Hacking City Hall

The Idea

I am interested in learning what local government does and how citizens can become involved. I want to find out the most successful ways to work with local agencies by interviewing people and groups who have worked well with city hall and creating a forum online to share stories and tips.

The Plan

1) Interview groups and people who have successfully passed legislation, pushed for a permit or worked on a city council. Read everything I can on local government and running for local office.

2) Take a Ruby on Rails class through Skillshare.

3) Start a Meetup group for people interested in learning how to become involved with local politics. (This will happen in Seattle this summer and Philadelphia in the fall – a way to see how the plans differ between cities.)

4) Create a site with stories, tips and resources for dealing with local government. Make members of the Meetup group moderators who lead discussion on various aspects of local government that they have experience with. Encourage people to post about their success.

How will you share your learning plan with the community?

The website will be the main way the learning plan is shared with the community, in large part because the community is part of the learning plan. The meetup group will be another way to share the learning plan and to test if the plan is working and receive input.

Discussion

1