[CivicAccess-discuss] Invite + launch + unwants

[Michael Lenczner]

that looks awesome.  really nice job.

my stuff shouldn't be in there.  not as an introduction.  i can bring
it up with people during the discussion before we open to the public.

i'll suggest a few minor edits - but i think that it's basically perfect.

and yeah - i was thinking that now is a bad time to send out invites
because it's going to be so busy until x-mas - but maybe not.  Maybe
we could invite people to be on the mailing list together and then
just open to the public after x-mas (like jan 4-5).

But i don't think we should invite people piecemeal  (one here, a few
there).  I think if we want them to take it seriously as co-founders,
then we should invite them all at once - and maybe we should send them
a standard letter.  It seems more credible imho then to send out more
personalized.  If context is required for a specific person we could
contextualize above / below that standard text.

but that's just a thought.  i'm okay with us doing it differently if
it's important to any of you.

mike


On 12/5/05, Tracey P. Lauriault <tlauriau at magma.ca> wrote:
> Hi gang;
>
> I had a go at the invite a bit-
> http://civicaccess.ca/wiki/Launch/Invitation? I'll frenchisize after
> your comments.
>
> When should we send this out?  Should we send to a few people we each
> have close relationships with really soon and get started? I would love
> to get my few DataInfo friends engaged while i have them hot - like the
> next week or so.  what so you think?
>
> also, michael started an interesting stream on what we do not want the
> group to be.  Did we want to explore how we want to address those issues
> a bit?  I left them at the bottom of the letter.
>
> I paste the let & michael's bit below.
>
> Cheers
> tracey
> **************
>
> I think this invitation should be tweakable and targeted as oppposed to
> general and impersonal. Perhaps for the public launch we can do
> something a little more general. my guess is each of us has a variety of
> relationships with the people want to invite so i am approaching this as
> a template with some cut and paste content. We may wanna get this out
> soon though!
>
> *DRAFT INVITE LETTER:*
>
> Hi There;
>
> Stephane, Patrick, Michael and Tracey (change order as required!) here
> and we would like to invite you to co-found a new canadian civic
> engagement space - Citizens for Open Access to Civic Information and
> Data (COACID). We are contacting you since we know that you have been
> thinking and talking about these issues, have been actively engaged in
> related activities, and also because each or you has unique expertise,
> knowledge and experience to contribute to this type of activity (i.e.
> social planning, data access, open source, mapping, technology creation,
> etc.).
>
> We are a group of diverse citizens, who also happen to be technologists,
> academics, and activists, who share a common belief that civic
> information and data should be made easily accessible at no cost for
> non-commercial purposes to citizens and civil society organizations. We
> are doing this because, we understand that participatory democratic
> processes require that citizens have access to information and data to
> inform their engagement and to improve the quality of the decisions they
> make during that process. But also because, information and data are the
> essential bits and bytes required to re-imagine, re-envision, visualize
> and critically anaylze the communities we live in.
>
> So far a COACID discussion lists has been created ([WWW]
> http://civicaccess.ca/mailman/listinfo/civicaccess-discuss_civicaccess.ca),
> and a wiki ([WWW] http://civicaccess.ca/cgi-bin/moin.cgi/) has been set
> up with some draft content. The wiki is an open source collaborative
> tool that will host content discussed on the list. In short this is an
> emerging community of citizens across Canada like you who want to share
> what they know, do, their skills, information and data and these tools
> are there to facilitate that.
>
> Please join the list and introduce yourselves, navigate the wiki, share
> your ideas, interests, and add some content and discuss issues you think
> are important from your unique and diverse perspectives. There is no
> pre-determined way to do or say things, so feel free to say, modify, and
> do as you like in this environment. The group remains small and closed
> at the moment with the hope that once we have been working together a
> little, and have a better handle on what we are doing, the list and wiki
> can go public to some targeted some related communities of practice in
> January or February of 2006!
>
> We are looking forward to being engaged in this information and data
> community building activity with you!
>
> Cheers Stephane, Patrick, Michael and Tracey
>
> NOTE: so and so can help you with the wiki so and so can help you with
> the listserve this is what you need to do to get on the Discussion list
> this is what you need to do to use the wiki
>
> **************************** Michael, do we want to discuss this further
> on the list? I am thinking that having this in the invite would be
> intimidating, but think there is merit in agreeing to what we do not
> want along with what we do.
>
> A key thing to tell you as possible co-founders of COACID is what we
> don't want COACID to be. We don't want it to become it's own project. We
> don't want it to become an ego vehicle for a small group of people. And
> we don't want it to become something that's chasing after funding. We
> want it to be a [WWW] third place <http://user.gru.net/domz/third.htm>
> for people already motivated in this cause and a place for people who
> are curious to find out more.
>
>
>
>
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