Calling all civic hackers, govtech nerds and activists! The Foundation for Public Code’s mission is “to enable public-purpose software and policy that is open and collaborative”. In practice, we mostly work with government organizations and technology vendors. However, members of the public often ask how they can encourage and help their governments to use open source.
We want to use our visibility in this space for good - we’d love to be able to offer constructive suggestions to private citizens who want to get involved with government technology policy.
We believe the MozFest community will know how - we’d love to hear what you’ve tried, what you’re doing now, and what strategies you recommend. Obviously laws and culture vary, but hopefully we’ll hear tactics and stories that inspire us all.
Link to notes document: https://hackmd.io/@elenafdr/govtech
We hope this discussion creates a resource that empowers people from many places to:
- demand better technology choices from their government
- help support that digital transformation in whatever capacity they can
We'd also like to have a better answer as the Foundation for Public Code than "that's not within our remit" when private citizens tell us we've inspired them.
We're hoping that many efforts and discussions will continue after Mozfest. Share any ideas you already have for how to continue the work from your session.:We plan to write a blogpost collecting the resources suggested, that we can refer to people to in the future. We hope people will find this a useful introduction to how citizens can influence government technology policy, and a stepping stone to connecting with likeminded people.
We'll also share the knowledge within the Foundation for Public Code so that every employee can answer the question whenever they meet a curious citizen.
How will you deal with varying numbers of participants in your session?:We’ll have a set of questions prepared in advance on a slide deck, with some suggestions drawn from our own experience as govtech nerds prior to working at the Foundation for Public Code.
With fewer than 8 participants, we'll open the floor for a free form discussion, referring to the questions as needed to move the conversation along.
With more than 8 participants, we'll use the slide deck and a timer to ask participants to reply to a question in writing on sticky notes, the collaborative doc or chat (depending on your conference tooling). The facilitator will then invite some people speak, to elaborate on or reply to the written responses.
I content and communications strategy for the Foundation for Public Code.