U.S. Government Reaches Out to the Social Web for Collaboration, But Are Users Reaching Back? (via ReadWriteWeb) http://ping.fm/p7FmO

RT @PulseonTech: City of Portland, Oregon Officially Backs Open, Structured Data http://bit.ly/104SZQ (via ReadWriteWeb)

Subliminal messaging most effective when negative.(via Science Daily) http://ping.fm/npSoY
Any chance politicians & media understand this?

Google Earth KML file link for user friendly interface to understanding North American Carbon Budget.
http://ping.fm/mhOYG

Google Earth Application Maps Carbon's Course & behavior of greenhouse gas. (via ScienceDaily) http://ping.fm/aAMNb

Today- Recovery.gov makeover (Tracking Stimulus Money) http://ping.fm/ijryU
Nextgov.com article - http://ping.fm/8kUFR

Ask Tim - Goatheads, Networking & the GeoWeb. My blog post response to Tim Woodward, Idaho Statesman. http://ping.fm/rOfED

Interesting "Collaborative Citizen Map" to track changing foliage in New England States. (via @googlemaps) http://ping.fm/NpeYa

Reading "World goes into 'ecological debt' "Ecological Debt Day" now 2 months earlier than 1995.
http://ping.fm/XTYie

Ask Tim - Goatheads, Networking and the GeoWeb

Tim Woodward wrote an article in the Idaho Statesman titled: "Ask Tim: Goatheads, flat tires! Can anything be done? I decided to write an email response to Tim with a few of my own ideas about citizen initiated environmental networking projects and collaborative GeoWeb maps like the one I made for Puncture Vine Geo-locations in the Treasure Valley, Idaho. Following are the comments and links I included.

View Puncture Vine Geo-locations-Treasure Valley, Idaho in a larger map

Hi Tim.

I read your article today about "Goatheads, flat tires! Can anything be done? And, I have a few ideas to offer. If you have any questions I will be happy to try to answer them.

A little over a month ago some hikers and bikers in the Idaho Outdoors Yahoo Group started some "Goathead clean up efforts in the foothills. For my part I created a "collaborative map" (Google Maps) where anyone can put in a report and location where they see these weeds and/or report on a clean up project effort. Several people responded early on and I decided to write to the City of Boise Parks and Recreation, who also had noted this weed problem on the Ridge to Rivers web site. They expressed interest, noting the severity of the problem this year, but have not yet contributed or made reference to the map. I hope they will do this soon and possibly prepare for more collaborative citizen involvement in issues like this in the future as I describe below.

Collaborative GeoWeb community maps like these can engage the public in interesting and fun learning opportunities and civic projects that can make a big difference over time. The map above can also be viewed and edited in the amazing 3D Google Earth Browser that allows users to fly around and look at different perspectives as if in a helicopter or airplane.

Around the country there are increasing numbers of examples of similar efforts that can be found on the Web. We (Mountain Visions) with Federal, State and local agencies and organizations produced " Watershed Community Centers" for five large scale watershed projects across the U.S. between 2000 and 2003 that were early attempts to get more citizens involved in learning about and participating in local watershed restoration efforts. Here is a GeoWeb map with links to those projects.

I have been writing blog posts about environmental networking concepts since 2002, and have created a number of web site project examples. FYI, I prepared a "GeoWeb Networking" presentation for the Idaho Environmental Summit last fall to identify major topics I believe are important to environmental neworking and a few examples of each.

Starting in July this year I have been updating these examples on my blog and cross posting these on my FaceBook, Twitter and other networking pages.

I will disclose that I was also involved in creating the original Ridge to Rivers web site in 2000 and have suggested similar special interest networking projects to the City of Boise Parks and Recreation Department in the past several years. With the amazing growth of social and interest networking tools that have become available (including many collaborative map projects like this) it seems appropriate that citizens of Boise and Treasure Valley would become interested in participating in projects like this one to identify and eradicate goathead weed patches and other noxious weeds. Around the country new "Citizen Science" GeoWeb projects are emerging that identify plants, birds, insects, changing weather patterns, and restoration efforts. These are just a few examples of concepts that could also be applied to the Boise Foothills, Boise River and Treasure Valley area.

(For example I have also created another similar experimental collaborative Google map related to the recent Idaho Environmental Forum Conference titled "A River Runs Through It: Showcasing River Restoration and Recreation projects. Here is a link to my blog post that also contains the Google Map that can viewed in a larger size and edited.)

