I recent met Joseph Cariati and I think his new blog at the intersection of politics and sports is going to be a home run.  See what I did there?

Check it out …

Are you excited about the 2010 Olympic Games being held in Vancouver, but you can’t make it out West. Your only chance to take part and enjoy the festivities is to attend the Official Torch Relay making its way across Canada. The only problem is, if you do not live in a Conservative riding your chances of getting a peak at the torch is limited. Check out why at http://bit.ly/7nf75l

Cheers,

Michael

I am east coast connected (President, Class of ‘90, MSVU) and East Coast Connected and I would like to take this opportunity to voice my support for Chris Crowell’s nomination in Halifax.

The only time that I have met Chris was while he was networking at a Rotman event, working the same circles as David Peterson and an auspicious collection of Canadians who care about our country’s future.  He mentioned East Coast Connected.

A while back I launched a blog designed to help connect the over 700 Mount Saint Vincent University graduates in the Toronto area and I have written my share about social media, so ECC immediately interested me.  I looked it up, joined and the success of this initiative continually impresses me.  Score two for Chris …

At the time, Chris was about to start as the Director of Investments at Social Capital Partners.  In my view (and I am not alone), social capital is key to a new economic model that is emerging and Chris’ commitment to this kind of economy can not be questioned.  Score two more Chris …

Above all, I think Chris is part of the solution.  I think he is committed to an innovation led economy.  A lack of innovation and productivity is not a East Coast problem, it is a Canadian problem that in my view requires a cultural shift.

I am not a personal or business connection of Chris’.  I hope this post is received with the conviction that it written.

Sincerely,

Michael Cayley

To make a long story short comments on the site were broken for a time due to human error.

If you have made comments in the past and they are not posted on the site, our apologies. Please, please, please post them again.

We assure you that no attempt was being made to stop the conversation, it was just a result of admin overload (i.e. real jobs getting in the way of this volunteer effort).

Feel free to @redliberals on twitter with comments or email me at michael at socialcapitalvalueadd dot com and now, once again … comment here and we will respond accordingly.

In Vancouver this weekend at our Biennial Convention, the Liberal Party of Canada will most likely adopt a Weighted, One Member, One Vote system for electing our future leaders of the Party.

It will be disappointing if the motion does not pass on many levels.

Since 2004, when broadband connectivity overtook slower connections for the first time in North America, we have experienced a giant shift in the scale of an individual’s ability to project their opinions through online forms of social networking and social media.

The Reform and Conservative parties were motivated to change the relationship that they had with individual members in advance of this shift.  They could no longer afford to maintain the distance between MPs & their staff, party organisers, former Senators and ex officios running the party and members who are paying for it. They were primarily motivated by fund raising.

Now Liberals have this same motive, plus, undeniable trends in individual empowerment which are attributable to:

- a tripling of bandwidth every six months,
- mobility (i.e. portable computing power & connectivity through smart phones & ultra light weight laptops), and,
- integration of GPS (anyone can use an iPhone application that uses GPS to help us listen to and connect with local twitter users).

Some perceive adopting the forms of organization and communications that are designed to cope with these trends as a potential loss of control and a threat the Party status quo.

The truth is that the methods to adapt to these irreversible changes in broadband connectivity, mobility and integration of GPS are not the threat or the source of loss of control.  In fact, just the opposite …

The underlying trends of broadband connectivity, mobility and GPS integration are the source of loss of control.  The only way to manage in this new context is to adopt new forms of organisation and communications that are designed for the new scale of individual influence.

One Member, One Vote is a fundamental shift in the right direction but in my view it is more symbolic than anything else.

It is more important that we recognize that all of our institutions … corporations, government and the Liberal Party are changing to adjust to the new architecture required by individuals who have a different scale of power and influence.  This not my idea. It is known as the Canon of Proportions and was first articulated by a Roman architect and then depicted in a diagram 1500 years later by a guy named Da Vinci.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/22/Da_Vinci_Vitruve_Luc_Viatour.jpg

This is not theoretical mumbo jumbo.

The reality is that individual roles in leadership (power and politics) can no longer be reduced to a vote every few years.  Hard wiring constant engagement and empowerment of our members and Canadians into our systems is critical to developing, delivering and defending success.

If we do not accept this at our core, then we will experience instability both within our party and in any government that we may form.

Head on over to www.changecamp.ca to read up on the kinds of issues that will become part of the mainstream debate and Liberals have a chance to lead on.

Can you imaging Harper winning on the issue of “open government”?

First, thanks again to Rahaf for turning us on to ChangeCamp, it has been amazing to be part of this group from the first meeting on December 31st through Saturday’s frenetic day at MaRs.

