I was half asleep when I first heard Senator Elaine McCoy’s voice.  She was being interviewed on CBC’s Ottawa Morning about an idea she had for a web site. Government reporting cycles tend to be too long to report in a timely way, she was saying, but if there was a way for Canadians to help the government help Canadians, wouldn’t they? These were temporary measures; they would need to be targeted in order to be effective.

The idea merged all of my interests: to engage with all kinds of Canadians using online technology to crowdsource the reporting of how the Stimulus Budget was impacting citizens and communities might help Canada weather the economic storm.  If we could come up with a way to measure it early and repeatedly, we could have almost real time data on which to base decisions. I was almost sold.

I blogged about it right away. I could see a “Government improvement enabled by citizen monitoring” post two years from now.  I would offer encouragement, if nothing else.

Gwen, at Senator McCoy’s office, e-mailed me that day.  We fixed an appointment for Monday after work, with an agreement that I’d bring some/body(ies) with me.  We needed a number of questions answered to figure out if this idea was do-able.  I didn’t have the expertise.  Luckily two peers, Well, one Peers and one Akerman, responded to my plea for participation.

Richard, Morgen, Gwen, Senator McCoy and I had an excellent first meeting; not least of all due to the coffee.  We shared ideas and gave language to what were still only vague ideas at that point.  We all thought it was possible but we’d have to spend some energy to make it happen. And more than that, we would need to recruit more people.  Senator McCoy had some, I figured I had a couple of people I could call on for help.  We all jumped in with both feet.

This is the first time I enter into a collaborative agreement.  I feel like I should be paying or getting paid.  But mostly I think this is just a really great learning experience.  I call it professional development.  I learn skills I can add to my CV. I work with dedicated experts who sit patiently through theories about Zombies2.0. and questions about twitter etiquette or iPhone apps.  So far so good, if we can get some momentum going, I really think we could create a platform to let citizens and government interact while we figure out how to do more with less.

Can’t wait to hear your ideas about what we could do with this site.

In February of 2009, I ran across a posting in the barcampOttawaGov list, “VisibleGovernment.ca @ Fresco’s on Elgin“.  After some email exchange with Laura Wesley, I attended and got to see a very interesting presentation by Jennifer Bell of VisibleGovernment.ca about the Benefits of Open Government Data.

In early March, I received a message from Laura about a very interesting idea, and along with Morgen we started a  series of meetings and discussions around the idea of StimulusWatch.ca  There are many more players than just us, but we have been doing some of the core work around getting the site up, with great support from the hosting service, Lexicom.

It has been my best experience so far of a technology-enabled collaboration, whether it’s emails back and forth each day, using Google Docs, meeting in person for brunch, working for hours at coffee houses, or using multiple laptops and a projector in Laura’s home office.

I’m excited about the prospect of using modern technology and citizen engagement to help us track the stimulus spending.

We’re still working on our full launch (the temporary wiki will soon be replaced by a real site), but we thought you might like some background on how we all came together.

Side note 1: We surveyed the tag space, and it looks like stimcan is the best one to attach to this project.  Please feel free to use it (or on Twitter, #stimcan) when discussing the project.

Side note 2: Other than being inspired by them, we are not officially associated with the US StimulusWatch.org in any way.

There’s lots more to come…

On a March morning I tuned into CBC Radio One to catch the day’s news. I heard Senator Elaine McCoy speak about Budget 2009, its unique context and its hurried production. Reporting needs were increasing with the added demands of a ‘timely, targeted, and temporary’ stimulus bill. Senator McCoy asked how the stimulus could be tracked for efficacy and timeliness. Further, how can the experiences of those on the ground filter up into the national conversation? Laura Wesley pro-actively responded to the practical needs articulated by Senator McCoy. In turn, I responded to Laura’s initiative. Soon, I was collaborating with a small group to co-ordinate an alternative online resource, dedicated to principles of non-partisanship and open data - StimulusWatch.ca. Or in French - SuividelaRelance.ca

I will contribute to the site’s popular relevance by encouraging the participation of information designers, and other visual specialists. By rendering facts, trends, and patterns of growth in visual terms, the results of a complex process are made interpretable to the average person. By providing multiple channels for contribution and participation, our novel deployment of media is allowing average people to participate in above-average ways.