Building a Civic Commons

Now that I've joined the Center for Internet and Society at Stanford Law School, it's time I started stretching my blogging muscles here. It's thrilling and humbling to be part of this remarkable community of scholars, activists, and students, and I want to make a good impression on all of you. So: At the risk of starting off slow and self-referential, I'm going to kick off with a short update on Civic Commons, my main endeavor since I left the White House.

Civic Commons is a new non-profit initiative that helps governments build and use shared and open technologies to improve public services, transparency, accountability, citizen participation, and management effectiveness, all while saving money.

Last week marked a couple of important milestones. First, we announced Civic Commons's start-up leadership team, including me as executive director and Nick Grossman as managing director. Second, we announced that the Omidyar Network had made a significant grant to support our launch and operations.

I also penned a kick-off blog post that tries to capture what Civic Commons is about, what it's trying to do, and how it's going to work: Why We’re Building a Civic Commons — And How You Can Be Part of It.

And, if you're a visual person, click here for the video of an overview presentation on Civic Commons I did earlier today at at the Personal Democracy Forum in New York.

I'll continue to post blog-worthy updates here from time to time. (And I'd welcome ideas, feedback, and/or active participation from members of the Stanford community! Civic tech is awesome - don't be shy.)