FYI, I was also involved in the production of the Idaho Weed Awareness Campaign (IWAC) web site from 2005- 2007. We organized the web site to be very friendly toward community networking and public participation. For some reason the officials involved in IWAC, even though they approved of the web design and production, have never promoted this aspect of the web site.

You might be interested in looking at this part of the IWAC web site, because it provides a community networking structure that goes way beyond the use of a collaborative Google Map, and could be used for citizen reporting and cleanup of noxious weeds of all types. The two links here go to 1. the IWAC "Network Center" that promotes participation in the IWAC web site and 2. A separate "Collaborative Interest Networking" site where people can submit topic discussions, photos, videos etc., without going through the web submission process. You will notice that I have put the collaborative Boise and Treasure Valley Puncture Vine Google Map on this new collaborative site as well.

As a summary I will note that efforts to develop modern environmental networking projects, using new networking technologies are not too common in Idaho yet. For example, I and others spent 3 years trying to encourage the Idaho Environmental Summit (IES) organizers to start using "Online-All the Time" Networking in addition to their yearly conference. Here is a link to some related Idaho Environmental networking projects we developed during this time.

Unfortunately, funding and interest in the IES has waned and it appears they will not have a conference in 2009 and they also are not employing any other networking efforts to my knowledge. Using the Online networking formats I and others are developing related to important Idaho environmental topics and the emergence of new interest groups and decision making projects would be ongoing. I fully expect these opportunities to grow exponentially in the future.

New and important GeoWeb and environmental networking projects are now being promoted by the Federal Government. The State of Idaho and County and City government will also be developing more new tools for citizen participation. I am posting almost daily links to web ideas I see related to this movement on my blog.

Tim, I started this letter initially to alert you to the Collaborative Goathead map, but felt that you might be interested in the larger picture as well. What I have written above is a start on the larger picture of the GeoWeb and new emerging opportunities for collaborative citizen projects that I believe will become an increasingly important part of our culture in the near future.

If you have any questions or want more information I will be happy to assist.

Thank you for your time.

Gary

Gary O. Grimm

Mountain Visions

gogrimm@mountainvisions.com

http://www.mountainvisions.com

Work phone 208-336-2992

Cell phone 208-585-7512

Blog=

http://garyogrimm.blogspot.com

RT: @stevegarfield What Kids Need To Learn http://bit.ly/1HqGK2 -
(27 skills they are not learning in school)

Interesting article - "Where is Where.gov?" by Christopher K. Tucker. The next phase of transparent government?
http://ping.fm/fPnkG

From Virtual Globes to Geoblogs: Digital Innovations in Geoscience Research, Education and Outreach. T160-GSA Conf 2009
http://ping.fm/wsYf0

The Geological Society of America for the general public -Be part of the community shaping the future of earth science.
http://ping.fm/eGNkN

Live blogging, twittering & online discussions allowed at Geological Society of America Conference. (via @rschott)
http://ping.fm/Wt4j7

Paul Krugman warns that Climate Bill will bring increasing partisan opposition rather than intellectual honesty.
http://ping.fm/Xabso

FCC: Broadband Deployment and Adoption on Tribal Lands./ Public Notice and comments via ECFS Express.
http://ping.fm/7uZ4x

Place-Based Policies for FY 2011 Budget/White House memo - cities, rural, Indian country/energy, environmental & health
http://ping.fm/hSNQw

Health 2.0: Place Based Intelligence - Spatial roundtable discussion (via @LindaHecht)
http://ping.fm/kaP3c

"The 'Web Squared' Era" - The Web is gaining ears, eyes and other senses... Links to examples. (via @timoreilly)
http://ping.fm/1gem9

"Confronting Climate Change" - Google Earth 5 Tour narrated by Al Gore. http://ping.fm/gZpnz
(via @gearthblog)

Google Earth climate change tools for COP15 (Dec. 09 global discussion on climate change)
http://ping.fm/sD0PU

"RAISE YOUR VOICE & change climate change!" -Send videos w views, opinions & questions for COP15.
http://ping.fm/zzZno

FCC Chairman Genachowski announces new "Open Internet.gov" web site.
http://ping.fm/y5nHs

I read "Bearing Witness 2.0" - Stories about tragic human cost of corruption & greed related to financial crisis.
http://ping.fm/EcccV

FCC Chairman to outline rules for "net neutrality" (free and open Internet) on 9/21/09 http://ping.fm/rd9lG

Celebrate One Web Day - 9/22/09 - "One Web. For All"
http://onewebday.org/ (via ReadWriteWeb)

RT @gearthblog Funny video about mapping converging with reality: http://bit.ly/BJv3K

RT @PulseonTech Mysterious Tubular Clouds Defy Explanation | Wired Science | Wired.com http://bit.ly/vWYVw

Frank Rich, NYTimes, -Real "Economic Rage" in America is shared by many more citizens than "Glenn Beck" & far right.
http://ping.fm/RxtFN

Thoughts about The Future of the Social Web?

