BIG ISSUES: corruption, debt, sustainability, innovation too big to chew the whole elephant, so we must focus. Transparency will reduce 'fat' in the system. Which is a bigger issue, but relevant for a long-term outlook. Wil van der Aalst and Kees van Hee in Workflow management cite that 80% efficiency is good. Slimmer than that can cause cause a chain reaction. A little bit of slack in the system is necessary. I agree that the current amount is too much. But things like 'public' vs. 'private' sector workforce, job re-purposing, and the overall role of government. Service-orientation, environment, cleanup, etc. can all be expanded. Sunlight has been top down. Local up is effective too. Newspapers (TheReporter)

Local Agencies (Vallejo, Vacaville, Fairfield, Sacramento, Napa, Yolo) Agencies need additional resources, know-how, and confidence that they are not alone and it is valuable

If government is platform as O'Reilly has called it, then it needs an API. Currently, attending a meeting, waiting for hours to speak, and getting acknowledged, but no response is not a good user-interface. How to enable asynchronous communication. This is what I'm interested in exploring. MoreQuality, 3 Programs Technology and Organizational Consulting (transparency, social media) to public agencies and nonprofits Education & Outreach Open-source Technology Development

Wepublic.org. Like the Congress app, but bigger - local everywhere (Proposal to Tom, July 23) canoncial source and would be a great fit for the Data Commons platform. HUGE possibilities there. think hyper-local news aggregation and Poligrafting. TaxTracker.org MyBoardWatch.org Grant background - journalism, civic engagement overlap with transparency Partnering is essential

Overall, the goal is to enhance awareness, which will leverage the work Sunlight is doing Timing is an issue - issues are picking up steam. How to tell compelling stories using data. (from the Vacaville General Plan) Update Process

Posted By dceplanning On May 5, 2008 @ 10:52 am In | Comments Disabled

The City of Vacaville General Plan Update process, including the Climate Action Plan (CAP) and Environmental Impact Report (EIR), will take approximately two years to complete. It is anticipated that formal adoption of the General Plan will occur in 2012. The General Plan Update will occur as a series of discrete tasks. These tasks will be informed by public feedback collected during community workshops and through various education and outreach efforts, as well as Steering Committee and City Council meetings, all of which will occur throughout the two-year effort. A general outline of this schedule is presented below. Please note that the schedule is subject to change, so check back often for updates.

Spring to Fall 2010: Existing Conditions The first phase of the project will be devoted to researching and documenting baseline environmental conditions in Vacaville. This effort will result in a series of technical memoranda covering the following topics: land use, agriculture, demographics, economic development, parks and recreation, public services, utilities and infrastructure, biological resources, cultural and paleontological resources, transportation, greenhouse gas emissions, air quality, and noise. These memoranda will inform the upcoming issues identification phase and the development of land use alternatives, and they will provide the foundation of baseline conditions for the EIR.

Summer 2010: Issues Identification

The existing conditions information documented in the initial task will inform a public process to identify issues and opportunities for the General Plan Update. This task includes a community workshop, two Steering Committee meetings, and a City Council meeting, during which participants will be asked to provide input on issues and opportunities.

Summer 2010 to Spring 2011: Alternatives Development and Finalization With existing conditions documented and issues identified, the project team will begin the highly interactive and participatory phase of crafting alternative land use scenarios in response to the identified issues. This process will involve both community and stakeholder workshops. The land use alternatives will be evaluated and compared in relation to market and financing feasibility, utilities and transportation infrastructure needs, public service needs, and impacts on environmental resources. This evaluation will inform the process to select a Preferred Land Use Alternative. The Preferred Land Use Alternative will ultimately inform the General Plan Land Use Map and guide the nature, pattern and location of land development and conservation in the city. Click here to read a handout explaining the land use alternatives process.

Spring 2011: Policy Development

Following selection of the Preferred Land Use Alternative, the project team will begin the process of developing the goals, policies, and actions for each Element of the General Plan. The policy structure of the existing General Plan will be revised and amended through this process, based on the input of the Steering Committee and community members. During this phase, an outline of the updated General Plan will be prepared. Spring to Winter 2011: Draft Documents

The majority of 2011 will be spent developing and reviewing draft versions of the General Plan, CAP, and associated EIR. The Draft General Plan will be built upon the Preferred Land Use Alternative and goals, policies, and actions developed through the prior phases, and will integrate feedback collected during community participation processes. The Draft CAP will contain greenhouse gas reduction targets and a series of measures to achieve those targets. The Draft CAP will also be developed in close consultation with the Steering Committee and with Vacaville residents during a targeted community workshop.

The EIR will evaluate both the Draft General Plan and CAP. Preparing the EIR concurrently with the General Plan and CAP will allow necessary mitigation measures to be incorporated directly into the Plans themselves, thus ensuring that they are “self mitigating.” Fall 2011 to Spring 2012: Public Review and Adoption

The final tasks of the General Plan Update process are associated with review and adoption of final documents and certification of the EIR. Included in this phase is the 45-day public review period of the EIR, followed by revision of the Draft EIR based on public comments received, and completion of the Final EIR. In addition, a series of City Council and Planning Commission hearings will be held to certify and adopt the Final EIR, General Plan and CAP. Once adopted, the final documents will be printed, distributed, and archived.

Article printed from City of Vacaville General Plan Update: http://www.vacavillegeneralplan.org URL to article: http://www.vacavillegeneralplan.org/?page_id=2

More Notes

501(c)(3) nonprofit organization Board Size: 3 Founded: Spring 2011 Mission: Civic Technology & Education Projects: Technology: - DemocracyMap (national aggregator) - TaxTracker (national aggregator) - OpenSolano (local info hub) - Turnkey (open data solution for govs) - like Max Ogden's 'gut' Storigin Educational Materials MQ Fundraising CivicSpace Opentecture Organizational API's Nonprofit coordination Opentecture Legislation/Policy Ecosystem - Information Ecologies - Knight

5/31/2011 All of Us Contact potential board members Seek and realize potential funds Ryan Scope out space for an office and citizen co-working space.
Flesh out a program around this. Contact Universities regarding providing fellowships/stipends/internships for journalism students to cover local issues Contact local agencies to gauge interest in participating Contact Solano newspapers and establish contacts with their local beat reporters Identify scope of work for reporting: California Lottery Funds BART & Transportation Options Polisee.org (based on 50 States) Erik

Diana Identify grant-making prospects Prepare grant proposals Pursue CPA Do all of California

• all cities
• major agencies
• all counties

Post Working Sites Online - api.wepublic.org - wepublic.org - opensolano.org What does town Data mean?

Enable search through Index - name, position, location

Convene community leaders all around to verify data. Continue to develop scraping tools Develop crowd-sourcing tools Reach out to agencies, contacts & elected officials Use volunteers + dedicated staff resources to gather data

Tell stories with the data: How many agencies don't have websites? Section 508 compliance? 311 systems? TTD capabilities? How much data per site? (this could be a measure of website 'quality')

GID Files

Greetings,

I wanted to get in touch regarding the GID files posted on census.gov. I have been working with a group of interested individuals to develop a

GID & Inventory of Governments govs.org@census.gov

Google geocode

http://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/geocode/json?latlng=40.714224,-121.961452&sensor=false

http://www.healthaffairs.org/healthpolicybriefs/brief.php?brief_id=20