Earlier this week I had the opportunity to describe the Uncaucus to craigslist founder Craig Newmark, a strong advocate of using technology to transform government and civic engagement.
Our correspondance began with a few emails (thanks to Josh Catone at Mashable for the introduction). It was a meaningful experience for me to try and explain, in short, plain speak, what we were doing and why. Craig was brutal in reminding me that you shouldn't need more than a sentence or two to describe a great idea.
In recounting what we were able to accomplish in such a short period of time, I was again reminded of how important it is that citizens see themselves as more active agents on the political stage.
Today, Craig posted about us on his blog and on the Huffington Post. In the post below is an excerpt of our exchange. it is a good description of what we are trying to do and why we haven't given up. Here goes:
***
Craig,
A month ago, a group of geeky, entrepreneurial types launched The Uncaucus to seize upon a moment of political disruption in Providence to experiment with new modes of civic engagement, specifically in connection with the upcoming Mayoral election. Providence's political system is a little opaque and we have relatively poor political engagement. We also have demographics that reflect a deep digital divide that, if bridged, could really turn the political tide.
Our first move was to launch a national job search for a new mayor on craigslist. We outlined the qualities we want the next mayor to have and invited people to apply, local and afar. We've had many applicants, some actually quite credible. Certainly, the idea of a
mayor coming from far away is more metaphorical than practical, but we've found that just the gesture put the obvious candidates on notice.
As an all-volunteer effort, social media, particularly on mobile, is playing a huge part in our strategy. Uncaucus leverages Twitter, Facebook, etc., to share content and drive participation. We planned for mobile from the start, with a mobile site that automatically adapts to devices and integrates features like Click-to-Call.
For people who don't / can't access us through the web, we launched a voice-powered interface. Our IdeaLine captures voice or SMS messages and auto-transcribes them to the website, as well as embedding the "voice of the citizen" in a player widget for others to hear and respond.
We are now developing SMS short codes to receive alerts, and text and voice polling to vote ideas up or down. Many features are being deployed in English and Spanish.
Without the platforms and API's that have emerged over the past few years, building this platform would have been impossible. Products like MoFuse, Google Voice, Drupal, Twilio, and PollAnywhere enable Uncaucus to launch or adjust a feature a day, with minimal cost.
Within 7 days of launch, the group had demonstrated such capacity that all of the official mayoral candidates (very traditional political players), as well as the new candidates, had agreed to participate in an “undebate” on April 1 (we’re calling it a ‘listening party’) where
they cannot talk, have to listen to a citizen-led conversation about the values we are seeking in the next administration.
We’ve spent less than $200 bucks on the whole thing.
There is a robust dialogue on Facebook and we've been featured in every local media outlet. Hope this helps give you an idea of what we're up to.
Thanks,
Melissa
****
So, just a reminder to RSVP to the Undebate on April 1 on FB here or RSVP to info@uncaucus.org.
You can see Craig's post here.
