Paul, have you identified the type of open-source platform/software you would like to switch to from your current propriety software? There may be some other entrants/changemakers here who have experience with different types of open-source software, and may be able to provide some recommendations. Secondly, will your policy database focus on the UK or other countries?
On the open-source question, I don't have a preference at the moment. I've been looking at a few options and I've had a few ideas put to me involving open source software big names and one or two that I'd not really come across before. I'm not fussy on that issue and anything that works would be good. I've got a lot of experience managing web-projects and the choice of technology will be made by a process (though for me the open source issue is one of principle as well as practicality).
On the territorial question, I'm looking to prove the concept in the UK and then apply the template elsewhere. I'm doing some work with people in Brussels, Berlin, Dublin and Belfast and they have all expressed a willingness to do it once I've found the (non-technical) bugs in the idea and fixed them, so I'd aim to cover EU, German, Eire, Northern Ireland and - of course the UK where I'm based. I've also got some contacts in Scotland who may cover the devolved assembly there as well, and my Brussels / German contacts have people interested in doing it in France.
If the idea works, then the question of finding partners will be easy to deal with, because there is an internal logic to running a site like this: manage your local version and develop a strong personal reputation as a 'public policy hub'.
Interoperability is important, but I've thought a lot about this and I think that it's important that each key polity has it's own instance of the site (with references to other ones, of course).
By public policy, do you mean a specific proposed bill or resolution, or is this for examining broader questions? Can you give an example of a policy you would start with?
For specific resolutions/bills, I like the work the opencongress foundation is doing, though unlike your idea its U.S. centric, and not available as an open-source package where users could develop their own. It does do a good job of providing a number of tools to let users crowdsource a specific bill, and add resources, comments, updates, etc. Example:
The other thing I like about this effort is they are working hard at developing APIs to let (advanced) users export the data out as XML and remix it.
For Policy Brief, would users be able to import or export XML / RDF files of resources? I'm working on building out export functionality for the existing citations on my project and could easily see sharing an XML file back and forth. To help on your platform decision, check out this module for the Drupal platform:
It allows users to add resources into the system using a simple form, then export back out to citation systems like EndNote or into other Biblio-enabled sites. I'm admittedly a Drupal-fanatic, but modules like this and the strong community support are one of the reasons why I think Drupal fits your criteria for a "future-proof" platform.
No - I mean a general area of policy. So 'public parks' or 'democratic renewal' - I'm not keen on the variety of deliberative democracy where any expectation of direct participation is raised - mainly because in Europe, there is no constitutional scope for it (and there is little scope for it in the US either). I'm keen for this project to create the kind of non-specific (in legislative terms) conversations that elected representatives draw from.
Policybrief (in it;s current incarnation - only a tiny amount of 'test' content has been added) has RSS feeds. However, as I mentioned before, I'm going to make the decision on platforms in a fairly methodical way. One of the options I've been discussing has been a drupal option though. I've not really thought about the End Note option - in the UK, a great deal of the material concerened is published directly by the think tanks / policy institutes concerned, so I suspect the need for any end-note integration would be a stage two development?
Comments
Paul, have you identified the type of open-source platform/software you would like to switch to from your current propriety software? There may be some other entrants/changemakers here who have experience with different types of open-source software, and may be able to provide some recommendations. Secondly, will your policy database focus on the UK or other countries?
Thanks, Tito
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Tito,
On the open-source question, I don't have a preference at the moment. I've been looking at a few options and I've had a few ideas put to me involving open source software big names and one or two that I'd not really come across before. I'm not fussy on that issue and anything that works would be good. I've got a lot of experience managing web-projects and the choice of technology will be made by a process (though for me the open source issue is one of principle as well as practicality).
On the territorial question, I'm looking to prove the concept in the UK and then apply the template elsewhere. I'm doing some work with people in Brussels, Berlin, Dublin and Belfast and they have all expressed a willingness to do it once I've found the (non-technical) bugs in the idea and fixed them, so I'd aim to cover EU, German, Eire, Northern Ireland and - of course the UK where I'm based. I've also got some contacts in Scotland who may cover the devolved assembly there as well, and my Brussels / German contacts have people interested in doing it in France.
If the idea works, then the question of finding partners will be easy to deal with, because there is an internal logic to running a site like this: manage your local version and develop a strong personal reputation as a 'public policy hub'.
Interoperability is important, but I've thought a lot about this and I think that it's important that each key polity has it's own instance of the site (with references to other ones, of course).
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Paul Evans
http://memeserver.co.uk
Paul -
By public policy, do you mean a specific proposed bill or resolution, or is this for examining broader questions? Can you give an example of a policy you would start with?
For specific resolutions/bills, I like the work the opencongress foundation is doing, though unlike your idea its U.S. centric, and not available as an open-source package where users could develop their own. It does do a good job of providing a number of tools to let users crowdsource a specific bill, and add resources, comments, updates, etc. Example:
http://www.opencongress.org/bill/111-s22/show
The other thing I like about this effort is they are working hard at developing APIs to let (advanced) users export the data out as XML and remix it.
For Policy Brief, would users be able to import or export XML / RDF files of resources? I'm working on building out export functionality for the existing citations on my project and could easily see sharing an XML file back and forth. To help on your platform decision, check out this module for the Drupal platform:
http://drupal.org/project/biblio
It allows users to add resources into the system using a simple form, then export back out to citation systems like EndNote or into other Biblio-enabled sites. I'm admittedly a Drupal-fanatic, but modules like this and the strong community support are one of the reasons why I think Drupal fits your criteria for a "future-proof" platform.
Best,
- Greg
Greg,
Thanks for the continued interest.
No - I mean a general area of policy. So 'public parks' or 'democratic renewal' - I'm not keen on the variety of deliberative democracy where any expectation of direct participation is raised - mainly because in Europe, there is no constitutional scope for it (and there is little scope for it in the US either). I'm keen for this project to create the kind of non-specific (in legislative terms) conversations that elected representatives draw from.
Policybrief (in it;s current incarnation - only a tiny amount of 'test' content has been added) has RSS feeds. However, as I mentioned before, I'm going to make the decision on platforms in a fairly methodical way. One of the options I've been discussing has been a drupal option though. I've not really thought about the End Note option - in the UK, a great deal of the material concerened is published directly by the think tanks / policy institutes concerned, so I suspect the need for any end-note integration would be a stage two development?
----------
Paul Evans
http://memeserver.co.uk