The White House Office of Science & Technology Policy (OSTP) is using MixedInk to enable citizens to draft collective recommendations for the open government directive!

From the blog on WhiteHouse.gov:

President Obama issued a Memorandum on Transparency and Open Government in which he called for recommendations on making the government more transparent, participatory, and collaborative.

From the start, the White House Open Government Initiative has approached the crafting of these recommendations in an open fashion.

[snip]

Today, we ask you to work together to draft recommendations that translate good ideas and lofty principles into specific actions that can be taken to achieve open government. This Drafting Phase invites you to collaborate on creating recommendations for open government policy using a web-based wiki tool.

The collaborative drafting process is hosted by MixedInk here.

MixedInk has been used by a number of media companies, advocacy groups, and elected representatives to gather citizen input, but this project represents the biggest step we’ve taken yet towards fulfilling our mission.

When we set out on this journey, we were driven by a desire to empower regular citizens – we wanted to make it easy for people to exert their collective strength by speaking with a single voice, loud and clear. We sought to create a system that would enable people to express nuanced opinions about complex issues together. The approach had to be democratic and meritocratic, so that the collective voice would carry the weight of the individuals behind it. We believed groups possessed immense collective wisdom, but they lacked a way to synthesize their best and most eloquent ideas concisely.

In addressing these broad challenges, we developed a system through which policymakers can gather feedback democratically and transparently, without being overwhelmed by the task of processing it – by giving the community the responsibility for curating and judging the content it creates.

Mass citizen-to-government communication is an area with great promise. We’re inspired to see the Administration trailblazing through uncharted territory, and redefining policymaking in the process. It’s truly an honor to be part of this innovative initiative.

The final phase of the Open Government Initiative will last just one week, so be sure to add your $.02 while the project is underway. Your recommendations will inform the drafting of an “Open Government Directive” to Executive Branch agencies. If you’re new to MixedInk, check out our demo video first.

If you work at a government agency or hold elected office, we’d be happy to brainstorm potential applications and explore customization options. You can reach us at government [at] mixedink [dot] com.

You may have noticed that we tend to update our blog pretty infrequently. We’re sorry! This is not due to a lack of news to share - it’s just that, these days, the time needed to write a blog post doesn’t seem to be available all that often.

So we’ve started using Twitter to share news about MixedInk in smaller, bite-size pieces.  We’ll still post here at our blog, but those who want to hear the latest should definitely follow us on Twitter at twitter.com/mixedink.

As a teaser, here’s our latest tweet…

MixedInk is excited to be participating in the Innovation Incubator Program at this year’s SIIA Ed Tech Summit in San Francisco. We’ll be presenting at the conference and demoing in the exhibit hall - there’s also a virtual exhibit set up at: http://k-12.veplatform.com - check it out!

For those of you who have been tracking MixedInk’s progress, you might be surprised to see us at an education-focused conference. While our platform was originally designed as a tool for citizen engagement, we’ve been excited to see a lot of use among educators. We have also had other positive feedback from educators; aside from being selected for this conference, we’ve been covered enthusiastically by a number of education blogs, the service is being included in MIT’s New Media Literacies learning library, and - most importantly - teachers have given us great feedback.

Within the classroom, it generally works as follows: First, a teacher sets up a project for their class describing the collective text the students will create. Then, students submit their own versions of the text, edit their peers’ work, and weave different versions together to form new ones. At the same time, students comment on submissions and rate different versions to bring the best written, most popular ideas to the top. At the end, the class can explore the strengths and weaknesses of the top-rated collective text(s).

Using a democratic and collaborative system, the tool encourages students to take creative risks in their writing, understand varying perspectives among their peers, evaluate the quality of what they are reading, and gain experience working as members of a team. The process increases student engagement by building on their online behavior outside the classroom, fostering a sense of community among students, and enabling peer-to-peer learning.

