Advanced Dotmocracy (throughout sessions)

Dotmocracy is an established facilitation method for collecting and prioritizing ideas among a large number of people. It is an equal opportunity & participatory group decision-making process. Participants write down ideas and apply dots under each idea to show which ones they prefer. The final result is a graph-like visual representation of the groups collective preferences. I invite participants to use Advanced Dotmocracy Sheets (see example at right) and the Advanced Dotmocracy Process in their sessions in order to recognize popular ideas and document session outputs.

Citizen Education

Too often people state opinions or make decisions without knowing having the right information - be it about the general system, the relevant issues or the impact that the choice may have on policy. Unfortunately, a lot of this political information either needs to be socialized in at an early age, when people are still able to learn fresh, or offered easily whenever someone may need it. Many of the other ideas cover the latter, but the former is also worth a look. Ontario introduced a Civics level class for Grade 10 students during the curriculum reform, but it is woefully inadequate at informing our young citizens. What can we do using technology and other aspects to help this education at a young age, and to encourage participation in the democratic process from Day 1 of eligibility?

Electoral Reform

Electoral Reform. Voting systems are the foundation upon which democracies function. We need a system that encourages government collaboration, openness, provides stability, whose members reflect the diverse population they represent. There is too much power in the hands of a few (cabinet). Whatever issue you are most passionate about, change will come much easier after voting reform. Most Western democracies switched to some form of proportional representation 50-100 years ago. It's time Canada did the same.

Open Data

Sites likes EveryBlock have tapped into government data sources and transformed that data into useful information. How can we convince governement to mandate open data such that the information we receive is standardized, comprehensive and timely?

Open Voting

Open voting in the public sphere - communityware for building consensus. This is about voting systems that are independent of government and political parties, but nevertheless have political aims, such as primary elections in which cross-party candidates are nominated for public office; and normative voting, in which laws, plans, and policies are proposed.

Open Source Grants & Contribution System

Grantmaker is a system to help organizations grant money and measure the results of the grant or contribution. The project attempts to solve a few known issues in the grantmaking space:

Government and non profit organizations usually do not have the human or financial resources to design, build and deploy enterprise level technology to manage grants.

1. Government and non profit organizations usually do not have the human or financial resources to design, build and deploy enterprise level technology to manage grants.
2. While money may not be a problem, time most definitely is at a premium. Many organizations need to deploy a solution relatively quickly in order to modernize their grantmaking processes.
3. While grant processes appear to be unique to every grantmaker, this project attempts to define a generic, end-to-end grant process built on a well-defined logical model that can be used by most grant making organizations.

The #SocialAPI

The #SocialAPI | Exploring the Hyperlocal: We are a collection of streets, villages and businesses collectively working to improve local communication using the internet, creating a network of hyper local & engaged communities in a single city - building towards a 'Social API' on which we can build positive change.

Please add other ideas, in alphabetical order...