Civic Engagement : Encouraging Civic Engagement in Our Students
civ.works: A powerful, private social platform for civic engagement.
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Transcript of civ.works: A powerful, private social platform for civic engagement.
Executive Summary:
We are building a powerful,
privacy-protected social platform
for civic engagement.
Opportunity:
A significant opportunity exists today
that encompasses a vast demographic.
Our social platform will potentially
address millions of social network (ie.-
Facebook) users who do not want their
profile or site interaction data sold to
marketers or others that use big data
analytics to harm society.
Social Media
Users with
Privacy
Concerns
Frustrated
Citizens
Issue-
based
Advocates
With an easy to use, visually-compelling,
privacy-protected social network at the core
-we will be integrating components that will
allow people to evolve beyond the use of
electronic petitions to creating law, policy,
voting, political activism, economic activism
and participatory budgeting.
We will aggregate actions to help avoid
action fatigue/self-disengagement.
Actions will be presented to subscribers on
the basis of issue affinity and locality.
And we do not sell or provide individual
subscriber profile or activity data without a
subscriber’s consent. It is private by default.
The civ.works Solution:
The civ.works community will include
people that are presently frustrated by
constant changes in privacy settings
for existing social platforms, activists
that create or respond to electronic
petitions and all those seeking
economic and political empowerment.
Audience:
We will sustain a small core
civ.works team and fund our
operating, development and
research expenses based upon a
small recurring subscription fee
($3.99/month).
The platform will be free for the
academic community
(.edu domains)
Viability:
Paid monthly
subscribers
civ.works is a project of the 501(c)3 Civic Works, a non-profit
organization.
Start with core early adopters and donors.
Platform is “invite-only” to control initial compute
growth needs and trolls.
Use invitation demand, referrals, earned media
and social media to achieve subscriber mass and
scale.
At launch we will also be providing “cross-posting”
capability. Subscribers can update their status
and easily automatically deliver their updates to
Facebook and/or Twitter (if they choose).
Adoption Strategy:
Founding Team:
Golda Velez, Chief
Architect
You don't have to be a rocket
scientist but it helps. Golda began
software engineering at Jet
Propulsion Laboratory while
completing her academic study at
Caltech in Mathematics. She has
since worked for Factual, Oracle
and others major enterprises and
start-ups directing complex projects,
programs and teams.
Adam Lake,
Network/Outreach
Adam has been working on issues
related to civic cooperation,
empowerment and engagement since
emerging from Virginia Tech. He is a
disruptor of the conventional and his
concepts, ideas and vision continue to
shape the civ.works concept.
George A. Polisner, Founder
George has spent the last several years of
addressing highly-complex conceptual
technological and economic challenges for
government, large enterprise and society.
He remains active and engaged in socio-
economic and environmental justice,
participatory democracy and budgeting,
transparency and accountability in
governance and he has significant
experience in corporate social behavior
(CSR) and addressing externalities.
Advisory Board:
Suzanne Stenson O’Brien
Suzanne is a seasoned collaboration and
communications professional. Major
campaign responsibilities include National
Voice’s NOV2 campaign, the Eat Well
Guide, Oscar-nominated film THE MOST
DANGEROUS MAN IN AMERICA about
whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg, THE SONIC
MEMORIAL, and many other documentary
projects on film, the web, and broadcast
media. She currently teaches writing at the
University of Wisconsin - Stout.
Alpesh Patel
Alpesh holds a Masters of Engineering
degree and works in the biotechnology
industry. He has long been an
advocate for peace, justice and human
rights and is currently also on the
Board of National Peace Action
Erica Fuller
Erica was elected as National Program
Director for the College Democrats of
America and is deeply involved in
issues of inequality, gender
inequality, nationwide sexual assault
within minority communities and
mental health programs.
Allan Garten
Allan is a retired federal prosecutor. He went to work
for the Oregon U.S. Attorney's Office in 1995 and
prior to retirement in 2016 spent the last 20 years
focused on fraud and white collar crime.
Lavar Youmans Lavar holds a Masters of Social Work from Howard
University with a focus in Policy, Research, and
Community Organizing. In 2011 he worked as a
research fellow in the Executive Office of the
President of the United States, White House Office of
the National Drug Control Policy, Office of Demand
Reduction.
Lavar also served as a Field Organizer for
Organizing for America.
The civ.works Platform:
Single Sign On, Privacy-protected, Invite Only civ.works platform
Social Launches Now (Feb 14)
Action 3/31 or sooner
Activism Engine Integration
Civic Dashboard 4/30 release
Consensus 6/30 or sooner
Loomio or Democracy OS
Civic Dashboard:
User Civic Action Dashboard
(We will encourage engagement
through gamification/competition)
● Participation Trends
● Content Shared
● Votes/Polling
● Divestment/Purchases
● Consensus Building
● Education/Information
“You have 6 active
campaigns”
“You have voted 27
times this week”
“You have 12 new
group members in
your campaign”
“Karli J. posted a photo of
you : ‘Love this pic from
the SpeakOut event on
Saturday!’”
“You have 3 new
event invitations”
Standard Social Newsfeed:
The integration of
aggregated actions based
upon subscriber status
updates, user location and
issue affinity.
Can anyone tell me how to get an initiative on the
ballot in Massachusetts?
Here’s the latest article on restrictive voter ID laws from
Public Citizen. www.pubcit.com/voterID
Any other moms out there who are interested in
meeting up about the new traffic laws in Dover?
Rally tonight at Gerald Park for our Firefighters!
Come and show your support at 7pm!
Click here to learn about the ballot initiative
process in Massachusetts
6 friends are attending
Add to your events
Consensus:
Consensus We will leverage/integrate existing platforms
like loomio or Democracy OS. These
applications will allow the civ.works community
to share information and debate on important
public policies, and then vote on the issues they
care about –subsequently codifying the results
in Actions.
How Does it Work? Representatives and local law-makers can
connect directly to voters to get your input on
important matters. This allows our law-makers
to make our government more representational
and allows your voice to be heard. And when
dealing with a legislative body that is
uncooperative –providing alternative citizen-
initiated solutions and actions.
Sample of Democracy OS Online Demo / Taken from democracyos.org
By connecting civ.works with Democracy OS,
users can have a seamless 360 degree view of
their civic engagement. Focus on outcome-
based consensus building to move beyond
political ideological entrenchment of today.
Economic Activism
What is Economic Activism? Provide ratings on corporations based upon
their “CSR” information. Help educate and
inform consumers and investors about shifting
their investments and/or purchases to
companies (like CREDO) that are balancing
growth with sustainability.
The civ.works database Identify, acquire, aggregate and normalize
attributed, trusted data about environmental,
governance, fair labor, diversity, executive pay
ratio and supply chain compliance –and render
an easy to understand grade. Educate and
inform the community on the significance of a
collective economic impact. Ie- “Costco vs
Walmart” or “CREDO vs Verizon”.
Participatory Budgeting:
Planned for future
release
What is Participatory Budgeting? Participatory budgeting invites citizens to have
a say in how your local government or other
organizations allocate spending.
How Does it Work? Local governments and organizations set aside
a certain amount of funds and allow citizens to
vote on how those funds are used. Participatory
budgeting is being used in over 1500 cities
worldwide, and is being used by New York City
Council and Toronto’s Public Housing Authority.