Civics 101

[AmyStansbury]

What problem are we trying to solve?

Voter turnout in Austin is shockingly low, especially for millennials. In Austin's last mayoral election, only 15 percent of registered voters cast a ballot (and millennials made up less than 5 percent of the already very small electorate). And the problem extends beyond voting. Many Austinites don't even know the name of the mayor, let alone their City Council person.

This is where Civics 101 comes in. Civics 101 is a new initiative that teaches millennials in Austin how to engage with and participate in local government. So far, we've been doing this with a series of in-person talks and a "Guide to Local Government" coloring book, but it is difficult to reach large numbers of people in this way. Now, we're ready to take our information online, by creating an interactive and educational Civics 101 website that will:

• Teach Austinites the basics of how local government works with a 20 minute interactive mini course
• Connect people with their City Council member and show them how to follow them on social media, etc.
• Match people with nonprofit advocacy organizations in Austin who are looking for volunteers
• Inspire people to get more involved in local government

Who will benefit (directly and indirectly) from this project?

Everyone will benefit from this project! I truly believe that democracy only works when everyone gets involved. Today, Austin's low civic participation rates hurt everyone. When only a few people participate in government, those with the most extreme views often win. That's why it's important to bring more people into the conversation. Civics 101 can help do that.

Where can we find any research/data available/articles?

We currently have a small Civics 101 website page, with some basic information, but as you can see, it isn't very exciting or user friendly. We want to transform this into its own website that really walks you through the info you need to become a more active citizen of Austin - all in 20 minutes or less! http://austineconetwork.com/civics-101/

What help is needed at this time?

We have already taken this project through one hackathon, so we have a basic design layout already nearly complete. What we need now is some additional design help, as well as some assistance in turning the design into a reality. We are looking for UX designers, as well as Wordpress developers.

What are the next steps (validation, research, coding, design)?

See above.

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Project management

Checklist for NEW ideas :baby:

Hey, you're official! You're now part of the growing civic hacking community in Austin. Here's a few things to get started (a couple you've probably already done).

• [x] Create this idea issue
• [x] Flesh out the who, where, and what questions above
• [ ] Start the conversation about this new idea on Slack (this project uses #general )
• [ ] Respond with at least one update on this issue within the next month

Checklist for ACTIVE projects :fire:

Let's get this project started! When this idea starts taking off, the Projects Core Team will start helping this project's lead(s) out with project management and connecting you to resources you may need. To get there, please complete and check off the following:

• [x] Post an update at least once a month to this issue. Use BASEDEF for ideas, but it's ok even if your update is just "nothing new happened this month" or "we saw a small increase in traffic to our app this month". If there's no activity for two months, that's no problem, life happens. We'll just label this as backlog so others know you'll get back to it when you have the time. If nobody hears from you at all in more than two months, we may mark it as abandoned so that others can pick up this idea and run with it.
• [ ] Take 30 minutes to complete Open Leadership 101
• [ ] Create a GitHub repository and Slack channel for work.
• [ ] Create a README file in your project repository. This file should help newcomers understand what your project is, why it's important, and kinds of help you're looking for.
• [ ] Create issues to describe each task that you plan to do or need help with and how a contributor can get started on that task. You might start and stop a lot, so consider issues as your to-do list.
• [ ] Create a team for your core contributors
  • This will make it easier for you to manage your github repo access. People on a team have the same level of access. Admin access will allow your trusted contributors to make changes as needed.
  • You can remove and add people to your team as needed.
  • View some of our teams: https://github.com/orgs/open-austin/teams
  • Note: You can also allow collaborators outside of your team and give them more limited access.
• [ ] Create a user group in Slack so you can "@" your team all at once
  • You'll need permission from a Slack admin, so just mention @leadership on Slack to get this set up.
  • This will make it easier to get the attention of the core contributors of your project in your project slack channel which may have some spectators or more casual contributors.
  • People can be added and removed to your group as contributors join and leave.
• [ ] Create a Google Drive, Dropbox, or other cloud storage to share larger files
  • Github and Data.World are good for code and data, respectively, especially when you need version control. But they're not good for very large files, documentation, articles, etc. A cloud storage option will allow you to easily share, create, and collaborate on documents with your team and help organize ideas and thoughts.
  • Doing this early on can help your team stay organized and to onboard new contributors who wouldn't have access to files you all have shared over email.

