About
The federal government has put together Budget 2009, a 2 year stimulus package to help boost the Canadian economy.
The government says it wants the stimulus to be targeted, timely and temporary. How will they, and we, know if the programs are working? Normal monitoring methods are usually very slow and may not give the government enough information to adjust the programs as needed before the 2 years run out. They need your help.
The Spirit of the Initiative
Our description of the initiative’s spirit is also like a values statement.
How is it OPEN?
Everyone involved sees the potential for sharing more data and information across disciplines, sectors, and departments. Releasing data releases private and public effort. In a large-scale way, the open sharing of data and related records encourages civic engagement, from the level of programmers and developers through to the discerning community groups and other representative bodies.
How is it NON-PARTISAN?
Because civic engagement of the body politic is the aim, each contributor to the project has come on board wearing their citizen’s cap. We’re finding that a lot gets done when we put our heads together. We invite widespread participation from all groups who share our concerns for timely and coherent reporting. Our invitation is extended in hopes that together we’ll discover best practices given our novel tools and traditional needs.
How is it PARTICIPATORY?
Using the Internet as a primary platform, this citizen-initiated project encourages the broad, voluntary participation by active Canadians. We invite citizens from the public, private & non-profit sectors to share their knowledge, self-organize and submit ideas. Where do you fit in? Can you lend a helping hand?
Modes of Participation
Do you write? or report? How about programming? Can you apply yourself in the packaging of data for public consumption? Are you a good storyteller?
There are a number of neighbourhoods in our village, each inhabited by different (online) communities.
The site aims to frame the dialogue about various aspects of the budget, its development and implementation, with broad connections to all current and emerging resources aggregated by the project.
The wiki is a public resource, where you can start an initiative to contribute to the project’s broader goals. Log-in now.
Project members will document their insights and some of the challenges of collaborative project management on this blog. By sharing our reflections and reviews about the logistics of self-organizing, we hope to inform others who wish to do the same.
The database will contain data sets which aid in monitoring the impact of the Budget. The database is yet to be built; any volunteers?
Contact us at info(at)stimuluswatch.ca if you want to be involved.
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