Vets Needed

Thanks to Doc for helping Ethan Zuckerman and me advertise for Internet vets to vet the accumulating activism tools for our nascent Open Republic effort. Since all but my 15 readers have missed this groundswell, the back story is that a small bunch of us are looking for volunteers to serve on one of three blue ribbon advisory panels (your reward will be a blue ribbon and a certificate suitable for framing).

1. The Review Board will survey the available tools so the Open Republic Foundation can host its flagship effort–sort of an activist consumers’ union–granting a Good Nationkeeping Seal of Approval for the tools providing the best user experience:

   A comprehensive and comprehensible guide to the online organizing of campaigns

2. The Innovations Board will describe tools in the guides that need improvement and new tools to fill in the gaps among those tools:

   Stimulate the creation of excellent campaign and governance software and Internet resources.

3. The Acceptance Board will exercise quality control over the work performed for the Innovations Board:

   Review work commissioned for the Open Republic Foundation and accept or reject it as fast as humanly possible.

The Pitch

If you’re interested in so serving, please comment below or send me an email specifying which board you wish to serve on. Naturally, each board will hire experts to do the grunt work, so your work is to be a grizzled veteran whom the foundation will honor and publicize for your wisdom and insight.

Heh. Then you will be slowly sucked into the actual work and schmoozing that attracted us to you in the first place. At least that’s how it’s worked on every board I’ve served on.

Don’t be shy! Step right up if you feel qualified and energized. For those who know that Ethan or I will be contacting you, well, this would be the time to make a great show of grace and noblesse oblige and step right up. You have been warned…

6:05:35 PM