A few days ago I saw a reference on the NewWest.Net Facebook page pointing to a Nieman Reports article titled "An Explosion Prompts Rethinking of Twitter and Facebook" by Courtney Lowery, Editor at NewWest.Net. I wrote a comment that I posted under the article.

This is a summary statement she made at the end of the article:

"Just like every other news organization—online and offline—we’re still assessing just how and when to use social media. There are still a lot of unanswered, even unasked, questions. But it’s here to stay—and it’s here to help us, if we can get past seeing it as a marketing vehicle and learn how to use it to create community by developing a relationship with our readers.

I will post my comment to the article below and also add a link a link to a related article I found at destination CRM..com written by Jessica Tsai, titled "Social Media: The Five-Year Forecast." This article examines in detail the Forester Research Report by Jerimiah K. Owyang titled "The Future of the Social Web" (This link goes to an executive summary of the report which is available for purchase.

Gary O. Grimm says:

September 16, 2009 at 4:09pm

You have provided very good insights Courtney that other government agencies, organizations and businesses could benefit from. The Web started by being a way to push selected information to a wider audience via a web site. Over the past 15 years some organizations have slowly provided more interactive opportunities on their web sites. For years there have also been numerous (probably millions) of small citizen initiated interactive discussion groups and forums. But more recently we are experiencing the growth of big organized social networking systems like FriendFeed, MySpace, FaceBook and Twitter. Now millions of people are participating in the the most popular of these, FaceBook and Twitter. Unfortunately these services often compete to try to dominate one another.

My research indicates that this is just the beginning of this social networking phenomenon. Sooner than we think, I believe, all of these services will become aggregated into something different, where an individual person and their activities, ideas and civic engagement will become the focus. This network won't have a corporate name, but will operate on topics of personal interest. Hopefully many of these interests will be aimed at citizens involvement in important social, civic and environmental issues.

"Scitable" A new collaborative network for Science -Create topic groups, contribute content & ideas.
http://ping.fm/s3kll

The Future of Social Networking? Built around topics instead of relationships.
http://ping.fm/EGSki

CitySourced mobile tool civic engagement tool powered by FreedomSpeaks, "the leader in interactive civic engagement."
http://ping.fm/AFyhA

CitySourced providing free simple and intuitive smart phone tool for reporting issues to 1900 cities. see video! http://ping.fm/sxO7O

Cell phones are becoming city reporting tool for civil issues like potholes, graffiti, with Online priority rating.
http://ping.fm/GHTQC

U.S. Dept. of Agriculture populating Facebook site with new "citizen connect" initiatives.
http://ping.fm/NMsST

Dangermond video. Govt workers & ordinary citizens blend data to create powerful "GeoWeb" maps. (via @LindaHecht) http://ping.fm/IF4vg

Apps.gov - new web site to promote lower cost, faster, sustainable govt. services. http://ping.fm/po8DO

Vivak Kundra announcing the launch of Apps.gov to lower cost & drive innovation.
http://bit.ly/appsdotgov (via @timoreilly)

Andrew Turner Gov 2.0 Summit Video presentation about 2 way "location" collaboration between governments and citizens.
http://ping.fm/hfFQK

Jack Dangermond, Gov 2.0 Summit video
"GeoEnabling Gov 2.0"
"GeoWeb" Connecting Govt & Citizens geographic knowledge.
http://ping.fm/Vosz9

"Apps for Democracy - Community Edition" D.C. contest resulted in "digital democracy model for governments everywhere."
http://ping.fm/B38XM

Open Government Initiative "Regulations.gov Exchange" Public can post opinions- Participation is Democracy in Action.
http://ping.fm/ndBkD

FCC using Web 2.0 Tools to increase "Open Government" accessible forums for public participation.
http://ping.fm/7KnuJ

Federal Communication Commission launching social media sites -Facebook -Twitter-YouTube-IdeaScale-Blogband -RSS
http://ping.fm/Mhukh

Water polluters map for Idaho
http://ping.fm/NaO9c

Read review of Book "INSIDE OF A DOG: What Dogs See, Smell, and Know. By Alexandra Horowitz http://ping.fm/AUri0

