Apple is good at lots of things, but they can’t make the screen bright enough when it’s sunny outside…, a Creative Commons Attribution (2.0) image from Ed Yourdon’s photostream

If you’re reading this, you probably believe that democracy would be better if it was, well, more democratic — that local government would be better if it had more input by locals. That the way to improve our city is not by hiring consultants to tell us what to do, but hiring consultants to listen to people and tell us how we can make their vision happen. CEOs for Cities is working hard on taking the consultants out of the picture and putting the people into focus by fostering direct connections between residents and city government. CEOs for Cities has produced web apps which help create a culture of civic engagement.

Acknowledging that most people aren’t willing to spend much time, if any, on participating in the public process of democracy, they first helped produce the Give a Minute project. Give a Minute literally asks city residents to spend just a minute coming up with a suggestion on an important urban issue. The first project was Give a Minute Chicago and it asks for input on what would make Chicagoans walk, bike or ride transit more often. People can respond online or by mobile phone by jotting down their thoughts on an electronic Post-it^®-style note.

Did you know they have free hi-speed WiFi all over Bryant Park? This place rocks!, a Creative Commons Attribution (2.0) image from Ed Yourdon’s photostream

Change by Us is a new project which evolved out of Give a Minute. Change by Us NYC asks residents of New York City, “How can we make our city a greener, greater place to live?” Change by Us has the same post-a-note look, but it takes the idea a step further. From The New York Times:

City officials described the project as “a social network for grass-roots leaders.” They said their goal was to exploit the opportunities offered by social media to spur professionals, volunteers and city employees to share information about ways to improve conditions and team up for specific projects.

Change by Us NYC will help users raise money to start projects like community composting or creating a new open space. The city’s Department of Environmental Protection will use the site to identify and guide projects that could be eligible for a program that disburses millions of dollars in grants to beautify neighborhoods, reduce sewer overflow into New York Harbor and undertake other infrastructure projects, for example.

In less than a year, this new model for citizen participation has gone from asking for ideas, to creating projects and raising funds for their implementation. Perhaps when people see actual results from their engagement, they will be more prone to participate and put democracy into action. We can have a 24/7 town hall that produces results.

Tomkins Square Park, Apr 2010 – 17, a Creative Commons Attribution (2.0) image from Ed Yourdon’s photostream

Also launched this year is Neighborhoodland. It’s basically the same concept — asking city residents for their thoughts and input on improving their communities. Neighborhoodland was created by Civic Center which wants to “make cities more comfortable for people.” Neighborhoodland currently serves neighborhoods in the city of New Orleans.

Finally, while the technology of crowdsourcing and mobile apps is relatively new, the issue of citizen participation goes back to the very founding of our country. “A Ladder of Citizen Participation” by Sherry R. Arnstein was first published in the Journal of the American Institute of Planners (JAIP) in 1969, but it’s still instructive for today. The author looks at the levels of citizen participation to see where the power truly lies and comes up with the following “eight rungs on the ladder of citizen participation.” Let’s hope that new technology makes that climb a lot easier.

Last week, Pittsburgh City Council gave preliminary approval to a contract that will allow City Council meetings to be viewed online.

The webcasts will allow City Council meetings to be accessible to all, and will also integrate the new system with City Council’s existing legislative tracking system. Viewers will be able to search videos online and view specific portions that relate to different issues.

“This is the third step I have initiated to bring e-democracy to Pittsburgh, following the launch of iBurgh and the current beta test of MyGov365,” said Councilman Peduto. “This new system will allow Pittsburgh residents to have greater involvement in their government and greater access to information that is important to them.”

The system has come in under budget, and will be ready in time to broadcast the first meeting of Council in 2010.

On Saturday, Councilman Bill Peduto was the keynote speaker at Pittsburgh Podcamp 4 at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh. His speech focused on the emergence of e-democracy and how individuals can help change pittsburgh, the democratic process and the world through technology and new media.  Read more about this event in this Pop City article.

Podcamp is a community unconference that allows people to come together to discuss, and learn more about social media.  There have been 3 previous Podcamps in Pittsburgh, and Councilman Peduto has attended them all.  To learn more about Podcamp, visit the website.

Yesterday, City Councilman Bill Peduto gave a presentation at the CEOs for Cities National Urban Leaders Summit in Washington D.C.

Councilman Peduto joined other Pittsburgh leaders Scott Bricker from Bike Pittsburgh, Mariann Geyer from Point Park University, Erik Lingren from Venture Outdoors, and Eve Picker from no wall productions in a presentation entitled City Update: Pittsburgh’s Transformation.

The group discussed the urban renewal of Pittsburgh that has begun to receive national attention, and ultimately led to Pittsburgh’s selection as the site for last week’s G-20 summit.  They addressed how the changes have been made possible, and what is in store for Pittsburgh in the future.  They also discussed how the community has been enabled to take action, and what role new social media technology will play in this transformation.

