wow this is very old from 2005 when lotv had just been born. I came up with the idea in 2004 and registered in Oct of 04 with the state of Texas as a NPO. In 2005 I went for IRS 501c3 status which took 2 yrs!
League of Technical Voters [story] Jack: “to what end” to improve decision making, make our government cheaper and more effective, prevent poor technical decisions by government, Kai: make a slide that is just the title, and second slide is this one. (Otherwise silona gets caught up in explaining this before telling the story) Story must be first! Adina: “The government is not a good buyer” rules have changed for technology and lawmakers are not keeping up: treating new technologies like old and trying to write law based on old laws based on old technology.
Transcript
League of Technical Voters
[story]
Jack: “to what end” to improve decision making, make our government cheaper and more effective, prevent poor technical decisions by government,
Kai: make a slide that is just the title, and second slide is this one. (Otherwise silona gets caught up in explaining this before telling the story) Story must be first!
Adina: “The government is not a good buyer” rules have changed for technology and lawmakers are not keeping up: treating new technologies like old and trying to write law based on old laws based on old technology.
Vision:
The League of Technical Voters is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization
dedicated to motivating and assisting technical experts to improve lawmaking
and governmental process.
Motivate geeksHelp lawmakersHelp admins
The Future We Will Create!• More knowledgeable and accountable legislators and
administrators• New level of openness to government process
(Lawmaking, Bidding)• Strong, influential community of technical activists• Solid source of technical advice and information
available to legislators and administrators• More technical experts on advisory boards directly
influencing procurement and policy decisions• Credible, collaborative news resource for the press
Jack: Focus less on what you know, focus more on what you don’t: how does this impact other areas that you don’t spend time in
Marketing - some money could come from other orgs who want software - missing slide on funding model - part of funding comes from shared dev resources working with other organizations
Bottom Line: Focus more on what will the org will produce and how much it will cost
Must also chop this down to ADD version: someone has 10 - 15 minutes and is focused on six other things. Make this version.
This slide is “how”, but WHAT does this functioning community DO? This should be vision: if we do what we want, what we wind up having is:
-Collaborative news site where people are garthing rich, filtered information-Involved, politically active technical experts-Techies on advisory boards-Influencing procurement and policy decisions directly-Extreme openness in government bidding process
Core Values
• Transparent governmental process and decision making.
• Unbiased and nonpartisan public discussions of technical issues.
• Effective and timely response to rapid changes in technology.
• Decisions based on expert factual, scientific, and technical information rather than special interest or partisan agendas.
Jack: Doesn’t have stances etc, but the org does have values (or should to draw people) “we value visibility into governement ccontracting and decision making” “value having unvested experts involved in decision making” “visibility into lawmaking process”Adina: “technology changes rapidly and it’s important to consider changes when writing new technology legislation (need to respond)”
Another value: “supports decision making based on factual, scientific, and technical information”
Who is our Target Audience?
• Technical Experts • Technical Leaders• Legislators and Staff• Government Administrators and Staff• Visionaries In Technology• Media
Adina: What about journalists? Visionaries? You wouldn’t hire him to build a system, but he’d be great on advisory board: how do you know if he “gets in”?
Jack’s 5 points for org creation: Mission, Vision (in 5 years), Beliefs about the world, Values, Perspective (where today vs vision)
BOUNCE to overexended if needed
The Toolset We Will Use
Interactive Website:• Integration of Social Network,
Communities, Blogging and Activism Tools• Verified user identities and reputation
system insure verifiable resources• Open source platform allows for
community driven expansion
How we will find the People we need
Nurturing tech community growth is crucial• Seed with conference speakers and
celebrity bloggersPolicy Makers• Are hungry for unbiased resourcesMedia• Attracted to verified collaborative
information source
Bounce to we will create an army
Differentiation• Technet.org
– Only organizes top level executives• EFF
– 501c3 Not allowed to focus on lobbying– Primary service is legal assistance
• Partisan groups (Moveon.org) – Decide issues at top level
• Slashdot– News source, but not politically involved
• CPSR.org– Top-down issue based organization
Adina: include CPSA (computer professionals for social responsibility)
The Basic Funding Plan
• Initial site development through sponsorship
• Continued bandwidth and server maintenance covered by user fees
• Additional support from volunteers and sponsors
What it will cost
First YearDevelopment of software
1,503,267.08
One time equipment
335,000.00
Infrastructure 200,000.00
Marketing 645,900.00
Total 2,664,167.08
Following yearsMaintenance of software
1,016,057.80
Infrastructure 200,000.00
Limited Marketing
352,700.00
Total per year 1,568,757.80
Here’s how I came up with my dollar amount: got estimates from tech team, looked at num of people over X time, some extra amount, flat fee for incorporation: They suggest finding marketing and financial people you need NOW. Before you pitch.
