[for later]
[for later]
A web application that gives members the tools to organize the conversation and information surrounding the problems, projects, and policies in their communities. Hopefully, the tools will allow more people to not only more easily keep track of things going on in their communities, but also allow them to engage with others in the community about those items so that the problems are better solved and the projects and policies better serve their purpose.
Most people would agree that there doesn't seem to be enough time in the day to do everything they need to do. So, of course, some of these activities are neglectedto do the things they consider more important. One class of activities that at times is pushed to the side lines is keeping up with goings on in ones communities. A community could be their neighborhood, city or town, county, state, school, or even a group or organization. Reading the newspaper (in dead-tree format or online) can only get you so far. And interacting and asking questions about the information found in the news can be time consuming. Newpapers are only updated daily--not minute-by-minute. And who do you contact about project X? What if there were a place to find all that information as well as participate and help the project along?
- Conversations use the four objects used in "Dialog Mapping"--Idea, Question, Pro, Con--to build a conversation (dialog) around a specific topic. Add to that though, Reference, to link to documents with pertinent information/evidence for a pro or con comment.
- Somehow, though, we need to be able to distill that dialog into an organized, readable document instead of the tree structure "dialog maps" usually come in. A tree structure may show how everything relates but
- Project overview/synopsis to initiate people who are just passing by and don't have time to look at the dialog.
- Easy but sophisticated tagging and categorizing system for Topics/Conversations.
- System in the vein of Wikipedia and StackOverflow.com, where the community keeps things in order; everything is editable (but tracked) and because, ultimately, it's for the good of the community everything posted would be licenced (StackOverflow.com uses the Creative Commons license).
- ...
- Are there any inexpensive, innovative, proven deterrents that can be implemented to prevent graffiti by the 3rd street park?
- How can we become a more environmentally neutral organization?
- ...
- Conversation Tree. Shows ideas, questions, pros, cons, backup research.
- Todo list for the project (e.g., Look for grants, research similar projects, etc.)
- General Lists (list of similar projects, possible grants, etc.).
- Distilled document. This would be a differently formated document. Not a tree, more of a proposal format.
- Images. Because a picture says a thousand words. (: Maybe not host images but embed from say Flicker, Picasa, etc.
- Video. Same as with images. That way people can use whatever service they prefer and can share it to other places without having to learn a new API.
- Find similar projects that may have already been implemented/discussed in other communities to see how they worked or didn't.
- Find successful projects that helped make a community better in some way in the hopes of doing something similar in their own community.
- Follow/Watch projects in the vein of GitHub.
- Once a project is implemented, a conversation to see how it could be made better in the furture (find pluses and minuses of the current implementation). This could be helpful too for similar projects in other communities to help their implementation be more succesful.
- Find projects in their communities that they would like to contribute to.
- Find people to start a project with a particular goal in mind. (maybe it's better to just start a project?)
- Advertise project ideas or problems to get people interested. Classifieds for projects/problems.
- Help with getting ideas from a community on a new policy/law.