America The New Government Accountability
The Case for Government Promotion of Open Source Software
Joshua Tauberer's News Aggregator
Sandy Springs, Georgia: The City that Outsourced Everything
States
CivicApps Portland App Contest
New York State Executive Order
Opportunities
Central Contractor Registration (CCR) is the primary registrant database for the U.S. Federal Government. CCR collects, validates, stores and disseminates data in support of agency acquisition missions. Is this the primary channel of US government communication with the private sector? If so, we need to start working with them to make APIs...
The projects that receive email funding.
Open CRS simply asks congress to make all the tax-payer funded reports of the $100m/year Congressional Research Service open and available to the tax-paying public. What is this money was allocated via open competitions?
Unsorted
http://blogs.loc.gov/law/2011/01/thomas-off-of-thomas/
http://localleaks.net (added)
http://www.allourideas.org/planyc
http://wiki.civiccommons.org/New...
http://www.meetup.com/speakupnyh...
Projects
MetaGovernment Project "The objective of the Metagovernment project is to enable individuals to be much more involved in their own governance, instead of relying on career politicians to take care of the important decisions in their life."
- Related Projects is a great list of projects.
Federal Open Source Technology Score Card from Open Source for America.
IT Dashboard: The IT Dashboard is a website enabling federal agencies, industry, the general public and other stakeholders to view details of federal information technology investments -
FedSpace: FedSpace is a secure intranet and collaboration workspace for Federal employees and contractors.
Digitalizer: Danish Approach to FedSpace.
OpenCongress: Track bills, votes, people in Congress.
LittleSis: Free database of who-knows-who at the heights of business and government.
POPvox "bridges the gap between the input the public wants to provide and the information Members of Congress want and need to receive."
MetaVid: "The Open Video archive of the US Congress"
MapLight "Connect the Dots between Money and Votes"
Follow the Money "The Nation's Most Complete Resource for Information on Money in State Politics"
Open Secrets "OpenSecrets.org is your nonpartisan guide to money’s influence on U.S. elections and public policy. Whether you’re a voter, journalist, activist, student or interested citizen, use our free site to shine light on your government."
GovTrack Tracking Congress
Public=Online "“Government transparency is critical to creating a better democracy, and of highest importance in how I cast my vote. I pledge, through my sustained engagement, to hold public officials accountable for being open and transparent.”
CivicCommons "Sharing technolog for the public good."
GovHub open source repository for government.
Public.Resource.org makes bulk information from the government available like codes and court decisions.
The Open State Project collects and makes available data about state legislative activities, including bill summaries, votes, sponsorships, legislators, and committees.
"A ChangeCamp is a creative face-to-face gathering that is citizen-led, non-partisan and social web enabled
The First Earth Battalion Field Manual articulates a way for the US military to open itself up.
MuckRock is a website that helps you file, track, appeal, and eventually publish FOIA'd documents, all through a single web interface.
eDemocracy "We harness the power of online tools to support participation in public life, strengthen communities, and build democracy."
FutureGov is a consultancy and social innovation incubator helping to shape the future of government. We specialize in new media consultancy for government and social innovation. We also run campaigns and events.
Organizations
Sunlight Foundation has a tremendous amount of projects with which to collaboration.
Participatory Politics Foundation is a New York based nonprofit that built OpenCongress and is working on a similar application for open city and state governments.
Office of DC CTO is a primary mover in the open city government movement.
Code for America "Connecting city governments and Web 2.0 talent."
OpenPlans is a New York based nonprofit that helped create Open311 and other technology intensive open government projects.
Knowledge as Power: "KAP allows you to track legislation, communicate with lawmakers, and impact the laws of your state – it's quick, easy, and timely."
Open Source for America is a technology industry open source advocacy coalition.
GovLoop is a social network geared towards government employees with over 35,000+ members.
ProPublica is an honest nonprofit news organization that loves analyzing open government data.
Open Forum Foundation "are facilitators, working with government and technologists to ensure the future of government is in responsiveness."
Open Identity Exchange "The goal of OIX is to build trust in the exchange of identity credentials online."
