Code for Boston in association with Northeastern University’s Lab is embarking on a project to help citizens better engage with legislation through a legislative testimony app. The project partners describe this as follows:
This project endeavors to produce a digital public space wherein Massachusetts constituents can share their expertise, stories and opinions on the legislation that shapes our lives. Currently, “public” testimony submitted to legislative committees is kept private. Live testimony is published in unannotated hours-long videos, obscuring the insights of our fellow citizens. We will build on the foundation of www.goodgovproject to create a platform that allows any constituent to provide testimony on any bill, effectively convey this information to the public and legislators, and make information on the legislature’s website more accessible and useful. We hope this space facilitates sharing, learning, and increases our ability to form consensus on key issues.
@mzagaja when you all recruit roles for projects like this, do you often double up? As in, would you recruit multiple GIS people, just in case one person has to drop off? Thinking on how to structure the National Action Teams and wanting to bring in these kind of learnings!
We typically send a general solicitation and will fill as many duplicates as there is interest for, but usually endeavor to have a gang of three that are leads in engineering, design, and product management that are more committed to the project over the long haul. Ideally each of these areas would have a couple folks supporting the leads, and then space for new folks to pitch in as they join us for new member orientation each week. Often times folks will rotate in and out of the teams as their bandwidth allows, but the “leads” are more dedicated over the long haul. However each team is individual and we give them leeway to handle things in the way they want. We’ll circle back with them and create a new recruiting effort if it turns out say all the project managers have left.