Session Topic: How do we promote & maintain a sense of personal responsibility
Convenor: Peter Flaschner @flashlight
Recorder: Peter Flaschner
Participants: David Tallan, Mark Raheja, Jamie Woo, Michael Allan, many others (please add your name)
_________________________

Notes:

Intro: Peter Flaschner: I strikes me, as I hear people talk this morning about data, transparency, egagement, etc, that no change can happen without a sense of personal responsibility motivating it. During great events of crisis, humanity tends to pull together, cut through barriers, and just work. Then, as we return to our "normal" lives, we drift apart again. I proposed this session to look at what we can do to both promote and sustain a sense of personal responsibility in our day to day "normal" lives.

The convesation that followed was fast, and often split into two groups. I did my best to record it in note form, but I most definitely missed as much as I captured. Please add/correct as needed.

David Tallan: How do we create a sense of "personal responsibility" and drive people to action to support the community? 1. Clearly communicate the vision of what you want them to help build and why it matters. 2. Clearly communicate what people can do to help, preferrably in concrete actions. Three examples: 1. during WWII, people made massive sacrifices because a) it mattered, and b) they were given specific tasks to complete, ie donate metal to the war effort. 2. Obama gave very specific tasks: here is my vision, here are the roles, here's how you can help. 3. Mozilla Foundation has a clearly expressed vision (open software for a better web) and lets people know just how they can help.

Crisis creates massve need. Jamie Woo: Guilt is very motivating. Group: is guilt a sustainable motivation. Group: we won't run out of crises demanding our efforts any time soon.

Mark: citizenship. There is no personal relationship between the people and the people's representatives in government

Group: education is missing. There is no education around citizenship. We know more about the US political system than we do our own.

Mark: create a citizen dashboard. Users log in and see what votes are before their member. They see and can suggest solutions, resources, etc.

Mark: we can deliver phonebooks that no one wants to every house in the country. What if we put that energy to deliver a book of citizenship messages

Group: "they" are "we"

Group: pull, not push citizenship. can't be forced. Must be desired

Group: what does citizenship have for me? What does it offer?

David: make a concrete demonstration of the benefits of citizenship

Group: we have a culture of entitlement. How do we change this to a culture of responsibility

Peter: personal responsibility can't come from outside

David: We can use technology to gather people around subject matters. Present collected data to policy makers. Organize

Mark: engage with gov't on regular basis, not only on 4 year election cycle. Reward of personal responsibility is made more clear

Group: take responsibility vs assign responsibility. No finger wagging

Group: take responsibility for citizenship

Group: there is too much of a roadblock to participation. What if there was a place for politicians to poll the public?

Group: it's the responsibility for the techno-literate to spread information to those without access to these tools

Group: issues need to be relevant to people if they are going to be engaged

Group: citizen to citizen

Group: build it and they will come (50/50 split on this.)

Group: public consultation is optics

Group: vote with your wallet

Group: how do different value systems integrate with personal responsibility?

Group: people will take responsibility for different things?

Group: bring it back to personal responsibility to keep it moving forward. Path forward is not exclusive. It's not me, it's you.

Group: communities of purpose. Local does not mean geographically local. Common intent, common purpose

_____________________

What Happens Next?

We need to be the change we want to see. We need to create circles of support. We will have good days and bad days. We need to help each other gently when we fall off the path. We need to demonstrate.

After attending, Michael Allan was thinking of personal responsibility in the context of collective decision making, and made it into the theme of a series of "stories" for Project Votorola. Not yet sure if it's a good idea, but there it is - something happening next.