Open Data Foundation "provides a place where the members of different communities can come together and work on the alignment of technology standards and software tools which will facilitate visibility and re-use of data at all levels of the statistical information chain. By promoting automated access to statistical data and metadata in this way, better decision-making becomes possible in many fields of research and policy-making."
Open Data Commons "is the home of a set of legal ‘tools’ to help you provide and use open data."
States
CivicApps Portland App Contest
New York State Executive Order
Opportunities
Central Contractor Registration (CCR) is the primary registrant database for the U.S. Federal Government. CCR collects, validates, stores and disseminates data in support of agency acquisition missions. Is this the primary channel of US government communication with the private sector? If so, we need to start working with them to make APIs...
The projects that receive email funding.
Open CRS simply asks congress to make all the tax-payer funded reports of the $100m/year Congressional Research Service open and available to the tax-paying public. What is this money was allocated via open competitions?
Unsorted
http://blogs.loc.gov/law/2011/01/thomas-off-of-thomas/
http://localleaks.net (added)
http://www.allourideas.org/planyc
http://wiki.civiccommons.org/New...
http://www.meetup.com/speakupnyh...
Complementary Currency Resource Center
LETS: Local Exchange Trading Systems
Bernal Bucks San Fran Local Loyalty Program
http://trustcurrency.blogspot.com/
http://www.opensourcecurrency.org/
http://blog.newcurrencyfrontiers.com/
http://greensborocurrencyproject.blogspot.com/
BALLE is a vehicle for connecting to local businesses.
Institute for Local Self-Reliance "mission is to provide innovative strategies, working models and timely information to support environmentally sound and equitable community development. To this end, ILSR works with citizens, activists, policymakers and entrepreneurs to design systems, policies and enterprises that meet local or regional needs; to maximize human, material, natural and financial resources; and to ensure that the benefits of these systems and resources accrue to all local citizens."
[http://www.farmigo.com/ http://www.farmigo.com/
Project FRESH is an educational program providing participants with coupons to purchase locally grown fresh fruits and vegetables at participating farmer’s markets.
FarmBridge wants to "provide free software that will help the local foods movement grow!"
"The National Young Farmers' Coalition is a new organization, created by and for young and beginning farmers in the United States." Their Farm Hack Project is "a resource for farmers who embrace the long-standing farm traditions of tinkering, inventing, fabricating, tweaking, and fixing things that they broke."
Wanna Farm is a blog from Blue Fox Farm in Southern Oregon. "One of the things that will help us maintain farmers is by being innovative and creative in creating our farming systems. Hope the info here can contribute to that. Email me at wannafarm [at] gmail [dawt] com"
The Greenhorns is a documentary/community about the emerging young farmer's movement. Here's their blog.
Windowfarms are vertical, hydroponic, modular, low-energy, high-yield edible window gardens built using low-impact or recycled local materials.
The Plant List is a working list of all known plant species.
Fuel for food — energy use in the U.S. food system
Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture is a non-profit farm and education center located just 25 miles north of Manhattan in Pocantico Hills, New York. Stone Barns operates an 80-acre four-season farm and is working on broader initiatives to create a healthy and sustainable food system. Through our Growing Farmers Initiative, children’s education programs, and diverse public awareness programs, we aim to improve the way America eats and farms.
Garden Sharing: Farming Meets Social Networks
2010 NYC Urban Agriculture Roundup from The Greenest. Events at Farm City new visions for urban agriculture 2010.
Landshare connects growers to people with land to share.
We Patch connects people looking for gardening space with those who have space to offer.
The New York City Regional Foodshed Initiative expands the preliminary analysis of the regional capacity to produce food and involves an in-depth examination of the local food production capacity of the New York City Metropolitan Region.
Food Systems NYC is a membership based organization designed to foster communication and cultivate community amongst various stake holders and professionals working across the food system.
Food Systems Network NYC has compiled a list of online resources for finding quality local cooking ingredients, eating out at local, farmer-friendly restaurants, getting involved in community gardening, and finding tools, resources, and support for becoming involved in food systems work.
North East Ohio Food Web is a local food action group in NE Ohio.
Holton Farms is a CSA aggregator that delivers Vermont produce to consumers in New York City.
Eggzy "manage your backyard chickens online."