MixedInk was recently selected as a finalist for the We Media “pitch it” competition.  We’ve got a shot at the $25,000 award!

It’s a huge honor to be selected as a finalist from among over 400 entries.  But win or lose, the We Media conference will be a fantastic opportunity to meet and pitch MixedInk the entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs who are shaping the media of tomorrow.

You can vote for our contest entry here: http://www.changemakers.net/en-us/node/16890

The judges will be taking the community’s votes into account when they make their verdict, so your votes will make a big difference.

I’ll be representing MixedInk at the conference in Miami.  If you’ll be at the conference and would be interested in meeting up, drop me an email (david-at-thisdomain) or just stop by our booth in the gallery.  Hope to see you there!

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Belated update: MixedInk finished in second place (the judges said it was tantalizingly close) behind SeeClickFix.  They’ve created an online platform that lets citizens point out non-emergency issues, like potholes, and enables public officials to manage the complaints and respond in transparent fashion.  They were a worthy competitor, and a fun bunch of guys to boot.  Check out their site at www.seeclickfix.com.

It was great hanging out with all the contest finalists in Miami, as well as leaders and innovators from across the social media spectrum - we heard about some very cool projects in the works.  Hope to see everybody back at We Media again next year!

The People’s Inaugural Address concluded last week - it was a huge success!  When all was said and done, over 400 people had contributed (not including the 43 presidents).  You can find a copy-edited version of the final collective address here and the site where it was created here.

The project earned quite a bit of attention from the media and blogosphere.  One person, taking advantage of the fact that the inaugural addresses were published under a creative commons license, even created a free e-book from all the different submissions.  See our recent buzz for more highlights.

One last thing to bring to your attention - here’s Slate’s Michael Newman being interviewed on the WNYC’s Brian Lehrer show about the project.

He does a pretty nice job of explaining how MixedInk’s process works.  We also thought this “word cloud” that WNYC created using from the People’s Inaugural Address was pretty cool:

All in all, this was a pretty innovative project, and a great way to kick off the grand adventure that is MixedInk.

A big thanks to Slate - and to all who contributed!

See for yourself: www.mixedink.com

‘Nuff said!

Update: We’ve just been written up at TechCrunch!   (As a bonus, our site seems to be humming along despite the additional traffic…we’ve heard horror stories).

MixedInk is thrilled to be working with Slate Magazine, which is inviting its readers to collaborate on their own inaugural address.

Join the fun!

www.mixedink.com/slate/inauguraladdress

Here’s the press release:

WASHINGTON - (Business Wire) Slate, the daily online magazine, today launched “The People’s Inaugural Address”, a collaborative, interactive feature that lets users compose, edit and vote for the speech they would want President-Elect Barack Obama to give at his inauguration. Guided by a database of inaugural addresses from past presidents, users will be able to select favorite phrases from previous inaugural speeches and use their own words to create an ideal address.

Powered by cutting-edge technology from MixedInk, “The People’s Inaugural Address” is more than a wiki since it allows anyone to write, remix and rate speeches while synthesizing a variety of opinions to determine the most popular. Slate will feature the top-rated speeches, and visitors can search for other user-generated speeches by author or phrases.

“Combining words from every inaugural address from George Washington to George W. Bush plus ideas and input from the everyday American allows us to create something defined by the country,” said David Plotz, Slate’s Editor. “Slate has always used the Internet to get people to interact in unique ways. We are excited that The People’s Inaugural Address lets anyone participate in speechwriting while commemorating this historic moment.”

Users can create, edit, remix and rate inaugural addresses now through January 16, when Slate will highlight the top-rated speeches and ask users to cast final votes for their favorite ones. On January 19, Slate will publish the top-rated address that is truly of, by, and for the people.

To visit the feature, go to www.slate.com.

