Alan Gutierrez

Got a trackback from Matt Hampel on a post about the New Orleans Wiki. He is one of the keepers of the ArborWiki. It was from an automatic posting of his del.icoi.us bookmarks. It struck me as an easy way to reach out to new people. An easy way to reward people for getting my attention. As if my attention was not reward enough already.

For New Orleans. By gathering information from questionnaires, I’ll be able to build a knowledge base that is much easier for the citizens of New Orleans to construct.

The Wiki is taking off now. The Neighborhoods Planning Network has used it as a collaborative writing environment, as has the Mid-City Neighborhood Organization. There are a lot of new links and articles. Nonprofts are eager to contribute their material to the Wiki.

For those who do not know, nor care what a Wiki is, I’m telling people that it is a a web site maintained by volunteers, rather than saying that it is a web site that anyone can edit. The former is more true than the latter, since I do block people that add Wiki spam.

I would like to see the Wiki become the center of research projects, community lead, community driven, that seek to answer questions of governence and development. Wiki articles are going have a footer of next actions and unanswered questions. If the answers do not arrive, a Wiki volunteer is encouraged to call or email sources with the information.

I’m going to announce new Wiki articles as they arrive at the Think New Orleans weblog.

Collaborative authoring is one focus of Think New Orleans.

Bart Everson has been using the New Orleans Wiki to write the Mid-City Recovery Plan. Many hands make light work, and when all residents can write, edit and review the plan, one would hope that it can get written faster, and with broader support for the final draft.

Think New Orleans wants to assist neighborhoods and citizens in planning and reconstruction. When time comes to persuade the City, to influence the process in favor of the will of the citizens, there is a lot to be said for a thick document, written by residents, reviewed by residents, with a lot of signatories.

Collaborative authoring is one way to lend weight to your neighborhood’s proposal. The kind of weight that makes a nice thud when it his mayor’s desk.

I’ve broached the subject of the Think New Orleans Project and now I appeal to you for your help.

Vince Keenan requested that I write a project proposal so he could obtain the approval of his Board of Directors. I created a page on the Think New Orleans Wiki. I added a few sentances. I showed it to Vince.

Vince then went an pretty much wrote the proposal for me. This explains the gross exaggeration of my abilities, and more laughably my standing among the New Orleans bloggers. Although I have a great many delusions, grandeur is not among them.

Like the resume support group, however, it is easier to present yourself, or the organization that has consumed your self, if you have the tempered input of your betters.

To the degree which you have been a particpant in Think New Orleans, and by you I mean you Ed, Ric, Nancy, Maitri, Ric, George, Bart, Scott, Becky, Morwen, Christian, Jimmy, Mark, Mikkel and you who I’ll not name, I ask you, as my better, to read, review, ammend and edit, the Think New Orleans Project, put forward by Vince.

Vince’s language reflects how a project like Think New Orleans fits within the baliwick of Publius, an organization that researches democracy as it pertains to the Internet.

This is where I find Think New Orleans, attending town hall meetings, creating audio transcriptions of town hall meetings for distribution on the web, creating web publishing workshops for civic organizations, creating workshops for web based calendaring and project management software, developing audio town halls (pending) for distrubiton on the web.

Think New Orleans is not pursuing the web as a media network, rather as the information system that DARPA intended. Although, people that are working with me are media oriented, the difference in focus is apparent.

Thus, as you help me sort this out, remember that Publius is about answering questions through active participation. It’s important to stay within the mission of the supporting entity.

The fallout from the 1900 Galviston hurricane created a new form of city government. Publius is curious about the effect of the Internet on governance in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

As we rebuild New Orleans, we will answer for ourselves, questions about citzen oversight of government, neighborhood planning, and the democratization of data, and the role of the Internet in the governance of a city that is still pedestrian and close-knit.

Publius would have us take note of the questions raised, and the answers given, so our experience can serve as a model.

Think New Orleans will not become acedemic. No, sir. I’d have to drop out.

However, I’ve spoken with a local acedemic about developing metrics for Think New Orleans. Black box testing that is agnostic about the Internet nature of this project, so we can measure the effectiveness of our contribution against unwired means of community organization.

If it is more effective to turn the digital recorders off, so be it. I have strong convictions about the importance of print. Not every flight of Internet fancy is good for community. The Publius influence will keep us honest.

Publius would have us work with print and offline meetings for the sake of contrast to the web and online meetings.

No Internet for Internet’s sake. Only where it serves democracy.

Let’s unpunch this post. Go read the Think New Orleans Project propsoal please, and have at it.

I need more words, more sense, and more New Orleans. It’s got to be something that you’ll be willing to help me with, so write down bits and pieces of what that would be.

Do try to take it lightly, though. It’s not a constitution, simply a project proposal. I’d merely like to share this opportunity to define Think New Orleans. I’d like to share the burden as well.