Yes We Can FLOAmerica
The American people feel trapped. They don't like the federal government but don't know how they'll receive their entitlements without it. The answer is better and more free/libre/open source (FLO) technologies.
FLO Technologies are often produced voluntarily, by self-motivated problem solvers who demand the freedom to create their own solutions to local challenges, just like Republicans!
If these problem solvers (sometimes called hackers) and Republicans teamed up, we could create FLO solutions that would help every American community operate their own social service organization without having to rely on the government.
- We can develop complete solution sets for schools, hospitals, local governments, police and fire departments, and more using today's most popular FLO technologies. *We can do it for less than it costs to do a day of national advertising.
- We can do it before the 2012 election.
Three ways to increase FLO:
- Demand that government agencies only purchase FLO software with 'copyleft' licenses so all Americans have access to these solutions.
- Refocus land-grant universities on the production and distribution of FLO technologies.
- Fund the development of important FLO technologies through charitable contribution.
When the American people understand how they can solve their own problems, they will support candidates that want to reduce the size and scope of government. So, the next time someone asks "how can we do it ourselves," the answer is to "go with the FLO."
Blurb
Government software is the taxpayer's software.
Government data is the taxpayer's data.
All taxpayer financed software should be free/ libre/open source.
All taxpayer financed data should be accessible and standardized.
Go with the FLO, for Freedom, Liberty and Openness!
More FLO, Less Government
The American people feel trapped. They don't like the federal government but don't know how they'll receive their entitlements without it. The answer is better and more free/libre/open source (FLO) technologies. FLO technologies are different from proprietary (or closed) technologies because they allow anyone to use, modify, improve and share their building blocks with each other. This "freedom of use" enables individuals, organizations and communities to collaborate and customize their own technology solutions. When the American people understand how they can use FLO technologies to solve their own problems, they will support candidates that want to reduce the size and scope of government.
Four Important Trends
1. Free/Libre/Open source software makes it possible for every community to efficiently operate its own schools, hospitals and businesses without having to rely on government assistance.
2. Coworking, maker and personal fabrications spaces make it possible for every community to locally produce complex goods and services.
3. Community supported agriculture, complementary currencies and share networks preserve consumer choices while encouraging more the development of local wealth.
4. Open Government initiatives increase transparency, reduce fraud and enable us all to identify which programs we need to reassess, reduce and eliminate.
The New Economy
Our economy is in a state of transition from corporate production using industrial technologies to participatory production using networked technologies. This new type of production is performed by self-motivated problem solvers (sometimes called hackers) who demand the freedom to solve their own problems, just like Republicans!
If participatory producers and Republicans teamed up, we could create free/libre/open source solutions that enable every community to access the technologies they need to run efficient schools, hospitals, police and fire departments, municipal governments, social service organizations, libraries, community centers and more. Free people naturally produce FLO solutions, but the Republican party can turbocharge the amount of FLO accessible to every American community by demanding that government agencies purchase software with FLO licenses. Then, every American can benefit from the technologies developed with their taxpayer dollars.
Get to Know FLO
1. Ubuntu Linux is a world class operating system that provides its users with access to tons of great FLO software.
2. Firefox is the world's most popular web browser and its parent organization Mozilla produces other great FLO products.
3. Open Office performs all the functions of Microsoft Office and more, for free.
4. CiviCRM enables any organization to manage their constituents with enterprise grade tools.
5. Drupal and Joomla make building highly functional enterprise websites cheap and easy!
Fear vs. Freedom
| Topic | Fear | Freedom |
| War | "We fight them over there so we don't have to fight them over here." -George W. Bush | "Peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations, entangling alliances with none." -Thomas Jefferson |
| Drugs | We'll lock em all up even if we need to build more prisons ---George HW Bush? | "Reduce the harm of addiction." |
| Government | Leo Strauss quote supporting government secrecy. | "Sunlight is the best disinfectant." -Sunlight Foundation |
| 1st Amendment | "If it’s found that Assange hasn’t violated the law, then the law should be changed." -Mitch McConnell | "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances." -1st Amendment of The US Constitution |
| Currency | "Recessions … can be fought simply by printing money — and can sometimes (usually) be cured with surprising ease." -Paul Krugman | "The cause of waves of unemployment is not 'capitalism' but governments denying enterprise the right to produce good money." -F.A. Hayek |
| Environment | Global conspiracy | Seven generations quote |
| Operations | Proprietary | Free/Libre/Open Source |
| Union | In support of partisan bickering | "A House divided cannot stand." |
Corporate Sabotage of the GOP
- The corporation is an authoritarian organizational structure that conflicts with the values of personal liberty and democracy.
