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The Civic Commons is a new way to bring communities together with conversation and emerging technology. We provide the place and tools for citizens to connect with and inform one another and to take action. It's a bit like a virtual pub or coffee house, where citizens and officials can gather to talk about community issues, brainstorm solutions, coordinate plans --  and maybe even have fun and meet new people along the way.    We take some of our inspiration from Clay Shirky's book, Cognitive Surplus, which explores how communities of people can pool small amounts of their spare time, say 10 minutes a week,  to accomplish great things.  With this in mind, we've constructed our website to enable our community members to leverage their efforts into collective greatness.  Wiki-greatness, if you like.  

Le ministre délégué aux relations avec le Parlement a accusé, samedi 25 août, les sites de suivi de la vie parlementaire, et notamment le site internet NosDéputés.fr, de dégrader la qualité du travail législatif "dans des proportions considérables" au nom, juge-t-il, d'une lecture trop absolue du "principe de transparence".

ous avez peut-être déjà vu Us Now. Ce long documentaire (60′) a été réalisé par Ivo Gormley, vidéaste et anthropologue qui travaille notamment au cabinet Think Public. A l'approche des vacances, il nous a semblé qu'il y avait là un documentaire passionnant à laisser à votre sagacité. Plus qu'un documentaire sur le web 2.0, le film est surtout une réflexion sur la confiance qui s'instaure entre les internautes, et comment celle-ci transforme les relations entre le gens. Un film qui regarde la collaboration de masse non pas sous l'angle d'une simple participation agrégative, mais sous celle de collaborations profondes et transformatives. Les institutions sont-elles déjà entrées en concurrence avec les groupes de citoyens organisés ? Le web abaisse-t-il vraiment le coût de la participation ?…

BM Research - Africa will have its first location in Nairobi, Kenya in collaboration between the Ministry of Information, Communication and Technology (ICT) through the Kenya ICT Board. It will conduct basic and applied research focused on solving problems relevant to Africa and contribute to the building of a science and technology base for the continent.   "IBM's commitment to undertake the proposed research agenda will contribute greatly to our national priorities as part of Kenya's Vision 2030," said His Excellency Honorable Mwai Kibaki, President of Kenya. "We look forward to delivering world-class research and innovation as part of IBM's Smarter Planet initiative and playing an important role as an IT leader on the African continent." 

Code for America helps governments work better for everyone with the people and the power of the web. Through our Fellowship, Accelerator, and Brigade, we're building a network of cities, citizens, community groups, and startups, all equally committed to reimagining government for the 21st century.

""If you look at the current crisis, we have the irresistible force for reducing the cost of government meeting up with the immovable rock of public expectation that government should be better, not worse," Mr. Tapscott told me. "Tinkering with this will not work. When you are talking about cutting trillions of dollars, that's not trimming fat, that is tearing out organs, and we don't need to do that, and we don't want to do that." "We need to fundamentally rethink how we orchestrate and create government value," he said. "And now we have a burning platform, which could help us do it." Mr. Tapscott's latest book, "Macrowikinomics," co-written with Anthony D. Williams, suggests some ways to do that. One of his favorites is releasing government data. That information, he said, can then "become a platform on which private companies, civil society, other government organizations and, crucially, individuals, can self-organize to create value.""

"Drawing on an entirely new set of original research conducted with countless collaborators in fields such as healthcare, science, education, energy, government and the media, we tell the stories of some of the world's most dynamic innovators, from a global citizen's movement working to reverse the tide of disruptive climate change to for-profit startups that are turning industries ranging from music to transportation on their head. We argue that collaborative innovation is not only transforming our economy but all of society and its many institutions. Now the onus is now on each of us to lead the transformation in our households, communities and workplaces. After all, the potential for new models of collaboration does not end with the production of software, media, entertainment and culture. Why not open source government, education, science, the production of energy, and even health care?"

Todd Park explains how he has partnered technology with open-data initiatives to tap into the many talented innovators and entrepreneurs across the government.

This week, New York Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman launched NYOpenGovernment.com, a new website that his office touts as a means for "voters, the media and government watchdogs hold state government accountable" by providing the public online access to government data on campaign contributions, lobbying, and state contracts. "Secrecy breeds corruption, while transparency generates confidence," Attorney General Schneiderman said, in a prepared statement. "New York Open Government will help the public keep an eye on what their government is doing in order to deter corruption and increase confidence in the public sector. This site is a one-stop-shop for New Yorkers demanding up-to-date and comprehensive information about their government."

There's a Twitter account and a Flickr account and also a video up at YouTube - although this doesn't appear to have been embedded in the Canberra 2030 site itself. Despite a few basic usability issues and a little of a 'tickbox' approach, the site represents a real attempt to consult Canberrans in a more interactive way and it is worth a look.

This book is the culmination of several years of thinking about the principles behind the open government data movement in the United States. In the pages within, I frame the movement as the application of Big Data to civics. Topics include principles, uses for transparency and civic engagement, a brief legal history, data quality, civic hacking, and paradoxes in transparency.

The 2012 Civic Media Conference featured two full days of conversations about (what else?) the future of civic media and democracy. One conversation is particularly worth calling out and sharing with the Govfresh audience: a panel assessing what's gone wrong and what's gone right with open government in the United States over the past three years. The discussion was moderated by Susan Crawford, currently of the Harvard Law School and Kennedy School (and formerly a special advisor at the White House) and featured Mike Norman of Wefunder.com, Mark Headd of Code for America and Chris Vein, Deputy United States Chief Technology Officer for Government Innovation in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. I've embedded the video below:

"Calling all fed #digitalgov entrepreneurs! We know you're pushing and pulling your agencies to open up government information and provide better services to the public. We know that you're not only looking for solutions, but have already found some. Join the movement to make 21st Century digital government."