Inclusion

Inclusive Community Engagement Online - Project Information - Now being maintained at http://e-democracy.org/inclusion

Note: BeNeighbors.org is our starting point for the general public.

The Inclusive Community Engagement Online initiative is a comprehensive three year initiative led by E-Democracy.org. With three years of funding from the Knight Foundation for $625,000 through the end of 2014, it has three main components:

• St. Paul Neighbors Forums - Inclusion, expansion, and engagement to reach 10,000 participants
• Lesson Sharing - Convening, research, and promoting online engagement widely to move the civic tech and open government field
• Innovation and Technology - New features, design, and experiments (working with the open source GroupServer platform and via our support of OpenTwinCities)

The BeNeighbors.org campaign may evolve into a "Got Milk?" style directory of online neighborhood spaces including those beyond the official E-Democracy forum network.

Key Resources

• Key Updates:
  • August 2013
  • White House Blog Post
  • Virtual Info Booth with Short Video - January 2013
  • Lesson Sharing
  • New Voices Work Group - Proposed "next step" initiative
• Ongoing Blog and E-Newsletter Updates
• Press Release St. Paul - St. Paul BeNeighbors.org Campaign - 15 FEB 2012 - PDF and related Blog Announcement
• One Pagers
  • One Pager - Initiative Overview - PDF - with Pictures
  • One Pager - St. Paul BeNeighbors.org Campaign - PDF
  • One Pager - Lesson Sharing and Online Communities - PDF
• Partnership Agreement - Become an Official "Be Neighbors" Outreach Partner. Official Partners:
  • City of St. Paul
  • SPNN
  • E-Democracy.org
• Work - Note past summer outreach positions

Sign-up

Follow Highlights

• Project Blog - Blog via e-mail (Our key in-depth "what's new" one-way channel)
• E-Newsletter
• @edemo on Twitter
• E-Democracy.org Facebook Page

Get Involved

• To Volunteer in St. Paul, Contact Corrine Bruning, Outreach Coordinator via team@e-democracy.org or call 651-400-0880
• Projects Online Group - Volunteer Starting Point
• Project Information Request Form
• Join a Neighbors Forum - Our BeNeighbors.org Directory for St. Paul and Minneapolis (initially), see all E-Democracy hosted forums across 16 communities in three countries
• Locals Online - For Knowledge Sharing - Related communities of practice
• New Neighbors Forum Request Form

Print Materials

• BeNeighbors One Page Poster/Flyer - PDF - Please print and hang at your favorite coffee shop
• More Fliers, Sign-up Sheets, Languages, etc.
• E-Democracy Logo People-only - 1.2 MB JPG - All Sizes

Project Updates

Key blog posts by date - newest to oldest:

• 2012 Outreach Highlights and Inside Scoop
• Top Six Tips for Networking Neighbors Online
• Door to Door to Build Neighbors Online - Youth baseball team volunteers
• People Making Community Engagement Online Work - Outreach team
• Seeing St. Paul’s Diversity - Maps and charts from CURA
• Ground Breaking Analysis - Inclusive Social Media Project - 60 Page Participatory Evaluation - Lessons from Ford Foundation funded pilot being applied to new St. Paul initiative
• Social Capital and All the Good from Neighbor Connecting Online
• Help Us Build an Inclusive St. Paul Online - Join our Outreach Advisory Group
• We Need Bubble Popping Bridges - Highlights from the Knight Foundation Media Learning Seminar
• Are you ready to BeNeighbors.org - Using online forums to boost deep dish pizza sales and engage people less likely to participate online

Resources

• Grant Agreement and Grant Narrative Excerpts - Detailed Document in PDF
• Be Neighbors Twin Cities - Directory
• Presentations
• White House Champion of Change Recognition
• Inclusion analysis based on PewInternet.org Civic Engagement in the Digital Era Report
• Why Digital Inclusion for Community Voices? - Article
• Inclusive Social Media 2010-2011 Project Archive - Pilot funded by the Ford Foundation

Media Coverage

• Contact E-Democracy - Urgent Press Queries to Steven Clift:+1-612-234-7072
• A "Facebook for the neighborhood" expands in Saint Paul - Mar 7, 2012 - Also carried on MinnPost.
• Grant to help online community forums reach minorities - TwinCities.com - Pioneer Press - Feb 16, 2012 (Headline changed to "Internet forum aims to spread democracy" which obscures the real story.)
• E-Democracy shoots for 10,000 in St. Paul - Feb 16, 2012