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Health & Fitness

News From Civinomics July 1st

Contents:
1. New Workshop: Reduce Prison Overcrowding
2. User Testing and Feedback from Facilitators
3. New Features And Bug Fixes
4. Updates on Existing Workshops
5. Updates from The Gov2.0 Space

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1. New Workshop: Reduce Prison Overcrowding

It’s no secret that we have a prison problem here in California. Our annual rate of incarceration has more than tripled since 1980, a 2010 court order ruled that overcrowding in our prisons is so severe as to constitute cruel and unusual punishment, and in 2012 the prison system received more state funding than higher education. How can we address this failure in public policy? Build more prisons? Find alternatives to incarceration? Change drug laws? Please join us in brainstorming ways to solve these problems in the new Civinomics workshop Reduce Prison Overcrowding. 

2. User Testing and Feedback from Facilitators

We're looking for a few good people to give us feedback on the Civinomics platform. This round of user testing will take place at our office at CruzioWorks, 877 Cedar Street in downtown Santa Cruz, and will consist of volunteers interacting with our site and answering some questions. Each test lasts roughly 20 minutes and will result in you, the glad participant, leaving with an iTunes or Amazon gift card and whistling a happy tune. To learn more and schedule your own user test, please email Manu Koenig at manu@civinomics.com. Additionally, Civinomics will be hosting another facilitator meetup in our continuing series “From Framing to Flagging.” Last week we got some great feedback, and it whetted our appetite for more! The next meetup is scheduled for Tuesday, July 9, 6-7:30pm at CruzioWorks. To learn more and RSVP, please click here.



3. New Features And Bug Fixes

Bugs begone! Since the last newsletter, we’ve implemented the following:

  • Bug fixes and more bug fixes
  • UI tweaks
  • Ability for Facilitators to mark Ideas as 'Adopted' (see Ideas listing in the How Can We Improve Civinomics? workshop)
  • Email notifications when a comment is added to your items (if preferences set in Edit Profile)
     
On our To Do list:
  • Signup and login via Facebook
  • Major UI overhaul, including a re-design of the workshop homepage
  • Ability to email local representatives and elected officials through workshops
We’re grateful to all the Civinomics members who've shared their feedback. Do you have an idea for how to make the site easier to navigate or more useful? Visit the How Can We Improve Civinomics? workshop and tell us! We want to know. 



4. Updates on Existing Workshops
 

Civinomics members have been hard at work since our April launch, contributing over 731 comments, 140 discussion topics, 224 resources and 209 ideas ("member-created objects," in Civinomics lingo) to workshops on the site. Our most active workshops have been Where Should Dogs be Allowed Off-Leash and Help Find More Water for Santa Cruz and Soquel Creek Water Districts, with 211 member-created objects between them at last count. Furthermore, Civinomics member G Stearns’ workshop Monterey Bay Regional Branding has received the highest number of votes for any workshop! Congratulations, everyone! Of special note, we have been taking your suggested feedback very seriously and have already implemented a number of member-requested changes. So far Civinomics member Steve Piercy has been especially helpful, contributing two ideas to the Improve Civinomics workshop that have been adopted. So be sure to submit your own ideas, as we do consider each and every one of them!

 

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5. Updates From The Gov 2.0 Space

Congratulations to Santa Cruz’s own Peter Koht for winning the Knight Foundation’s News Challenge! Peter, along with the Code for America fellows, helped to develop theOpenCounter platform, which makes it easier for residents to register and start new businesses. The project was one of eight chosen and will receive a grant of $400,000. To learn more please click here. In other news, last week the New America Foundation released The 2050 City: What Civic Innovation Looks Like Today — And Tomorrow, a white paper analyzing the state of our industry. Based on interviews with governmental officials, business leaders, community organizers and others, this document “explores the current landscape and future potential of the civic innovation field as a first step toward bringing together disparate communities to identify needs, develop solutions and deepen democracy.” One of the most interesting takeaways from this paper is the continued need for the human element in civics. Technology alone can’t solve our problems, and the innovations in civics must be rooted in the existing channels for civic participation.

Wise words for any community, especially on the anniversary of our independence—the ultimate expression of civic engagement. 

 

That's all for now. Thanks for reading, have a safe and fun Fourth of July, and enjoy your week!
 The Civinomics Team
Manu, Robert, Edolfo, Chris, Todd and Traci

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