Monday Mailing
Year 22 • Issue 32 02 May 2016 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11.
Four Steps to Enhanced Crowdsourcing ‘Normal America’ Is Not A Small Town Of White People FoodCorps Extends Its Reach in Oregon Front Lines: Klamath Trails Alliance A New Study Looks At Why Bike Share Is So Much Safer Than Regular Biking USDA Unveils New 'Urban Agriculture Toolkit' for Urban Farmers and Agri-business Entrepreneurs 2016 TGM Planning Grant Applications Now Available Cycling Eastern Oregon Plenary Sessions From The True Cost of American Food Conference These Simple Devices Turn Every Sign Post Into A Bike Rack Fundraising Answers Are All Around Us
1. Four Steps to Enhanced Crowdsourcing Over the past decade, crowdsourcing has grown to significance through crowdfunding, crowd collaboration, crowd voting, and crowd labor. The idea behind crowdsourcing is simple: decentralize decision-making by utilizing large groups of people to assist with solving problems, generating ideas, funding, generating data, and making decisions. We have seen crowdsourcing used in both the private and public sectors. In a previous article, "Empowered Design, By 'the Crowd,'" we discuss the significant role crowdsourcing can play in urban planning through citizen engagement.
Quote of the Week: You can't cross the sea merely by standing and staring at the water. ~Rabindranath Tagore
Crowdsourcing in the public sector represents a more inclusive form of governance that incorporates a multi-stakeholder approach; it goes beyond regular forms of community engagement and allows citizens to participate in decision-making. When citizens help inform decisionmaking, new opportunities are created for cities—opportunities that are beginning to unfold for planners. However, despite its obvious utility, planners underutilize crowdsourcing. A key reason for its underuse can be attributed to a lack of credibility and accountability in crowdsourcing endeavors. To access the full story, click here.
Oregon Fast Fact: Hells Canyon is the deepest river-carved gorge in North America. At 7,913 feet, it’s deeper than the Grand Canyon.
2. ‘Normal America’ Is Not A Small Town Of White People Earlier this week, Jim VandeHei, a former executive editor of Politico, wrote an op-ed article for The Wall Street Journal accusing the Washington political establishment of being out of touch with “normal America.” “Normal America is right that Establishment America has grown fat, lazy, conventional and deserving of radical disruption,” he wrote, citing his regular visits to Oshkosh, Wisconsin, and Lincoln, Maine, as his credentials of normality.
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