Article in Idaho Statesman about volunteer attempts to control Puncturevine "Goatheads" in the Boise Foothills. http://ping.fm/gPwS8

All about "Burning Man" web site. http://ping.fm/4jES2 & "Burners Without Borders" community projects.
http://ping.fm/MZBeJ

Interesting article "The Truth About Burning Man" -no one makes a buck, and with more creativity than you've ever seen.
http://ping.fm/iTSDR

The Intersection of Art, Crickets and Science. Welcome to create opportunities for participation & start new projects.
http://ping.fm/fa1tW

Great song recordings and excellent photos of Crickets and Katydids.
http://ping.fm/zh25V

"NYC Cricket Crawl" Sat. Sept. 12, A call for citizen scientists, artists, naturalists, & scientists. (via @eoflife)
http://ping.fm/85TQf

New Google Earth 5.1 Upgrade runs layers & content faster & smoother. Details and download link @ Google Lat Long Blog:
http://ping.fm/Oq6lx

"Geospatial tools offer killer app for Gov 2.0"
J Dangermond, R Greenberg, A Turner http://bit.ly/3tbCcK (via @NN4D)

Opportunities for governments emerging from citizens sharing & collaborating on mapped-based information. A Turner p.2 http://ping.fm/WxoPQ

Geography is a common pivot point for providing in context data. 74 % of govt services tied to locations- A Turner p2.
http://gcn.com/Articles/2009/09/09/Geospatial-tools-offer-killer-app-for-Gov-2.0.aspx?Page=2

New USDA Food Safety.gov Consumer Web site lets you ask questions and report problems.
http://ping.fm/9FJ8M

RT PaulMiller: RT @jtrant: how do scientists feel about sharing data? special feature in Nature http://bit.ly/5Sj1u

President Obama's Health Care speech / important perspective by Bill Cunningham "He Roped the Dopes" http://ping.fm/1du4n

W3C releases, "Publishing Open Government Data" guide for putting data on Web for public use. http://tinyurl.com/l3k7tn (via @vera_newhouse)

RT @vera_newhouse: Top 5 Web Trends of 2009: The Real-Time Web RWW via NYT http://tinyurl.com/kwmmta

Detailed description of current visibility of Shuttle and Space Station in evening skies Tues. & Wed.
http://ping.fm/mvE55

Just saw the bright reflection of International Space Station & Discovery over Boise. Map shows where it is now.
http://ping.fm/zWKKu

RT @GaryPHayes Facebook's most popular apps ever? Farming, harvesting virtual fruit/veg, 72 million farmers & growing! http://twurl.nl/kzvups

"This We Know": New Semantic Web App Tames Massive Data Sets from Data.gov
http://ping.fm/1X8MQ

Data.gov encourages public to" Discover, Participate & Engage" & offers 3 searchable catalogs: "Raw" Data, Tool, Geodata.
http://www.data.gov/

RT @AlexSteffen Collaborative Services: How to Have More By Owning Less http://bit.ly/X58fd Right on. (via @timoreilly)

Environmental Networking Book / "Collaborative Services- Social innovation & design for sustainability."
http://ping.fm/MeNsR

Another Goathead cleanup/eradication day. Sept. 12, 9:AM. Meet at Foothills Learning Center.
http://ping.fm/57ImE

USDA launches Enhanced Rural Tour website & New Media Efforts "Join the Conversation" Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, Blog....
www.RuralTour.gov

Gov 2.0 Summit Schedule Sept 9-10, 2009 Sample Sessions and Speakers http://ping.fm/KOM2K Full Schedule http://ping.fm/7I31m

Tim O'Reilly podcast on Open Source For America http://ping.fm/K9jhZ &
Gov 2.0 http://ping.fm/rjYvj

Article "Facebook Exodus" http://ping.fm/QEiSw and Google Search for rebuttals. http://ping.fm/YMvWl

Ecological Debt Article "We are all Madoffs - Our relationship to the natural world is a Ponzi scheme."
http://ping.fm/KOBVX

12 Yr Study: Online Education Beats the Classroom, expanding value with Web-based video, IM, and collaboration tools.
http://ping.fm/5vumm

Paul Krugman http://bit.ly/jG4IS - Reformers are up against deeply entrenched interests defending a deeply dysfunctional political system.

"Change Congress" http://ping.fm/rZajl "Fair Elections Now" http://ping.fm/PzKWN

E.O. Wilson-An Open Mic Discussion of Life & Games. "I think games are the future of education."
http://ping.fm/ctLeF