social media

Index: Participation and Civic Engagement

Curated on July 22, 2013July 18, 2019 by admin

The Living Library Index – inspired by the Harper’s Index – provides important statistics and highlights global trends in governance innovation. This installment focuses on participation and civic engagement and was originally published in 2013.

Percent turnout of voting age population in 2012 U.S. Presidential election: 57.5
Percent turnout in 2008, 2004, 2000 elections: 62.3, 60.4, 54.2
Change in voting rate in U.S. from 1980 to most recent election: –29
Change in voting rate in Slovak Republic from 1980 to most recent election: –42, the lowest rate among democratic countries surveyed
Change in voting rate in Russian Federation from 1980 to most recent election: +14, the highest rate among democratic countries surveyed
Percent turnout in Australia as of 2011: 95, the highest rate among democratic countries surveyed
Percentage point difference in voting rates between high and low educated people in Australia as of 2011: 1
Percentage point difference in voting rates between high and low educated people in the U.S. as of 2011: 33
Number of Black and Hispanic U.S. voters in comparison to 2008 election: 1.7 million and 1.4 million increase
Number of non-Hispanic White U.S. voters in comparison to 2008 election: 2 million decrease, the only example of a race group showing a decrease in net voting from one presidential election to the next
Percent of Americans that contact their elected officials between elections: 10
Margin of victory in May 2013 Los Angeles mayoral election: 54-46
Percent turnout among Los Angeles citizens in May 2013 Los Angeles mayoral election: 19
Percent of U.S. adults that used social networking sites in 2012: 60
How many of which participated in a political or civic activity online: 2/3
Percent of U.S. social media users in 2012 that used social tools to encourage other people to take action on an issue that is important to them: 31
Percent of U.S. adults that belonged to a group on a social networking site involved in advancing a political or social issue in 2012: 12
Increase in the number of adults who took part in these behaviors in 2008: four-fold
Number of U.S. adults that signed up to receive alerts about local issues via email or text messaging in 2010: 1 in 5
Percent of U.S. adults that used digital tools digital tools to talk to their neighbors and keep informed about community issues in 2010: 20
Number of Americans that talked face-to-face with neighbors about community issues in 2010: almost half
How many online adults that have used social tools as blogs, social networking sites, and online video as well as email and text alerts to keep informed about government activities: 1/3
Percent of U.S. adult internet users that have gone online for raw data about government spending and activities in 2010: 40
Of which how many look online to see how federal stimulus money is being spent: 1 in 5
Read or download the text of legislation: 22%
How many Americans volunteered through or for an organization at least once between September 2011 and September 2012: 64.5 million
Median hours spent on volunteer activities during this time: 50
Change in volunteer rate compared to the year before: 0.3 decline

Sources

Dailey, Lucas, “OpenGov Voices: Open Government is About Raising People’s Opinions.” Sunlight Foundation. July 12, 2013.
File, Thom, “The Diversifying Electorate—Voting Rates by Race and Hispanic Origin in 2012.” May 2013.
Smith, Aaron, “Civic Engagement in the Digital Age.” Pew Internet & American Life Project. April 25, 2013.
“Volunteering in the United States, 2012.” Bureau of Labor Statistics. February 22, 2013.
Rainie, Lee, “Social Media and Voting.” Pew Internet & American Life Project. November 6, 2012.
Rainie Lee, and Aaron Smith, Kay Lehman Schlozman, Henry Brady, Sidney Verba, “Social Media and Political Engaegment.” Pew Internet & American Life Project. October 19, 2012.
“Society at a Glance 2011: OECD Social Indicators.” OECD iLibrary. Accessed on July 22, 2013.
Smith, Aaron, “Neighbors Online.” Pew Internet & American Life Project. June 9, 2010.
Smith, Aaron, “Government Online.” Pew Internet & American Life Project. April 27, 2010.
“2012 Voter Turnout.” Bipartisan Policy Center. November 8, 2012.

Next.Data.gov

Curated on July 17, 2013August 15, 2018 by Stefaan Verhulst

Nick Sinai at the White House Blog: “Today, we’re excited to share a sneak preview of a new design for Data.gov, called Next.Data.gov. The upgrade builds on the President’s May 2013 Open Data Executive Order that aims to fuse open-data practices into the Federal Government’s DNA. Next.Data.gov is far from complete (think of it as a very early beta), but we couldn’t wait to share our design approach and the technical details behind it – knowing that we need your help to make it even better. Here are some key features of the new design:

Leading with Data: The Data.gov team at General Services Administration (GSA), a handful of Presidential Innovation Fellows, and OSTP staff designed Next.Data.Gov to put data first. The team studied the usage patterns on Data.gov and found that visitors were hungry for examples of how data are used. The team also noticed many sources, such as tweets and articles outside of Data.gov featuring Federal datasets in action. So Next.Data.gov includes a rich stream that enables each data community to communicate how its datasets are impacting companies and the public.

