Any progress?
Hey John, how fares the map? I have the feeling we need to take a much more active stance if we are to build it into a really crowdsourced tool… what is your impression so far?
Disappointed
I had expected to see more action around this map given the need that I had felt from the community.
I have purposely avoided pushing it as wanted to see what would come from community members without the push.
What are your thoughts, my friend, on how we get more activity on this?
This is normal!
In my opinion, stuff like this need someone to take clear ownership and push it out until it achieves a critical mass. For a community to coalesce around an action, it is essential that people feel that it is not an empty house, that at least one person cares about it and will be doing it. Then the message becomes “help Alberto do this” rather than “we think you should this”.
I am happy to stand shoulder to shoulder with you to do this. We would need some concerted action, and above all we will need to talk to some people in then community individually and ask for help. Do you want to go for it?
I do.
What do you think, my
I do.
What do you think, my friend, how shall we do this together?
A couple of new markers
FYI, I am working a bit on the map today. It takes time to include new markers (3 windows and several fields of info need to be filled)… Most of the times, I don’t know where to fit stuff. For instance, Gov 2.0 Radio, could be online radio and ogov. Or both. But can a marker be referenced in 2 different categories?
Are there any lists or repertoires of activism projects and so on that we could look at? I will look at the old list of opengov activists from GovintheLab for inspiration. Names of company and web site were included in this list. I am also using Nadia’s list of innovation groups (one of her mission reports).
I asked JohnFMoore to create 2 new categories today: opengov activism + opengov initiatives.
Michel Filippi gave me 2 references to include (Lyon and Griny), and suggested to contact @ColinBertrand for more ideas.
I added these markers:
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I added these markers:
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Promise of open data initiative in Lyon (France)
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La M@ison Grigny (France)
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Gov 2.0 Radio (Los Angeles, United States)
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CivicTEC (Sydney, Australia)
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OpenCamp à Québec (Québec, Canada)
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Communautique (Montréal, Canada)
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Recollect (Vancouver, Canada)
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Coopérative de solidarité Innov X.0 (Montreal, Canada)
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Proactivité (Laval, Canada)
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QuébecLeaks (Quebec, Canada)
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Yeg Girl Geek Dinner (Edmonton, Canada)
In which category goes something like QuebecLeaks?
Awesome job!
Lyne, Alberto, and everyone else. If you have a large # of entries you can edit this CSV file (recommend using Excel or some other spreadsheet editor) more quickly than using the user interface.
Once you’ve made your edits send directly to me a john@govinthelab.com and I will update the entries.
I might use activist for quebecLeaks, what did you have in mind?
No middle ground
John and all, I am afraid there is no middle ground for this stuff: it is either an extraordinary push or nothing.
An extraordinary push could look like this:
- We get on board some individuals: Marc, Jacky, Vinay, Rysiek, Lucas are the first that come to mind. They commit to putting markers on the map and joining the effort.
- At this point the narrative has changed: "join our heroes in doing this!" We can actually push it out.
- Blog post by John or Lyne on Govinthelab
- Guest post by John on Edgeryders
- We all push it out on social media like there's no tomorrow. Not just as a one-off, but for at least a couple of weeks, with updates like "Thanks George for adding XXXX project to the map. Really cool stuff you are doing in Portugal! [LINK"
- It still can fail! I have my reservations on the tool, as I explained. But if we don't do it all out, I don't think this idea (or any idea) has a chance.
Yes my friend, I am all in.
I
Yes my friend, I am all in.
I am going to work out the format of the CSV file (see my response to Lyne in this thread). Once I have this nailed down I’ll do a draft blog post which I’ll share with you both so we can get ready to go full speed ahead.
Expect more by the end of the day Sunday.
Test file
Thanks John. In theory, my son goes away for the w-e. I can give you a hand with the CSV file. I would like to figure how to include longitude and latitude (I don’t see this info in the 3 windows of markers’s info). Tomorrow, I can prepare a test file, with 3-4 markers.
Model file, latitude + longitude, Twitter handle
John, I checked the CSV file and… euh, didn’t find it was anything comprehensive that is usable. Everything was jammed into one cell. Maybe my machine isn’t downloading properly?
If I spread these categories into separate cells in an Excel doc, would it be ok? Will you be able to use the file? Can we come up with a model file that works?
| Title,Description,Website,Directions,Category,Subcategory,Order,Freeform Address,Phone Number,Street1,Street2,Zipcode,Neighborhood,City,State,Country,Latitude,Longitude,Photo Url,Photo Width,Photo Height,Photo Title,Photo Description |
What happens if we don’t have the info for Latitude and Longitude? So far, I have been clicking pretty much just anywhere on the map, on the name of a city, but it does not necessarily correspond to the exact street or correct latitude and longitude info. I just noticed that latitude and longitude is listed (above). I found this tool to convert addresses to latitude and longitude. But it means another level of tasks http://stevemorse.org/jcal/latlon.php , ie it takes more time…
Before contacting other people and asking them to collaborate, I think that we need to do a little bit more of testing, trial and error. We should hand out very clear instructions to our collaborators, so that they fill the info in a way that will be as complete as possible. Categories should have small descriptions, etc. So that everyone knows what to do, where to fit info, and does it in a uniformed way.