Talk about what a phase 1 success looks like: -Marketing to everyone-Building the initial site-Buy materials-Buy bandwidth
Our Current Status and Timeline
Staff:• 9 people currently working on spec• 11 additional employees required
Release:• Beta Release: 6 months from funding • Hoping for March 2006 beta release
How to get the word out needs to be talked about “presence at tech conferences” OSCon, Security and Privacy Conference
Exit Strategy
If the advisory board decides that it is time
to shelve the organization, they will choose the current viable nonprofits who will receive the organization’s assets.
We never see that our social objective will be completed as it is not a finite goal.We hope that user fees and volunteerism to keep the organization running past the point of sponsorship.
Fin
An Interesting Side Effect
Software usable by other nonprofit organizations
• Open source• Ready in one year’s time• Well documented, thoroughly tested
codebase• Large support group and user base
Financials
Software Development ExpensesPersonnel LoadedProject Mgr 103,740.00 Tech Lead 100,282.00 1. 5 System Administrators 123,046.32 QA Lead 84,566.72 DBA 106,400.00 Usability specialist 98,420.00 Graphic Design 66,500.00 4 PHP Coders 319,200.00 Optimizer 93,100.00 Tech Writer 78,174.74 Test Writer 93,100.00 Technology Director 172,900.00 Office Manager 63,840.00 TOTAL 1,503,267.08
Other Expenses
Buildout & Office equip 25,000.00
Production equipment 60,000.00
Database/web servers 250,000.00
TOTAL 1st YR 335,000.00
Overhead 107,400.00
Equipment 92,600.00
TOTAL per YR 200,000.00
Overhead ExpensesMonthly Yearly
Rent/parking 4,500.00 54,000.00
Utilities 450.00 5,400.00
Telephone/Connectivity 900.00 10,800.00
Office supplies 300.00 3,600.00
Food/supplies 1,500.00 18,000.00
Education/books 300.00 3,600.00
Misc 1,000.00 12,000.00
TOTAL 8,950.00 107,400.00
Marketing ExpensesConferences 3/month 144,000.00
Volunteer Coordinator - loaded 79,800.00
Print materials for conferences 10,000.00
Print materials for 4 audiences 40,000.00
Marketing Studies ?
Business Cards 1,000.00
Executive Director - loaded 172,900.00
Web Designer - contractor 60,000.00
Graphics Designer – contractor 40,000.00
Marketing Expert - contractor 60,000.00
Hosting costs - contracted 1,200.00
Miscellaneous costs 10,000.00
2 laptop computers and projectors 7,000.00
Total 645,900.00
Software Maintenance ExpensesProject Mgr 103,740.00 Tech Lead 100,282.00 System Administrator 82,029.08 QA Lead 84,566.72 DBA part time 50,000.00PHP Coder 79,800.00 Optimizer part-time 70,000.00 Tech Writer part-time 36,000.00 Test Writer 93,100.00 Technology Director 172,900.00 Community Coordinator 79,800.00Office Manager 63,840.00 TOTAL 1,016,057.80
Problem
Overextended Policymakers and Administration
• Are uninformed on technical issues• Lack resources to evaluate new
technologies• Rely on sources of information with vested
interests: corporate lobbyists• Lawmakers protect old technologies
instead of fostering new technologies
Anyone who understands a process, such as installing a systsem, this is just another process (gov)
Technical Experts: the Untapped Resource
• Natural Mavens• Have vast knowledgebase
Technical experts rarely involved politically:• Uninformed on political process and language• Perceived time constraints• Disenfranchised as voters• Discouraged by poor Tech Volunteer
management
Kai: Unclean process: perhaps “not always logical” or, maybe, “not clean because requires mechinations that don’t feel entirely honest; being political”
Adina and others: One slide on who are these technical people? They are people who… communicate this way.. Mavens… etc. Here’s what they look like and what will they add - instead of negative, talk right away about this is target population and why.
