The Open Lobby/Talk
This is the "discussion page" for The Open Lobby. You're encouraged to simply edit the main page, if you see ways to improve it; this page is sometimes good for questions and comments though.
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So, you've got a name?
Or is it a suggested direction for a name?
If it's to be Oregon-based (I didn't realize it was that specific??), shouldn't "Oregon" be in the name?
OK I'll admit to being a neanderthal...but I could use a bit more chat about the name. (I had hoped to copy and save that long hilarious one of ours, but it seems to have disappeared right away! Pity...) I think of a Lobby as a rather aggressive attempt to bend government offices/officers to the will of a sub-group.
I'm happy to see you getting sure enough of yourself to get rid of the "if you stumble on this page..." warning.
- -- Mom
- P.S. I like your "random thoughts"!
- Names are fluid right now :) Suggestions welcome. Right now I'm liking "The Open Lobby" because the word "open" conjures to accessibility/transparency, and also open source software/open content projects like Wikipedia. "Lobby" conjures both a place to gather and chat, and also the idea of influencing government. But at the same time, "The Open Lobby" sounds awfully dull. So I'm not sure.
- Re "Oregon": Not sure. Hopefully, this grows beyond Oregon soon. But that doesn't mean we couldn't attach Oregon for now. Also, might be starting more at the city/county level. I think I'd rather not restrict by geography. -Pete 16:09, 8 January 2008 (PST)
- OK, I'll let the words rattle around in my head and see if they sprout any ideas. THANKS for finding our old chat stuff - not necessary to keep it all, but I did want to see what sort of silly and not-so-silly suggestions we'd made about names! And some day I'd like to know how you got that old chat history - I've set my own prefs to keep it for 2 weeks, maybe I have to change that??? Probably simple, not gonna worry about it today! -- M
When do we get to "visualizing" The Open Lobby?
Thanks for putting back a "Talk" page!
Here's my question: I find myself puzzled - what might this project actually "look like"? Is it time to start thinking about things like:
- How will it be organized?
- What will it actually look like?
- Where will it be hosted? (I suspect thoughts already exist about that)
- MF
Suggestion?
When I read your main page, the full meaning of "accessibility and transparency" doesn't come through to me at all - accessibility & transparency of WHAT? Oh - I guess it actually means something different there, than it does on your user page, where you write, "...a project to inject transparency and accessibility into government..." How about modifying the beginning section to something like this:
- The goal of this project is to make the workings of our government more transparent and more accessible to a broad range of people. To this end, we have two projects:
- Project: Knowledge
- Develop easily accessible [online??] information resources for Oregonians on such matters as [legislation? public policy? what legislation is based on???....I can't say this right! and "other aspects of our society" may belong in here - I took it out above but am not sure that's justified];
- Project: Influence
- Use this information to develop policy proposals, through a consensus-oriented process, which can then be taken up by the legislature, ballot initiative, etc.
- Modern internet-based technology will be a core aspect of the project, but not to the exclusion of in-person meetings and projects. Since accessibility and transparency are the core values, we will not require people to use an unfamiliar Internet-based tool in order to participate.
I think I've been having a problem with your main page, in that I find it somehow very elusive - this is why your "...a project to inject transparency...." was so welcome to me. Could you maybe step back and try to look at that main page from the point of view of somebody who hasn't a clue in the world what you're talking about? I think you'll see that it's lacking some crystal-clear definition. I understand that you don't want to say anything like "brute force" - but there's other ways to be clear. I'll be glad to help/trouble-shoot if I can, but I'm not gonna mess with your main page at this point!
- Martha, 11 February 2008
