{"id":745,"date":"2012-06-14T07:00:31","date_gmt":"2012-06-14T11:00:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hibbets.net\/blog\/?p=745"},"modified":"2012-06-14T07:30:12","modified_gmt":"2012-06-14T11:30:12","slug":"city-council-has-perfect-attendance-at-citycamp-raleigh","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hibbets.net\/blog\/2012\/06\/14\/city-council-has-perfect-attendance-at-citycamp-raleigh\/","title":{"rendered":"City Council Has Perfect Attendance at CityCamp Raleigh"},"content":{"rendered":"

Originally posted on opensource.com<\/a> and licensed under Creative Commons BY-SA<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

What started with a unanimous vote to adopt an open source resolution eventually became a long-term commitment to the open source way. How many of you have had an elected official attend a citizen-lead event? Probably some of you. But how many of you have had your entire city or town council attend an unconference?<\/p>\n

At a recent open government unconference, all city council members\u2014including the mayor of Raleigh, North Carolina\u2014attended some or all of the event. Their attendance wasn’t a requirement\u2014and it wasn\u2019t a political drive-by. It was genuine, natural. And some of them got knee-deep in the \u201ccode,\u201d competing in the civic hackathon.<\/p>\n

Citizens enhance mayor\u2019s open source experience<\/h2>\n

The open government event was CityCamp Raleigh<\/a>, returning for its second year. CityCamp is an international unconference series and online community<\/a> focused on innovation for municipal governments and community organizations. This marks the first time in CityCamp history when all elected officials from the local municipality attended a camp. It may also be the first time multiple elected officials actively participated and competed in a civic hackthon. Raleigh\u2019s mayor was on a team exploring how community health scoring could be applied to urban planning.<\/p>\n

“My favorite part of CityCamp Raleigh was seeing how many people devoted their thoughts and time\u2014it goes a long way,” said Mayor Nancy McFarlane. “I saw the collaboration of open source first-hand. The efforts this weekend are making our city better.”<\/p>\n

Having the mayor and the entire city council attend CityCamp Raleigh exemplifies their commitment to open source<\/a>. Not only did they unanimously pass<\/a> an open government directive<\/a> in February 2012, they attended and participated in CityCamp. Attendees were excited to see their representatives so engaged during the unconference; for some, it restored a trust in government<\/a>.<\/p>\n

CityCamp Raleigh took place June 1-3. On Friday, June 1<\/a>, CityCampers enjoyed<\/a> a government perspectives panel, a business perspective panel, and several lightning talks. Runtime Expectations, a live technology\/development talkshow on CodebassRadio, recorded all the talks<\/a>. Saturday, June 2, was the CityCamp unconference<\/a>, where attendees pitched ideas, groups refined those ideas during sessions, and teams formed around the best ideas. The civic hackathon<\/a> occurred Sunday, June 3, and one team walked away with a $5000 (US) prize.<\/p>\n

When citizens call the public meeting<\/h2>\n

One of the most amazing moments at this year\u2019s CityCamp occurred when our elected officials jumped right in. Something magical happened. Citizens were looking to solve problems and the elected officials were part of the solution–an equal citizen at the same table. That’s unusual, said CityCamp co-founder Kevin Curry.<\/p>\n

“Normally, council seeks citizen input by calling a public meeting or workshop,” Curry said. “Usually it’s in the middle of the day in some obscure government building you’d never otherwise go to. In Raleigh they flipped that whole dynamic around. The mayor and all councilors came because citizens sought government input to solving citizens’ own problems.”<\/p>\n

Other open government advocates will inevitably ask me how to replicate this success\u2014how to get their elected officials more involved in citizen movements\u2014but I’m concerned about what to tell them. Here’s the best answer I have: establish an open source culture\u2014not an easy thing to do. It takes time. Obviously, the first step is to invite officials to events and teach them the open source way<\/a>. It\u2019s up to them to make the commitment and get involved.<\/p>\n

What happened at the unconference?<\/h2>\n

Groups pitched more than 30 ideas, workshops, and projects at Saturday’s unconference. Only 25 of them made it to “the grid”\u2014the unconference agenda created on-the-fly based on votes from CityCampers.<\/p>\n

After organizers set the agenda, attendees were off and running. One city councilor pitched an idea for community health scoring that attracting more than 20 people to the session; they formed a team that eventually competed in the session.<\/p>\n

During the unconference, attendees documented as many sessions as they could on the Triangle Wiki workshops page<\/a>. Although the Trianlge Wiki project<\/a> wasn\u2019t pitched at last years camp, it is one of the major success stories coming out of CityCamp Raleigh. It allows any citizen to contribute local knowledge to an easy-to-use wiki platform based on the open source LocalWiki software<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“CityCamp validated how important and valuable open content is to the community,\u201d said Reid Serozi, a CityCamp Raleigh organizer and Triangle Wiki enthusiast. \u201cAlmost every final CityCamp idea had incorporated a stream of content from Triangle Wiki.”<\/p>\n

By 4 p.m., ten teams had submitted formal teams competing for the prize money. The team project ideas looked like this:<\/p>\n