Learn more about CEOs for Cities.

iBurgh has gotten a lot of attention for Pittsburgh, and the potential of creating an E-Democracy movement right here. The principle of E-Democracy  is based on the belief that technology like mobile applications, web-based social media, and electronic two-way communication, can be utilized to empower people to have more say in their government.  

The benefits for Pittsburgh are two-fold.  First, greater public participation means greater transparency and accountability as people take a greater role in their government.  Second, the technology produced can be exported from anywhere – Pittsburgh has the talent to build the industry here.  Unlike cable tv or phone complaint centers, the initial iBurgh application will be updated to become a two-way mobile communication between government and it’s citizens.  With the addition in the next few months of web-based data resources, embedded webcast council meetings, and initiatives to include both community organizations and the city’s tech firms, Pittsburgh will take a worldwide leadership role in this emerging industry.
 

The launch of iBurgh this week has received a lot of attention, and reports from all across the country and world are putting Pittsburgh in the spotlight.  Some of the articles from outside Pittsburgh include:
 

• Engadget - iBurgh complaint department for iPhone gets to the heart of city living
• Torontoist.com -  Pittsburgh and the Enviable iPhone App
• Boston Herald – Pittsburgh’s iPhone Complaint Feature Debuts
• Revolution Magazine – Need a Pothole Filled? There’s an App for That 
• The Apple Blog –  The iPhone Set to Do It’s Civic Duty with iBurgh
• Public CEO – New Technology Gives Residents a New Way to Complain to Local Government
• TMCnet – iBurgh Lets You Complain to City by Cell Phone
• Gadgetek –  iBurgh Complaint Department for iPhone Gets to the Heart of City Living

On Monday, Councilman Bill Peduto and YinzCam Inc. launched iBurgh, an iPhone application for the City of Pittsburgh.  This iPhone application allows users to take a picture of any 311 complaint they might have, such as a pothole, and send it directly to Pittsburgh’s 311 line from their iPhone.  

The launch of this iPhone application is just one more example of Pittsburgh’s emergence as a leader in the world of e-democracy.  
 

• Fall 2008 – Washington DC Launches “Apps for Democracy” Contest to Create iPhone and Facebook Apps
• June 2009 – San Francisco Announces a 311 Twitter Account
• June 2009 – New York City Announces a 311 Twitter Account
• July 2009- Washington DC Announces 2^nd Round of “Apps for Democracy”
• July 2009- NYC Announces “Big Apps” Competition Modeled After DC Contest
• July 2009 – Boston Mayor Announces Plans to Create Boston 311 iPhone App
• August 17, 2009 – Pittsburgh Becomes First Major City in America to Launch 311 iPhone App 

The use of social media as a mode of government/constituent communication is emerging as a very valuable tool.  The number of users, and younger generations of voters in particular, and  that can be reached through these outlets continues to grow at astounding rates.  Facebook added 100,000,000 users in less than 9 months, and 96% of Generation Y are regular users of social media.  Compared to other communication outlets:

• It took radio 38 years to get 50,000,000 listeners
• It took television 13 years to hit 50,000,000 viewers
• It only took 4 years for 50,000,000 people to visit the internet

Social media facts:

• If Facebook were a country, it would be the 4th largest in the world
• There are over 200,000,000 blogs
• iPod applications hit he 1,000,000,000 mark in just 9 months
• Youtube has over 100,000,000 videos and Wikipedia has over 13,000,000 articles

iBurgh is just the first initiative in establishing e-democracy programs – 3 more are scheduled to be released this year.  iBurgh will continue to expand to all platforms and all phones, following the YinzCam business model.  These e-democracy programs will become even more interactive, and updates will include ways for citizens to receive notices from government about issues or places they care about, among other things.

To learn more about YinzCam Inc. and iBurgh, check out this slide presentation by the President of YinzCam Inc., Priya Narasimhan.

Today, Councilman Bill Peduto will announce the release of iBurgh, a new iPhone application that will work to improve government response to constituent services, such as snow removal and fixing potholes. Councilman Peduto and the local company YinzCam Inc. have worked together to make this launch possible today.

This application will allow constituents to use their iPhone to take a picture of a pothole, or other concern, and instantly submit a picture and location along with the complaint to the city’s 311 system.

Pittsburgh is the first major city in the county to utilize this type of government integrated iPhone application.

At 1pm today, Councilman Bill Peduto will be holding a press conference before a special session of City Council on the use of technology to advance democracy.  Technology and new media, such as a government iPhone application, live streaming of government meetings online, and deliberative polling and instant feedback by constituents during government meetings, can be used to bring the residents of Pittsburgh into the democratic process in more ways than ever before.

Today’s special session, beginning at 1:30pm, will focus on discussions by leading experts in the new media and technology fields on these topics and more, including:

• Dr. Priya Narasimhan- Carnegie Mellon University, creator of YinzCam technology
• Paul Fireman – Vivo
• Brad Winney – Panopto, Inc.
• Jay Resio – MyGov365

To watch a live streaming of this meeting online, beginning at 1:30pm today – click here – and then select “View Live” underneath the section E Democracy.