Adina: within the “ecosystem” are people who have become managers etc. who have tech knowledge but have some people skills too: perfect for this role and all they need is understanding of process
Jack: techies are hooked on making things happen, making change
Adina: Face to Face is THE way to communicate and how things get done. Simply don’t work via email
The Fix
We Will Create an Army of Active Technical Experts
Technical experts become:• Current on relevant legislation• Publishers of expert opinions• Technical advisors• Lobbyists
Sam: Creating culture of involvement
-Phrase silona likes: Collaborative news source
-Call slides “Army of Active Techies” and talk about techies will be doing if this works, and other is “Informed Politicians” and talk about what they will be doing
-Use subheads like children’s story - if you read just the sub heads you should have a high level narrative that reads like children’s story
Stronger Smarter Policymakers and Administrators
Legislators, Administrators and Staff:• Search for and read expert advice• Obtain aggregate opinion data• Request expert, nonpartisan assistance• Develop informed briefing packets from
reputable sources
Adina: Arron Pena has blog and nonpartisan group already working on some tech issues etc. (Good seed?)
Someone listening to this are likely looking for buzzwords that say that you understand the processJack: If you can make staff members look good to their politicians, you win. Pitch this to/collect staff members.
First We Gather the Experts!
Bring Techies together:• Provide fast, relevant, filtered information• Create culture of involvement
– Flexible levels of involvement– Community space
• Educate on current political process
Next We Offer Services to the Policymakers and Administrators
• Verified Information – can check the credentials of a poster
• Easily searched and filtered• Request help and information from our
experts• If topic too complex they can see what
most experts feel is proper action
We Motivate the Experts into Action
• Proactively we send information to policymakers and Adminstrators through typical channels
• We teach Experts how to properly deliver information to Policymakers
• We have experts directly influence creating of legislation and policies by serving on Advisory Boards
Software Development
Feature Milestones
• Milestone 0– Blog Engine– Basic Profile– Polling
• Traffic• Community tools and control• Good culture creation• Reputation system
Look to gaming community for good culture and community tools
Actors• Guest User -> invited ->Registered User -> validated ->
Voter -> good reputation -> Blogger
• Special Case Users with artificially high reputations– Digerati – celebrity bloggers– Executives – corporate voices with security concerns– Informers – watch legislation
• Policymakers: Legislators, Administrators and Staff• LoTV Staff• LoTV Administrators• Community Coordinators
Feature Set
• Blogging software• Social network software • Activism tools• Reputation system• Community Forums• Filtering software integrationAll known pieces of softwareIntegration is new
• Rate Post and Comment• Filtering includes custom user views• Tagging and Tagsonomy• Reputation• Trackbacks• Cross syndication
Social Network
• Profile • Interests • Contact info -varied levels of availablity• Networking (aka friending)• Job validation• Skills ranking• Reputation Ranking
Activism
• Voting – aggregate data for Policymakers• Petitions - public• Customized Emails and Faxes• Community creation• Events postings• Cross links to other websites outside of
LoTV• Advisory boards
Community Forums
• Bulletin boards• Email lists• Calendars• File exchange• Verified groups ie IEEE • Groups have hierarchy• Groups that intra-group relationships
Reputation System
• Individuals direct and indirect• Skills• Posts• Comments• Groups as entities• Group postings and participation• Group members
Filtering
• Multileveled • Posts and comments• Community Forums• Individuals• Groups as entities
