north-america

patcon 09:29:21

Hmm. The, I'm only aware of the UK okfn activities. I've never run into cdn folks on github or in my toronto life.

ODI has a chapter in Toronto that Bianca wylie is director of (she should be on this slack soon)

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canadian_aaron 13:38:55

I see.

canadian_aaron 13:39:47

I’ve been kicking around an idea about a “North America” or “Americas” civic tech network since taking part in PDF17.

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canadian_aaron 13:40:16

There doesn’t seem to be much connection between Canada civic tech groups with Latin America and the Caribbean

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canadian_aaron 13:42:04

Had a chat with Miguel Salazar from Codeando Mexico, and he was down with the idea of forming such a network.

canadian_aaron 13:42:30

g0v.tw is really trying to build a regional network in East and Southeast Asia.

canadian_aaron 13:42:44

It would be great if North America could try the same.

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patcon 00:54:29

ProgCode! Just heard about them, and very VERY inspired by then. Run through their bombarding and see what you think

They seem very decentralized and horizontal, which particularly appeals to me, and which I value highly in g0v

patcon 00:56:57

Some friends from the Toronto community have been working hard on Code for Canada. I'm so excited for their partnerships and placement of civic tech community members in gov, but I also think there's room for something else...

patcon 00:58:31

Interestingly, Canada has many multilingual needs, and it informs our tool use and building, especially at the national level where bilingualism is important

patcon 00:58:59

For example, pol.is convos would need to support both English and French to be fully appreciated and integrated by gov

patcon 01:00:44

So I wonder whether canada might be well suited to create spaces for bridging language divides (Spanish-English, Portuguese-english, French-spanish, etc), since we already have very compelling reasons to forge multilingual conversations within our own context...

patcon 01:00:48

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

patcon 01:09:39

If possible, would love to do a video call before tues at 4pm ET: myself and Gabe Sawhney (ED at Code for Canada) are having a casual meeting where I'm hoping to discuss transparency and horizontal organizing of our local civic tech group, of which we're both organizers. I find myself very inspired by g0v and progcode lately, and wondering how those values might translate

mglee 11:27:43

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jpmckinney 05:38:59

@canadian_aaron There aren't too many Canadian civic tech organizations that show up to international events (outside US). At OGP Paris, for example, Canadian civil society included Open North, Publish What You Pay Canada… and individual Canadians working for non-Canadian organizations. IODC also had OpenNWT. OGP Mexico also had Powered by Data. Until recent years, it's sometimes just been me from Canadian civil society at such events! Better connections would be great, but just flagging that there's a degree of ambition or interest that's missing within Canadian civic tech. You may find it easier to focus on US-MX to start a network, as the CSOs in those countries show up more.

jpmckinney 05:40:20

@canadian_aaron Also, OK has no chapter in Canada. It has two 'ambassadors', but I don't think they are much active in that role anymore.

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patcon 12:46:00

cc: @noneck @itsmisscs @lizbarry

patcon 12:49:12

@canadian_aaron also, Open Data Institute (ODI) might be relevant. Bianca Wylie runs it, and she's a public consultation professional who's very interested/active in Toronto vTaiwan discussions and civic tech more generally

lizbarry 19:26:12

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lizbarry 19:27:51

NYU's GovLab does massive networking across western hemisphere civic tech. Do you know Dinorah? @patcon met her while he was in NYC recently.

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lizbarry 19:28:49

Well perhaps I might say hub and spokes vs network

canadian_aaron 17:01:58

There seems to be some interest in this it seems from others, this is good to see

canadian_aaron 17:03:15

@patcon I put this off last month because I'm preparing to move from Taiwan to Toronto this August 15th, but did you want to have a short chat via google hangout sometime after August 1st?

canadian_aaron 20:11:07

This is good to hear! what kind of exchange activities do they do?

lizbarry 04:17:39

Let's ask Dinorah! I will text her and find out

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canadian_aaron 18:30:13

Thanks @lizbarry! I would love to see what kind of outreach is already happening by US civic tech org’s to caribbean and latin america.