One correction - I missed the word website in ... I run E-Democracy (world's first election info WEBSITE from 1994) ... On Tue, Aug 20, 2013 at 9:42 AM, Steven Clift <slc@publicus.net> wrote:
(Please cc: clift@e-democracy.org with any replies)
I've been working to present data from PewInternet.org's Civic Engagement in the Digital Age report in ways that help people see the relative importance of raising new voices.
Here is a draft infographic concept:
http://bit.ly/ecivicgapinfographic
I run E-Democracy (world's first election info project from 1994) and our BeNeighbors.org effort. It is working to create the world's most representative local online civic engagement network. We actually go door to door in lower income, highly diverse, high immigrant neighborhoods to sign people for neighborhood-based online participation.
We see our work more and more strongly in an R+D with a purpose role. Go deeper and deeper and share knowledge wider and wider.
FYI - This is my "inclusion" summary from the Pew report: http://bit.ly/pewcivic and round table discussions we've been having http://bit.ly/digicivic
Two questions:
* How would you improve the first chart?
(Besides displaying online-only and off-line only civic communicators within the chart)
* What other recent surveys provide additional insights into gaps in civic engagement online and offline?
Our view is the the civic tech/open government movement must do more to raise new voices and work to make engagement more representative in order for it to have a positive social/civic benefit. It must close the gaps left by .org e-advocacy, media, and .com social networking and neighbor connecting models. If it further or disproportionately empowers those who already so up, what good is it? By visualizing the gaps as well as hopeful slices, we can better prioritize our use of scarce resources of online civic engagement.
Thanks. Steven Clift Executive Director E-Democracy.org