Think New Orleans Mission Statement
From New Orleans Wiki
Please leave your thoughts on the mission statement at the mission statement discussion post on the Think New Orleans weblog.
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Our Mission
Think New Orleans is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to explore and implement Internet based strategies for inclusive and widespread civic engagement. At Think New Orleans we develop solutions to increase the productivity of neighborhood and civic organizations, with the belief that civic productivity is driven by knowledge, participation and consensus.
Note: The above mission needs to be refined so that it includes, a faith in the ability to for informed citizens to make wise decisions, the value of open information and collaboration, that collaboration brings about consensus, task-driven citizen engagment, allowing people to define thier own tasks, and a belief that public information and open information should not have to be extracted from government or other agencies.
Think New Orleans is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to provide citizens with access to critical information, and to the software, methods and forums necessary to transform this information into civic intelligence.
Think New Orleans is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to provide citizens with the information they need to govern, and software, methods and forums necessary to transform the information into decisions of governance.
At Think New Orleans we believe that
- the information necessary to govern must not be extracted from government agencies, it should be put forword for analysis,
- you cannot protect people from information, you can only harm them by withholding information and,
- the true genius of democracy comes from the unfettered debate of real information by as many people as possible.
Core Values
- We value open data, readily exchanged data.
- We value open source software and the collaboration and innovation that it fosters.
- We value the real world social skills of New Orleanians.
- We value civility in dialog.
- We value concise, productive, goal-oriented communication.
Goals
- Providing citizens with the skills to share information in such a way as to produce knowledge and consensus.
- Providing citizens with the skills to express their ideas to each other and people in power.
- Buttressing existing social networks by sharing and archiving information.
- Promoting the value of brave, forthright dialog and sincere questioning.
How We Got Here
- Recognizing that New Orleanians are overwhelmed with disjointed communications from many different sources in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.
- Recognizing that New Orleanians prefer to meet face to face and are not primary publishers on the Internet, especially the World Wide Web.
- Recognizing that New Orleanians are hungry for opportunities to participate in substantive civic dialog.