Let’s open this post with a little announcement … our experiment here at www.redliberals.ca is being extended.  We had originally planned to can our learnings on January 27th and switch our focus towards engaging within the party on the issues of change.  After the first ChangeCamp event, we feel that we can learn & share more by staying engaged in this movement.

We are still going to focus our efforts here on coming up with a Liberal 2.0 Manifesto as quickly as possible and we hope that everyone who participated in ChangeCamp as well as those broader circles that we have connected with over this short time will help us.

Our main motives for launching www.redliberals.ca was to connect with great people & ideas in the drive to embrace change.  Check out all of the discussions and people who were contributing at ChangeCamp. It is all irresitable!  www.redliberals.ca and our twitter stream @redliberals is the best place to channel our enthusiasm.

Now a more focused reflection ..

There has been a lot of focus on the creation of a new software application that will emerge from ChangeCamp and that will be exciting.  I think that is part of the heritage of applying the “Camp” approach, which has its roots in social technology to public policy and governance issues.

Perhaps more exciting was the intensity of having almost 200 people together, most of them not part of the paid political clique or bureaucracy, all of them locked in deep, action oriented collaboration about what is wrong and how to drag our country into the 21st Century.  #ChangeCamp was a breath of hope of freedom from the closed social networks of political parties, entrenched interest groups and faceless government institutions.  It was an adhocracy at work.  Robert H. Waterman, Jr. defined adhocracy as “any form of organization that cuts across normal bureaucratic lines to capture opportunities, solve problems, and get results.”

That potential heritage of #ChangeCamp deserves as much attention focus.  Who & where will the next ChangeCamp be hosted within the next 30 days is big question in my view.”

MEMORANDUM FOR THE HEADS OF EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENTS AND AGENCIES

SUBJECT:      Transparency and Open Government

My Administration is committed to creating an unprecedented level of openness in Government.  We will work together to ensure the public trust and establish a system of transparency, public participation, and collaboration. Openness will strengthen our democracy and promote efficiency and effectiveness in Government.

Government should be transparent.  Transparency promotes accountability and provides information for citizens about what their Government is doing.  Information maintained by the Federal Government is a national asset. My Administration will take appropriate action, consistent with law and policy, to disclose information rapidly in forms that the public can readily find and use. Executive departments and agencies should harness new technologies to put information about their operations and decisions online and readily available to the public. Executive departments and agencies should also solicit public feedback to identify information of greatest use to the public.

Government should be participatory. Public engagement enhances the Government’s effectiveness and improves the quality of its decisions. Knowledge is widely dispersed in society, and public officials benefit from having access to that dispersed knowledge. Executive departments and agencies should offer Americans increased opportunities to participate in policymaking and to provide their Government with the benefits of their collective expertise and information. Executive departments and agencies should also solicit public input on how we can increase and improve opportunities for public participation in Government.

Government should be collaborative.  Collaboration actively engages Americans in the work of their Government. Executive departments and agencies should use innovative tools, methods, and systems to cooperate among themselves, across all levels of Government, and with nonprofit organizations, businesses, and individuals in the private sector.  Executive departments and agencies should solicit public feedback to assess and improve their level of collaboration and to identify new opportunities for cooperation.

I direct the Chief Technology Officer, in coordination with the Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the Administrator of General Services, to coordinate the development by appropriate executive departments and agencies, within 120 days, of recommendations for an Open Government Directive, to be issued by the Director of OMB, that instructs executive departments and agencies to take specific actions implementing the principles set forth in this memorandum. The independent agencies should comply with the Open Government Directive.

This memorandum is not intended to, and does not, create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by a party against the United States, its departments, agencies, or entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any other person.

This memorandum shall be published in the Federal Register.

BARACK OBAMA

January 21, 2009

nice work … what does “responsible government” mean to you?

Rahaf Harfoush is a Canadian who was a member of the team that planned Obama’s social media grassroots campaign.  Thank you Rahaf for this timely, non-partisan guest post …

With President-Elect Obama’s inauguration only a few hours away, I’ve been reflecting on the campaign and the profound changes that I have already seen in American Politics. Seeing our American neighbors using technology to unite and mobilize for a cause they believe in renewed my hope in the political process.

What struck me most is how fast these changes happened. From redefining social media’s role within a political campaign to creating unprecedented channels of fundraising and grassroots mobilization, I for one learned it doesn’t have to take decades to transform old systems.

Change can happen fast and it can happen now. We are welcoming the world’s first Internet President, and as Canadians we should definitely be taking note.

