Wiki Goverment

I have chosen Beth Simone Noveck, author of Wiki Government, as my social innovation role model. Ms. Noveck is a professor of law at New York Law School. Her bio on the school's web site lists quite a few achievments and projects that she is currently working on, but what makes her my choice for a role model is her work on the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's Peer to Patent program. This program, detailed in her book, improves the efficiency, productivity, and effectiveness of the office by improving the decisions of the patent examiners. Peer to Patent has accomplished this by allowing volunteers to submit information that patent examiners use to decide whether or not a patent application is approved. The web based system that was set up to facilitate this interaction is a great example of the potential of technology for fostering collaboration. I would highly recommend her book to anyone who is interested in strengthening democracy and/or designing new tools for collaboration.

I am currently working on a project that will attempt to do something similar (i.e. foster collaboration online that leads to real world solutions and actions) in my hometown of Buffalo, NY. The idea is to create a website called ReBuffalo.org that will give people a new way to work together to solve problems and then meet up in the real world to take action (e.g. rehabilitate entire city blocks http://bit.ly/9OtBSK). The motto of the ReBuffalo project is ReBuff Cynicism, ReBuff the Status Quo, ReBuff Politics as usual. The project is still early in the planning stages and no idea is off the table (e.g. Evoke has prompted me to consider designing the site as a game), so if anyone out there has any advice on how to design the ReBuffalo.org site please let me know.