About Slate Magazine (www.slate.com)

Slate is a daily online magazine that offers fresh angles on stories in the news and innovative entertainment coverage, all with its signature wit and irreverence. Pushing the boundaries of convention, Slate publishes provocative commentary on topics such as politics, culture, business and technology. Slate reaches 6.7 million online adults a month according to Nielsen and is published by The Slate Group, an online publishing subsidiary of The Washington Post Company (NYSE:WPO).

About MixedInk (mixedink.com)

MixedInk is an Internet startup that has developed innovative, online software for democratic, collaborative writing. The platform enables large groups of people to speak with a collective voice by weaving their language, ideas and opinions into a single text. MixedInk’s site was used by a group of online activists in summer 2008 to create a political platform, a piece of which was subsequently included in the official Democratic Party platform. The company will launch its free public service in January 2009.

Slate Magazine
Jennifer Lee
703-469-2671
jennifer.lee@wpni.com

When holiday travel forces you to sacrifice Internet access for hours, or even days…make a demo video!  That’s what we did.

Check it out:

Let us know what you think!

On behalf of Team MixedInk, a very sincere thanks to my wife Sarah for lending her fabulous voice to the cause.

I showed MixedInk’s demo at the last NY Tech Meetup on Nov 11.  I’m always energized to see all the amazing startups and intrepid entrpreneurs in this city!  We received great feedback after the event, and it seems people are excited to try MixedInk when it launches.  (If you can’t wait, just send us an email at info@mixedink.com and we are happy to get you started now.)

Other startups in the lineup were:

• Freshman Fund - a gift registry to get started on your childrens’ college savings
• AdaptiveBlue (Glue) - to connect with people around music, movies, & books based on the websites you visit
• 10gen - a cloud computing platform that seemed pretty sweet (says MixedInk’s programmers)
• Cookstr - your favorite cookbooks & chefs’ recipes online, fully searchable by everything from mood to texture
• Wee Web - to privately share your children’s pics
• Co-op - twitter for your work team (we’ve been using it - very fun!)
• Habitat Map - curious where your closest waste transfer site is?  Look no further.

The NY Tech Meetup will be changing leadership, and in the process it will transform from an event to an organization.  There’s definitely a lot of potential there, and I’m looking forward to seeing how it evolves.

Those in the Washington, DC area this week may want to join MixedInk at the Center for American Progress’ Internet Advocacy Rountable.  This month’s event addresses “Crowdsourcing Message and Policy Development,” a topic we think and write about a LOT (as regular readers of our blog know).

Joining me on the panel will be Michael Yaki, the National Platform Director for the Obama Campaign this year, and Brian Young, Senator John Kerry’s Internet Director.

Here’s the event description:

In 2006, with less money and less name recognition than his opponent for Senate, incumbent Orrin Hatch, Pete Ashdown took an innovative approach to his campaign website. Harking back to a tradition of elected representatives being delegates of their constituents will (rather than trustees), Ashdown included a wiki on his website where voters could edit and develop his campaign platform. This collaborative process, made easy by the web, foreshadowed a growing practice of letting large groups of citizens to collaborate on developing political messages and policy platforms.

But why should we let the crowd do this? According to James Surowiecki, author of The Wisdom of Crowds, large groups of people are simply smarter than small groups and individuals, on average. For example, Elizabeth Noelle-Neumann, in The Spiral of Silence, shows that long before asking people in surveys “who they will vote for” can effectively predict an upcoming election, asking them “who they think will win” will get the prediction right.

Join us on Thursday, October 16, 2008, from 3:00 pm to 5:00 pm for the Internet Advocacy Roundtable as we discuss crowdsourcing message and policy platforms with a panel of speakers who have managed crowdsourcing programs and developed new software to make these programs more effective.

The Center for American Progress is a progressive think tank, but people of all political stripes with an interest in the democratization of politics and policy are welcome.  Note that an RSVP is required.

See here for details:

http://www2.americanprogressaction.org/o/507/t/124/event/index.jsp?event_KEY=20520

Hope to see you there!