Checklist for FEATURED Projects :tada:

To have your project FEATURED on Open-Austin.org, complete the following documentation. In past projects, well-documented featured projects have more contributions than other projects.

• [ ] In your README, link to the Open Austin Code of Conduct or write your own code of conduct.
• [ ] Create file: LICENSE to give your project an open license, allowing for sharing and remixing.
• [ ] Create file: CONTRIBUTING.md so others know how they can contribute.
• [ ] Create an easily shareable project management artifact, like a Civic Tech Canvas or Open Canvas
• [ ] Create an issue on the open-austin.github.io repo with the title Add [my project] to projects page. An Open Austin leader will review this issue and post your project :balloon:
• [ ] Tell the City of Austin. If your idea is in a shareable format and can benefit people around the city, go to that site and follow the instructions on the bottom of the page to showcase your work there.

If you get stuck at any point, feel free to reach out to the leadership team on Slack by adding @leadership to your message. We're here to help you make real changes to our city.

[MinaK]

Hi all, I'm Mina and I'm a UX designer who is new to Austin as well as someone who's trying to start learning about local gov. I'd love to help you achieve your design goals for this initiative!

[AmyStansbury]

Hi Mina, I'd love for you to get involved. I'm actually having a meeting this Wednesday, November 8th at 2:30pm about the project. If you're available, I'd love for you to attend!

If not, let me know some dates/times when you're free and hopefully we can meet again soon.

On Sat, Nov 4, 2017 at 12:11 PM, MinaK notifications@github.com wrote:

Hi all, I'm Mina and I'm a UX designer who is new to Austin as well as someone who's trying to start learning about local gov. I'd love to help you achieve your design goals for this initiative!

— You are receiving this because you were assigned. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub https://github.com/open-austin/project-ideas/issues/116#issuecomment-341913583, or mute the thread https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AM_tqoogS31TIAgdjzuw97QrUt8WoIKmks5szJrYgaJpZM4QE3uK .

-- Amy Stansbury Editor-In-Chief - Austin EcoNetwork http://austineconetwork.com/

609-744-5458 Twitter: @AmyStansbury https://twitter.com/amystansbury Instagram: @AmyStansbury https://instagram.com/amystansbury/ Sign up for the Austin EcoNews! http://austineconetwork.com/user/registerIt's your go-to source for all things environment in Austin. And be sure to follow us on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/AustinEcoNetwork!

[twentysixmoons]

Hey @MinaK and @AmyStansbury. I have another UXer( @anu007 ) Who might be of help as well. IDK how the team looks right now but my understanding is that Anue is more of a junior UXer.

@MinaK she might be help in any work you do and be able to provide feedback and ideas. I've found in the past that working with another designer on a project has helped me stay accountable and get out of my own head. Let us know if she would be of help in some capacity and we'd love an update here on how your Wednesday meeting goes.

[MinaK]

@VictoriaODell An extra person would be great! I'll be at Amy's meeting tomorrow at 2:30, and will definitely update you guys.

@anu007 Let me know if you're available to chat on the phone or over coffee some time.

[anu007]

Hi @MinaK, Sorry somehow I missed the e-mail.It will be great to meet in person and discuss the project.Please let me know when you are free to grab a coffee.Thank you. Thanks, @VictoriaODell for connecting me to @MinaK and to project.

[twentysixmoons]

Hey @anu007, @MinaK , and @AmyStansbury !

Just checking to see if y'all were able to get any work done or if help is still needed for this coming year.

[twentysixmoons]

It should be noted that amy currently has this: http://austineconetwork.com/civics-101/

and released a zine kickstarter that I'm having trouble finding the link to.

[MinaK]

@VictoriaODell Sorry for the late reply! Yes, we've seen the econetwork site + the zine. We actually worked off the zine to develop the new site. I'll get in touch with the other folks for our current status :)

[mscarey]

Very nice website @AmyStansbury! I'm wondering if this project should be marked as completed, or if we should still be on the lookout for volunteers interested in working on it.