Going forward

As this blog was produced for a specific occasion, its immediate purpose has been realized. Of course, if the occasion re-presents itself, we hope to be back, along with more bloggers and twitterers and others.

Moving participation in community life and governance to a place which is more common, more open, more available to end users and inhabitants is what this is all about.

Meanwhile, if relevant news, information, appear, let us hear of it. We'll post what we find here and look forward to future virtual town hall meetings in Sarasota.

In a mere 93 years...

Edison Keith Farmhouse, Phillippi Estate Park

According to a report this morning, today marks the 93rd anniversary of the arrival of electricity to Sarasota. Current to the city first turned on here on June 9, 1916. Within a lifetime, the town has gone from no current to the instantaneous currency of Internet access.

It's not easy to imagine the pace of innovation that enabled that to happen; less easy to chart a course knowing that the next 93 years could bring even faster development.

Planning, organizing, protecting and serving a rapidly growing population under such circumstances is not easy. It will require enormous resources of in-depth knowledge, managerial skill, attentive imagination and creativity, and input from as many thoughtful folks as possible. 

Using media that connects people is one way to enrich the viewpoints, and gain intelligent purchase on the complexity of these challenges. (See, for example, The Wisdom of Crowds.) 

We are grateful for the opportunity to be present to blog Sarasota County's first virtual Town Meeting. We trust it won't be the last. And we trust that 93 years from now, town meetings will be substantially different in form, but if anything more essential to stay current with the dizzying pace of change.

Virtual Town Hall gets Press

From the North Port Sun Herald:

Sarasota County residents to weigh in on 'Money Matters'

By CAROL SAKOWITZ
North Port Assistant Editor

  SARASOTA -- The classic town meeting gets an update Monday when Sarasota County holds a virtual town meeting starting at 6:30 p.m.

  The show will be broadcast on Access Sarasota Comcast TV 19/Verizon 21 and streamed online at www.scgov.net/communityconnections.

  The town hall, titled "Money Matters," will focus on the county's annual budget process and is part of an effort to engage its residents in county affairs, according to Crystal Pruitt, head of media relations.

  "It's an opportunity to do something new," Pruitt said.

  The virtual town hall, part of Community Connections, is the first of its kind in the county, but there are hopes that it won't be the last. If successful, there could be others regarding different topics on a quarterly basis.

  The cost to produce the town hall is about $2,500, Pruitt said, with the funding coming from various county sources.

  Monday, viewers should be watching a program that is virtually seamless. Friday afternoon, however, everything was abuzz in the Access Sarasota TV studio on the third floor of the County Administration Center at 1660 Ringling Blvd.

  Technical staff -- director, floor director, cameramen and a host of other personnel -- wore a path from the engineering booth to the stark black set where Pruitt, veteran journalist Ken Jefferson and county budget director and panelist Steve Botelho practiced an introduction and various talking points. In the seats audience members will use, county staffers sat as stand-ins, asking questions and allowing tech personnel to set sight lines.

  Jefferson, who is volunteering his time for the event, and Pruitt will be co-hosts. ("We're lucky to get him," Pruitt said of Jefferson.) Pruitt and Jefferson appeared to have a natural chemistry as they blocked portions of the program, which will include taking questions via studio audience and e-mail, telephone and fax, as well as a previously produced segment on the county.

  Concurrent with the program, viewers can blog their comments on* http://sarasotacommunityconversations.blogspot.com/.

  County Commission Chair Jon Thaxton and County Administrator Jim Ley will join Botelho as panelists. Off-camera, five to six directors of various key departments, such as John McCarthy of Parks and Recreation, will be available to supply their expertise.

  A key and untested component of the program is a "Money Matters" calculator tool that will allow residents who go online after the show to calculate how much their taxes will be, based on the valuation of their home.

  County commissioners have scheduled a series of budget workshops June 16-17, with another, if necessary, on June 19. The total budget this year is $1.1 billion, but the commission's discretionary portion is $243.4 million, or 22 percent.

  Tom Conway, a 10-year county TV engineer, will direct the show. Dave Hannon is the producer.

  Conway said that he and the TV staff are excited about doing the show.

  "It's not every day we get to do something like this," he said.

  E-mail: csakowitz@sun-herald.com

*URL is corrected from newspaper article.

Social Media in Indonesia Bolsters Movement

In Jakarta, a mother's cause becomes a movement:

“People power is real with Facebook, and seeing this reality I am so thankful there’s FB, and I keep thinking, what else can I strive for?” she said.

Ika’s Facebook site and the support and outcry in online virtual communities helped to shift the focus of major news media from days of domestic brouhaha over teen model Manohara Odelia Pinot and her dramatic return from Malaysia over to Prita.

And once major newspapers were putting Prita’s case on their front page, and TV and radio news stations were continuously reporting her case, political figures began to get involved. More.

The above may seem far from our focus on the Sarasota County Budget, but this blog is tracking both our community conversation in Sarasota while keeping an eye on benchmarks of social media along the way.

In that spirit: the Twitter food cart.

How do social media change the conversation?

Time Magazine's cover story this week is about Twitter - it's by Stephen Johnson, and it's a good intro to how users of social media are extending its reach and transforming traditional conferencing and dialog formats. E.g.:

Injecting Twitter into that conversation fundamentally changed the rules of engagement. It added a second layer of discussion and brought a wider audience into what would have been a private exchange. And it gave the event an afterlife on the Web. Yes, it was built entirely out of 140-character messages, but the sum total of those tweets added up to something truly substantive, like a suspension bridge made of pebbles. more here.