In the last few months we have seen Obama’s transition team introduce weekly Youtube addresses, online policy brainstorms via Change.gov and a nation wide survey encouraging people to meet and discuss the changes they would like to see in their country. Notably, the emphasis is and remains to be on PEOPLE impacting change. It sounds so simple when you say it, but it is something that is so often overlooked: we have to bring the changes we need to government.

The Obama campaign showed us what was possible, but it is up to us to carry the spirit of his message forward especially to Ottawa. We have become too lax in our own governance. Parliament is on the brink of dissolution and we have a Prime Minister who seems to be more concerned with hoarding power then acting in the best interest of the Canadian People.

So what do we do about? A lot. Get involved. There are several initiatives like this site being launched to provide Canadians with a platform for new ideas to push us forward.

My good friend, Mark Kuzniki has created a collaborative crowdsourced event called ChangeCamp which will help bring members of the public and members of political parties together to examine where our system is failing and how we can help fix it.

Let’s get involved. Right now.

Rahaf

Here is a group that we are participating in and we think you should too, regardless of your partisan or not so partisan leanings.  Jennifer also refers to it in the prior post.

From the Centre for Social Innovation news letter:

Saturday, January 24th
8:30-5:00pm
MaRS Centre
101 College Street

ChangeCamp is a participatory and web-enabled face-to-face event that brings together citizens, policy-makers, technologists, design-thinkers, change agents and media creators to answer one question: “How do we re-imagine government and governance in the age of participation?”

This is the first ChangeCamp Canada event, which is intended to ignite a national, distributed and self-organizing movement. For more information, please visit the ChangeCamp Canada Google Group: http://groups.google.com/group/changecamp. A web site for the event will be launched soon at http://changecamp.ca/

This is more excellent work by Jennifer Bell, the Executive Director of www.visiblegovernment.ca.

A couple of great quotes to focus on:

“Open Systems Make Failure Less Costly

Finding the best ways to analyze government information and collect value from public feedback is going to take a lot of experimentation. The probability of a successful solution is what author Clay Shirkey might qualify as a scalar distribution pattern: one where there’s a very large number of failures, some modest successes, and a few solutions that will do amazingly well. Being
prepared to accept a lot of failures is the key to finding the successes.

Government bureaucracies are failure-averse for very good reasons. Public scrutiny and the spectre of being accused wasting of tax payer funds make for a cautious environment, where money is only spent on guaranteed successes. By publishing data in open, standardized formats, governments can off-load the costs and stigma of failure to external organizations. Like Goldcorps, governments can take the open approach to innovation by challenging advocacy groups, the nascent community of armchair egovernment-geeks, and the for-profit market to ‘build a better way’. The government can then take advantage of the value created by the best solutions. Solutions that don’t work can die quietly, without any tax dollars having been spent.”

And why not adopt the “Camp” approach to change? …

“Ways Forward

In the last two weeks, more than one grass-roots forum has appeared to advance a new era in civic participation.  ChangeCamp[1], originating in Toronto, and Communeautique’s Forum Ouverte, in Montreal, are two such movements calling for an open exchange of ideas around using technology to re-define the role of the citizen.  The spontaneous emergence of these groups shows the demand for new ideas and tools in the Canadian government.

The non-profit VisibleGovenrment.ca seeks the expertise and participation of grass-roots groups, advocacy organizations, and citizens across the country to make online tools for civic participation based on open government data a reality.  If you share this goal, here are some concrete steps for action:

-         Host a ‘Change Camp’ or ‘Forum Ouverte’ in your city.

-         Research resources and strategies on the VisibleGovernment.ca, Sunlight Foundation, or   MySociety websites.

-         Contribute to a VisibleGovernment.ca project.

-         Start a dialogue with your public representatives on how they can be more open.”

Transparency Through Open Data and Open Source-Scribd

READ the entire post by Lisa Torjman on MaRs Innovation blog.

Last Thursday, I went to the Rotman School of Business to learn about Obama’s social media campaign strategy from a member of the team that planned this grassroots, state-by-state online takeover. She’s passionate, intelligent, poised. She’s a new media strategist. She is also Canadian. Perhaps the most impressive, Rahaf Harfoush is a mere 24 years old. Her story was both inspired and inspiring.

The applications used in the campaign (such as Facebook and SMS), were not new (Greenpeace is a 2.0 vet). But the fact that they were employed by a political campaign is the innovative part, some would say, the risky part. The risk obviously paid off, since the numbers speak for themselves:

More than one billion emails were sent out and “hyper segmented” or customized according to three different factors: geography, key issue concerns and personal donating history.

READ MORE of Lisa’s post …

See Rahaf’s post covering the Rotman gig …

And here are the slides Rahaf presented …

See a CBC piece featuring Rahaf on her blog.