- Corporations actively suppress the expression of liberty-based values in the workplace, public and private spheres.
- Republicans who receives large sums of money from corporate sources - the media, publishers, consulting firms, military contractors, etc - should be mindful of the influence these organizations have on personal commitment to liberty and democracy.
- By resisting the consistent application of principles based on the fundamentally American concepts of liberty and democracy, some Republicans are actively, if unknowingly, sabotaging their party and the nation.
The Benefits of Local Beer
- Freshness
- Variety
- Local wealth
- Community business
- Less oil
- Local resource awareness
What Path are Your On
If Liberty isn't guiding you, what path are you on?
FLOAmerica
- Home
A very quiet technology revolution is taking place in America, one that the corporate media refuses to discuss. It's called 'free software' by some, 'libre software' by others and more recently 'open source.' We call it FLO - free/libre/open - for short. Unlike proprietary software, which is produced by individuals or corporations who then sell the right to use their software to their customers, FLO is often built by volunteers who're simply interesting in overcoming a technological challenge. In the beginning, these challenges were often highly complicated server side software solutions that only technologists faced, but over time, FLO solution emerged for more 'consumer' oriented tasks like word processing and online publishing. In the last few years, FLO solutions have begun to proliferate so rapidly that there is now a FLO alternative for almost every type of software program, from entire operating systems to accounting programs, 3D graphics to spreadsheets, social networks to customer relationship management systems. In fact, FLO has become so advanced and varied that FLO technologies can now integrate together to create massive technology solutions that were accessible only to the most well funded corporation just a few years ago. Indeed, it's possible today for an organization to build and maintain a public website and private intranet that would have cost $500,000 two to three years ago for less than $5,000 today, and that price continues to fall. Possibly more significant than the drastically reduced costs of deploying these systems is how little training people need to maintain and customize these systems for their own needs. Anyone who understands the breadth of FLO technologies available today recognizes that FLO will transform our society by empowering local communities to overcome their own challenges.
FLO solutions are, first and foremost, free from restrictive licensing so anyone and everyone can use, modify, improve and share the technologies they develop without having to worry about who 'owns' what, why and for how long. This allows people to create more products because they can specialize in what they do best, and let others do the rest.
Many of the most popular web-based FLO technologies consist of a platform-components architecture in which a team of highly skilled technologists develop an advanced 'platform' (of 'core') that less skilled technologists add functionality to by building small, containable components. Users with almost no technical skills can then 'install' and arrange these component to create their own custom solutions. This architecture let's everyone participate in the development and deployment of FLO, whether they're hardcore coders or softcore users.
Imagine for a moment if a school decided to use FLO technologies to construct its technology solution. The process would be quite simple. The school would outline its needs, evaluate the available FLO technologies, pick a platform that has the most useful architecture and components, install all the FLO components they need and develop the components that don't already exist. Once the project is done, the school wouldn't just have a complete technology solution for itself, but a set of components that any school using the same FLO technology platform could use for themselves. How many other schools would need to do the same before every school in the world had access to all the technologies they needed to create their own state-of-the-art technology solution? The answer is very, very few. What's true for schools is also true for hospitals, local governments, police departments, water treatment facilities, utilities, farms and businesses of all types.
Here's a proposition: let's develop FLO components for the three most popular FLO platforms that provide every American with the functionality he or she needs to organize and operate their own schools, hospitals, local governments, police and fire departments, civic and culture organizations and more. Let's do it for less than a major political party spends in a day of national TV advertisements, and let's do it before the 2012 elections. Then, when people ask us how the American can provide themselves with services more effectively than the federal government, we can simply respond: "by going with the FLO."
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