Where do we fit something like the Twitter handle? So far, I put it in the 3rd window page, in the ‘Review’ cell. A new field would be required for Twitter handles? For instance, QuébecLeaks is an anonymous group. They don’t have a physical address.
Agreed!
This weekend I will spend some time working on the CSV file to determine how best to use it for our efforts.
We’ll have a clear message on this.
Alberto, I will plan on getting this working and circling back with you and Lyne on Monday so we can go full speed ahead.
Did the test spreadsheet
I spread info from the .csv file into separate cells in a ‘test’ Excel document. (Format is .xlsx and not .csv) I completed info for 4 markers: City of London Open data; Group Open Data London; Portail données ouvertes Montréal; City of Nanaimo Data Catalog.
John, let me know if you are able to export this info into Community walk’s map.
It worked great!
Lyne, that file worked great!
I just did an import of your data, which you can see on the map now:
http://www.communitywalk.com/citizensforchange
You are officially a rockstar! I am going to upload your sample file and link to it on my main page, and will use it in my blog post announcing this.
Superstar!
Checked out the map
Hey Guys,
I like the initiative and idea, so I checked out the map and have a hard time understanding where it is going (why I would want to participate- what will be done with the information), who is behind it and involved in in (real people?), what actions are expected of me, and how to take them then and there. Bit of work synthesising this all into one or two paragraphs I know, but I think it would make it easier for people not following the doscussion on this thread to understand the context and hopefully maybe even be involved.
Also I can’t see any embed code to put it on Edgeryders, so we can help push it out. Could the person with account to the map maybe put the information on the page itself? This way I think it will be much easier for people to understand how to engage…my two cents/ N.
Tremendous feedback, thank you Nadia!
All great points that are truly appreciated. As the person that put it together it is too easy to miss all of these really imporant points.
On my site I have said the following, does this give enough insight or does it fall short?
Help us spotlight the best efforts happening at local and national levels. Login to CommunityWalk and add key individuals or organizations, innovation centers, NGOs, co-working spaces, etc...In terms of including the embed code, also easy enough to do and also a great point. Where would you expect to see it, want to determine how easy it will be to expose it in a manner that would be most intuitive.If you have a large # of entries to add, consider downloading this CommunityWalk.csv, a CSV that is easier to bulk edit. Once done, send it to john@govinthelab.com and we will ensure it is uploaded.
Here’s one we wrote earlier
Hey John, I've posted below a combination of Vinay had penned as part of an ongoing discussion we've been having as well as what you posted on your site:
All over Europe and beyond people are building a new world together. Amazing projects demonstrate hope for the future and visions of the world which is possible when we work together. In [city], [example] (we need to pick these carefully, i.e. in London, Brixton Village became a thriving example of what people can achieve when young entrepreneurs worked together to revitalize a fading historic arcade). Many people living their dreams together changed one corner of the world.
Edgeryders wants to collect examples of these important green shoots. Please tell us about the amazing things you and your friends are doing, or have visited, so that we can showcase the cultural innovation which is shaping a new way of making our way in the world. We are interested in new kinds of employment, social enterprises and other projects which embody new values, cultural centres, galleries, projects and teams. If it's a place that people can visit, so much the better - take a tour in your own city or while you are travelling, and see some of the New Planet.
Help us spotlight the best efforts happening at local and national levels. Login to CommunityWalk and add key individuals or organizations, innovation centers, NGOs, co-working spaces, etc...
If you have a large \# of entries to add, consider downloading this XLSX file, an Excel spreadsheet that is easier to bulk edit. Once done, send it to john@govinthelab.com and we will ensure it is uploaded.
Exposure in connection with the june Meetup
I think we could embed it into a special page here on Edgeryders. I like the look and feel of this mozilla event page: Events - Mozilla Community Portal
And if someone can put together the html we could just post it on the page and push it out through the various social networks in a coordinated effort. Maybe there are embeddable tools for this kind of thing, know any event planners we could ask?
Love it
I modified the text on my page to essentially match what you just proposed:
http://citizensinthelab.com/page/the-map
If you want to embed the map, check out this HTML:
<iframe src=“http://www.communitywalk.com/groups/set_commercial_domain/1475601” onload=“if (this.src.indexOf(‘http://www.communitywalk.com/view/1475601’) == -1) this.src=‘http://www.communitywalk.com/view/1475601’ + location.hash” width=“800” height=“600” frameborder=“0” name=“ff_cw_1475601” id=“ff_cw_1475601” scrolling=“no”></iframe><a href=“http://www.communitywalk.com/citizensforchange” style=‘display:none’>CommunityWalk Map - Citizens in The Lab</a><img src=‘http://www.communitywalk.com/images/blank.gif’ onload=“setTimeout(function() {document.getElementById(‘ff_cw_1475601’).onload()}, 100)” />
something missing from the embed code?
tried it but I think there is something missing…copy paste again? thanks!