[esocialaction] FW: [DW] Event - The British Invasion: Innovations in Online Activism from mySociety.org - 13 July 2006 - Washington, DC

[Dearden, Andrew M]

For any readers in the US, I'd like recommend Tom's session in
Washington DC. These are really interesting ways of consulting and
making politics accountable.

Andy


Andy Dearden
Reader in e-SocialAction
Communication and Computing Research Centre
Sheffield Hallam University
Harmer Building
Sheffield
S1 1WB
T: 0114 225 2916
F: 0114 225 3161

-----Original Message-----
From: Steven Clift [mailto:clift at publicus.net] 
Sent: 05 July 2006 19:14
To: newswire at groups.dowire.org
Subject: [DW] Event - The British Invasion: Innovations in Online
Activism from mySociety.org - 13 July 2006 - Washington, DC


*** Democracies Online Newswire  -  http://DoWire.Org ***

   To access links, see Steven Clift's blog:
http://dowire.org/notes/?p=243

Post: Event - The British Invasion: Innovations in Online Activism from
mySociety.org - 13 July 2006 - Washington, DC

At the Amherst conference the other week, I noted how I wished the
MySociety cluster of UK projects would inspire similar national level
non-partisan citizen-centric e-democracy activities in the U.S.. Those
in DC, now have a chance to learn about real e-democracy innovation
close up on July 13 from Tom Steinberg with mySociety.Org.

Tell Alan I sent you, maybe he'll buy me a beer when I am in DC later in
the month.

Steven Clift
http://dowire.org

P.S. If you are interested in e-politics - online advocacy, e-activism,
campaigning online, etc. reserve your spot in the proposed online
community of practice for hard-nosed e-political hacks:
http://groups.dowire.org/groups/e-politics


From: Alan Rosenblatt 

Seats are still available for the July 13 Internet Advocacy Roundtable!

Reserve yours today for:

The British Invasion: Innovations in Online Activism from mySociety.org

Join us on Thursday, July 13, 2006 for a rare opportunity to talk with
Tom Steinberg of mySociety.org about innovations in online activism from
across the pond.  mySociety.org has created a variety of online activism
resources, including http://www.HearFromYourMP.com,
http://www.TheyWorkForYou.com, http://www.WriteToThem.com (which used to
be called FaxYourMP), http://www.NotApathetic.com, and
http://www.PledgeBank.com, which are all examples of the type of
services mySociety aims to foster. While HearFromYourMP, TheyWorkForYou
and WriteToThem are designed to service UK citizens who want to
communicate with Parliament, PledgeBank and NotApathetic are resources
that we can all use to promote collective social activism and voting.

PledgeBank allows anyone to create a pledge which has the basic format
'I'll do something, but only if other people will pledge to do the same
thing'. For example, if you'd always want to organize a street party you
could organize a pledge which said 'I'll hold a street party, but only
if three people who live in my street will help me to run it.' Imagine
if someone pledged to donate $100 to your organization if 1,000 other
people did so, as well.  Once the last person signs on, you would get
$100,000.

HearFromYourMP takes a unique approach to constituent-representative
communications.  By signing up on the site, a citizen is added to a
queue of other people in their legislative district. When enough have
signed up, their MP gets sent an email. The email says "25 of your
constituents would like to hear what you're up to. Hit reply to let them
know". If they don't reply, nothing will happen, until your MP gets a
further email which says there are now 50, then 75, 100, 150 ? until it
is nonsensical not to reply and start talking.

We are certain you will find this to be a fascinating discussion about
new ways to approach online advocacy.  Please join us. 

When: Thursday, July 13, 2006, Noon - 2:00 PM

Where: 1341 G Street, NW, Suite 1100, Washington, DC

Cost: $60, lunch included 

Speaker: Tom Steinberg, mySociety.org

Tom Steinberg is mySociety.org's founder and its only full timer. By
trade he was a Westminster policy wonk, serving time with the Prime
Minister's Strategy Unit. In his spare time he is a technology
aficionado, having been a SysAdmin, a gamer, and having written opinion
pieces for the Register.

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