In this dynamic stream, you’ll find blog posts, tweets, quotes, and other features that more fully showcase the wide range of information assets that exist within the vaults of government.
Powerful Search: The backend of Next.Data.gov is CKAN and is powered by Solr—a powerful search engine that will make it even easier to find relevant datasets online. Suggested search terms have been added to help users find (and type) things faster. Next.Data.gov will start to index datasets from agencies that publish their catalogs publicly, in line with the President’s Open Data Executive Order. The early preview launching today features datasets from the Department of Health and Human Services—one of the first Federal agencies to publish a machine-readable version of its data catalog.
Rotating Data Visualizations: Building on the theme of leading with data, even the masthead-design for Next.Data.gov is an open-data-powered visualization—for now, it’s a cool U.S. Geological Survey earthquake plot showing the magnitude of earthquake measurements collected over the past week, around the globe.

This particular visualization was built using D3.js. The visualization will be updated periodically to spotlight different ways open data is used and illustrated….
We encourage you to collaborate in the design process by creating pull requests or providing feedback via Quora or Twitter.”

Governing Gets Social

Curated on July 10, 2013August 3, 2018 by Stefaan Verhulst

Government Executive: “More than 4 million people joined together online in December 2011 to express outrage over the Stop Online Piracy Act, a bill Congress was considering that would have made content-sharing websties legally responsible for their users’ copyright violations, with punishments including prison time.
Experts called the campaign a victory for digital democracy: The people had spoken— the ones who don’t have lobbyists or make large campaign donations. And just as important, their representatives had listened.
There was a problem, though. Through social media, ordinary citizens told Congress and the president what they didn’t want. But the filmmakers, recording artists and others concerned about protecting intellectual property rights, many of whom supported SOPA, had a legitimate beef. And there was no good way to gauge what measures the public would support to address that.
A handful of staffers in the office of Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., thought they might have a solution. As the debate over SOPA rose to a boil, they launched the Madison Project, an online forum where users could comment on proposed legislation, suggest alternative text and vote those suggestions up or down. It was a cross between Microsoft Word’s track changes function and crowdsourced book reviews on Amazon.
Not all examples of this new breed of interactive social media happen at the macro level of legislation and presidential directives. Agencies across government have been turning to the platform IdeaScale, for instance, to gather feedback on more granular policy questions.
Once an agency poses a question on IdeaScale, anyone can offer a response or suggestion and other discussion participants can vote those suggestions up or down. That typically means the wisdom of the masses will drive the best ideas from the most qualified participants to the top of the queue without officials having to sift through every suggestion….
What many people see as the endgame for projects like Madison and Textizen is a vibrant civic culture in which people report potholes, sign petitions and even vote online or through mobile devices.
The Internet is great at gathering and processing information, but it’s not as good at verifying who that information is coming from, says Alan Shark, a Rutgers University professor and executive director of the Public Technology Institute, a nonprofit that focuses on technology issues affecting local governments.
“Star Trek is here,” Shark says. “We have these personal communicators, their use is continuing to grow dramatically and we’re going to have broader civic participation because of it. The missing piece is trusted identities.”

Open Government is an Open Conversation

Curated on July 8, 2013August 15, 2018 by Stefaan Verhulst

Lisa Ellman and Hollie Russon Gilman at the White House Blog: “President Obama launched the first U.S. Open Government National Action Plan in September 2011, as part of the Nation’s commitment to the principles of the global Open Government Partnership. The Plan laid out twenty-six concrete steps the United States would take to promote public participation in government, increase transparency in government, and manage public resources more effectively.
A year and a half later, we have fulfilled twenty-four of the Plan’s prescribed commitments—including launching the online We the People petition platform, which has been used by more than 9.6 million people, and unleashing thousands of government data resources as part of the Administration’s Open Data Initiatives.
We are proud of this progress, but recognize that there is always more work to be done to build a more efficient, effective, and transparent government. In that spirit, as part of our ongoing commitment to the international Open Government Partnership, the Obama Administration has committed to develop a second National Action Plan on Open Government.
To accomplish this task effectively, we’ll need all-hands-on-deck. That’s why we plan to solicit and incorporate your input as we develop the National Action Plan “2.0.”…
Over the next few months, we will continue to gather your thoughts. We will leverage online platforms such as Quora, Google+, and Twitter to communicate with the public and collect feedback. We will meet with members of open government civil society organizations and other experts, to ensure all voices are brought to the table. We will solicit input from Federal agencies on lessons learned from their unique experiences, and gather information about successful initiatives that could potentially be scaled across government. And finally, we will canvass the international community for their diverse insights and innovative ideas.”