 poeple who'll hear about the people who died, and will say that it was God's will. I know people who'll say it was bad luck. And then there's my personal favorite: They were just in the wrong place at hte wrong time.
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I would just like to pen a few lines thanking RVA for their excellent input into the exit of a number of products from the GSK site at Irvine, Ayrshire and the subsequent decontamination and demolition of the buildings across the site.
…..as importantly it was obvious that the key contractors in the Decontamination and Demolition industry respect RVA’s expertise and knew that working on an ‘RVA project’ was important with regard to their reputation as being seen as a ‘1st Division player’ in the industry.
GSK’s priority on the project was safety, with cost a very important, but not overriding driver. RVA produced a very thorough evaluation of all the bids. The GSK contractor evaluation process, using this evaluation, was used to make the final selection of the principal contractor to do the work and this process was very well supported by RVA.
RVA’s focus on safety during the project was excellent, carrying our comprehensive reviews of the contractors safe systems of work at every stage of the job and auditing the work area on a daily basis.
Finally the project was completed on time and under budget.Do. Philippians 2:14-16 (NRSV)
The apostle Paul had some rough characters to deal with. Corinth- one of Paul’s major mission destinations- was similar to today’s Las Vegas or Hollywood. It’s hard to be the voice of gentleness and goodness in the depths of debauchery and ruthlessness. Yet that’s what Christians are called to be.
Paul is not talking about being self righteous or having a false piety. We aren’t called to be Pollyannas or prudes. We know there is evil and ill will in this world. Our challenge is to see it and overcome it.
(Jesus said) “I have said this to you, so that in me you may have peace. In the world you face persecution. But take courage; I have conquered the world!” John 16:33 (NRSV)
So how can we overcome the world in small ways today? By being an encourager? By saying no to spreading a juicy rumor? Jesus has conquered the world, and in Him we can have the courage to live accordingly.We set out to learn about civic technology, unsure of where our learning questions would lead us. Our open-sourced approach offered us endless opportunities to deepen our knowledge and expand our impact.
The good news is that the tools, technology, and networks required to work in this way already exist. We’re just not using them to their full potential.
I know what you might be thinking: Oh, great. Another abstract social-change concept. You would not be completely wrong. This is all still a big experiment. But, whether it’s the Ford Foundation’s recent #InequalityIs series, the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals campaign, or the viral #BlackLivesMatter movement, we are thrilled to see more and more people and institutions researching and testing this approach.
One experiment that Living Cities conducted towards open-sourcing social change started with questions that emerged from our network of mayoral chiefs of staff in cities around the country: The Project on Municipal Innovation (PMI). In 2012, the chiefs of staff wanted to better understand how technology can increase the capacity for civic engagement, collective problem solving, and improved service delivery for residents. There was a broad acknowledgement of the significant amount of energy and technical expertise focused on identifying and solving urban problems within the technology community. And, there was a hunger to better tap into it. Living Cities’ staff also wanted to know how much of that energy was being directed towards improving the lives of low-income people in particular. Since we had more questions than answers, we set out on an open sourcing journey.
We hosted a convening that we called a “Trends in Focus Forum.” We invited staff from our member institutions, city government leaders, and innovators in the emergent field of civic technology to take stock of what types of solutions were being advanced at the time. We also worked to better understand opportunities and challenges.
At the same time, we began to engage some of the leaders in the space on social media. We found that there was already an active conversation around hashtags like #civictech, #gov20, and #opengov. We also noted that a lot of these leaders were active bloggers and we began to consume their content towards growing our understanding of the state of the field.
What will it take to harness the power of technology and social media to change the relationship between city residents and their governments, and to improve the lives of low-income people?
And, because we already had quite a robust digital communications strategy, there was an opportunity to contribute to the dialogue on social media, and to steer it towards results for low-income people. On Twitter, with our open/transparent approach and our willingness to learn publicly, we quickly gained influential followers like Zac Townsend (co-founder of an early stage financial technology company called Standard Treasury), Nigel Jacob (Co-Founder and Chair of the Mayor’s Office of New Urban Mechanics in Boston), Jennifer Pahlka (Founder and Executive Director of Code for America), Alex Howard (Government 2.0 Washington Correspondent for O'Reilly Media, where he writes about the intersection of government, the Internet and society), and Nick Grossman (Investor at Union Square Ventures who also leads their efforts on public policy and regulatory issues that impact open innovation and the health of the web); as well as institutional followers like Code for America and Open Plans.
A group of thought-leaders engage in conversation.
Barriers to deeper impact and wider adoption of civic technology, and strategies to address these barriers.
The scan was intended to inform the work of Living Cities and its members, as well as others interested in harnessing technology to advance transformational change in cities and communities.
The publication caused quite a stir in the digital space, both in terms of folks who were excited to see the conversation around civic tech being focused so explicitly on improving the lives of low income people, and in terms of folks disagreeing with our findings. As we are a learning organization, we embraced both the positive responses and the constructive criticism. We did not purport to have all the answers—we wanted to share our best thinking at the time and to spark dialogue and even debate.
What role can technology play in engaging young people from disadvantaged communities in civic life, and in deepening the relationship between local governments and low-income communities more broadly?
As outlined above, we learned a great deal from our exploration of civic technology, in person and in the digital space. And, we had established ourselves as a respected voice in this conversation and built important relationships. Our next step was to test what it could look like for us to partner with cities and civic tech leaders on solutions. We started with a partnership with civic developer OpenPlans (who worked with us on the Field Scan) and the City of Louisville.
We worked with Louisville to develop a tech solution intended to improve engagement between Louisville and young adults around long-term city planning. Through this project, we were aiming to better understand: What role can technology play in engaging young people from disadvantaged communities in civic life, and in deepening the relationship between local governments and low-income communities more broadly?
What Do Young People Have to Teach Us About Civic Tech?
This work, and the fact that we were sharing our progress publicly, gave us even more credibility in the eyes of people who care about this work. We were also making a case for other cities to apply civic tech in ways that would benefit low-income people. Through PMI and other platforms, we were working to actively connect cities to leaders in the civic tech space in order to cultivate the possibilities of partnerships.
Open-Sourcing Social Change through civic technology.
Two years after our learning journey began, in partnership with the MacArthur Foundation, Code for America, and the National Neighborhood Indicators Partnership (NNIP), Living Cities launched the Civic Tech and Data Collaborative. This initiative supports teams of civic technologists, data practitioners and government officials in cities to develop data and technology solutions to make cities more inclusive, equitable and democratic.
And, in partnership with the Citi Foundation our second City Accelerator cohort, is focused on community engagement. This work is very much informed by our understanding that civic tech can be a powerful force in improving the ways that government engages and serves citizens.
When we set out to learn about civic tech, we had no idea where that learning would lead us. Taking an open-sourced approach offered us endless opportunities to make connections, deepen our knowledge base, identify a gap that we were well-positioned to fill, and expand our impact. This is just one example of what is possible when you work in this way. We look forward to sharing many more. And, we would love to hear from you. How are you open-sourcing social change, and what have you learned?
Nadia leads Living Cities' racial equity and inclusion, knowledge management, and research portfolios.
Are you curious about the social and technological networks that shape our lives, like Amazon, the Internet, and WiFi? But are you worried about a Calculus or Linear Algebra prerequisite that typically comes along with such courses? If