Civic Commons

continuations:

The Internet is not really a technology but rather a set of principles that have become embodied in a bunch of different technologies.  I am going to quote at some length from a document that Cerf also co-authored about the history of the Internet:

The Internet as we now know it embodies a key underlying technical idea, namely that of open architecture networking. In this approach, the choice of any individual network technology was not dictated by a particular network architecture but rather could be selected freely by a provider and made to interwork with the other networks through a meta-level “Internetworking Architecture”

Albert Wenger discusses how the Open Architecture of the internet contributes fundamental rights and freedoms that it offers.

When we talk about “Government as a Platform”, we’re largely drawing a parallel between the architecture of government technology (and cities, more broadly) and the architecture of the Internet.  The idea, described above, that an open architecture is not about any one technology, but rather about a set of principles that can be embodied by different technologies, is the key.  By building around an open architecture, guided by open standards, new specific technologies can be inserted, replaced, and improved as necessary, without disrupting the overall structure.  The freedom that this architecture embodies explicitly encourages innovation, by decreasing the cost of changing or improving any one component, or of adding something new on top of the system.

This all sounds a bit abstract, I’m sure, so for our part at Civic Commons, we’ll work on tying these concepts into more concrete examples.

kfogel:

As announced on the OpenGeo blog and at SFpark.org, all the components of San Francisco’s innovative parking space management system are now open source — and they’ve gone out of their way to make it re-useable by other cities.

Here’s what SFpark does in a nutshell: it ties together …

bijan:

I live in a sleepy little town outside of Boston. I’m pretty sure that most folks in our town don’t quite understand how the board of selectmen work and function. I know there have been been things proposed that impact the lives of the elderly, education, home ownership, land development, security, transportation, communication issues that have enormous impact — but with little voter turnout or awareness. 

We need our connected web and the mobile web to change this and turn it around. The opportunity is simply too massive. 

In previous times, the national and global conversation was controlled by powerful gatekeepers. Now we know we can break through.

The same thing has to happen at a hyperlocal level. Members of each community have a voice and have real connective tissue to each other. Sometimes I feel more connected globally than the things happening down the street. That’s not right. 

You can see things happening when efforts become organized. Just look at the private/public efforts in NYC with things like the High Line. Or things like Neighborland that allows members of the community have a voice in urban planning. Or SeeClickFix which feels like the GetSatisfaction of towns and cities. 

It’s an exciting start.

We need more things that are bottoms up and less about coddling the status quo.

Local issues are critical and we need more ways to go from simply caring to real action.

Hear hear.