Citizenship and Democracy
Leading: Rachel, Brian, Greg
In class this week we will discuss these readings (available on CTools and outside of the SI main office near the GSI mailboxes):
• Walzer, M. “The Idea of Civil Society: A Path to Social Reconstruction” Community Works: The Revival of Civil Society in America. Ed. E. J. Dionne. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution, 1998. (pp. 123-143)
• Boyte, H. C. and N. N. Kari. Building America: The Democratic Promise of Public Work. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1996. (pp. 1-32, 164-178)
• Resnick, Paul. “A Preliminary Classification Scheme for Public Information Work. (http://www.si.umich.edu/~presnick/papers/civicextension/PublicInformationWorkClassification.doc)
Please post your responses, comments, questions, observations, misgivings, concerns, etc. regarding the readings as a comment to this post by Wednesday (11/28) evening. These will be used to lead class discussion on Friday.
Thanks!
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Notes from Friday's class
OCW Michigan
- Many opportunities for involvement next semester
- Differentiate Uof M from MIT – has to have some new, leadership approach
o Pete mentioned initiative to adapt curriculum to Africa
o
NPR/Wallstreet journal
OLPC – one laptop per child
- Had buy one get 1 free promotion
- Brian and Garin ordered one for themselves and gifted the others to developing countries
- Development of “competing” products, e.g. Classmate PC (http://www.classmatepc.com/)
Michael Cohen
Sent email about Google Adwords – ads which Google donated to non-profits – no one to manage accounts for them
Good experience for:
- Interactive advertising, search engine optimization, marketing for nonprofit
- Will get Google Adwords Certification
Ideas for projects next semester:
- OCW
- Food for Thought Groups: GR CMC, One Cleveland
- Greg – University Ubuntu Chapter
- Maurita and Rachel – media center on double decker bus
o Requested help for looking for grants (recent email from Dean Pollack about North Campus grant $)
o Bette’s husband has bus driver certification
o See related busproject.org
- CHI Competition – Jim - Fostering Volunteerism (volunteermatch.org, chicagocares.org)
- URC – Portal for connecting university with local community, promoting local economic development, http://www.urcmich.org/events/engageduniv.html
- Google Adwords
Formal meetings
- luncheons with faculty
- evening get-together (happy-hour?)
Building America Discussion
- Difference between repeat volunteers and one-time volunteers: ownership
- Give people meaningful volunteer tasks since they’re donating the time, encourage them to feel more invested
- ChicagoCares.org – online registration for events
- Organizations assume high turnover rate so don’t invest much/expect much from group volunteer events
- Tangibility is requirement for something to be a public work – Brian said this fits eGov (regulations.gov)
- Trades and some white collar jobs – still have thinking and doing as opposed to wider split (few people design software, many implement it)