« August 2003 | Main | October 2003 »

September 28, 2003

The ethic of community

So much of what is done has long term impacts on society beyond any intentions and that is what has to be understood and what needs to be focused on. Being able to develop an outlook with the foresight to see the future not in terms of looking at a crystal ball but in terms of long-term strategic community planning. It takes a certain individual to be able to pinpoint places within society where one fork in the road is more advantages than another fork in the road. So many individuals take Adam Smith’s words to heart and believe that pure competition will always benefit the community because for individuals to benefit they have garner capital from the community. However this rational forgets the greatest bargaining problem of them all sometimes they community does not act in its own best interest. In other words a collective bargaining dynamic is net beneficial because it defines public interest in terms of the public not the individual. However, it does not take much to think about the ethic of community in terms of benefiting the community. What is more important that benefiting the community as a whole? If nobody is interested in the long-term development of community an opportunity is lost.

208 words posted by nels lindahl at 09:00 PM | Copyright | Reader Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
This entry is currently stored in the strategic plan category (6)

September 27, 2003

Announcement of a new General Public License

Looking at methods of doing the equivalent of a snap poll on web related data is an interesting way of trying to capture the current state of some issues. Of course, this is not a perfect method or a substitute for regular survey data but it provides a unique and interesting insight into what is currently going on. It also provides a way to survey a developing world that needs to not only be studied but to be studied at the pace of technology which means that adaptation to the learning curve is not only essential but without it the opportunity for learning will have been lost.

Perhaps it is a simple task to search for text on a web page and to do it efficiently in a timely manor that is accurate enough to give a complete picture of something being achieved. In the world of information technology innovation matters and it changes on almost a daily basis so being able to study the world from the perspective of statistical rigor requires a solid method of statistical analysis.

The Civic Honors Project as part of its yearly American National Civic Honors Study, 2003: University Web Page and Honors Department Survey has decided to release the survey engine to the public in the form of a GNU General Public License. More on this development will be released shortly.

228 words posted by nels lindahl at 03:00 PM | Copyright | Reader Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
This entry is currently stored in the news category (9)

September 26, 2003

Introduction to civic honors

“The idea of civic honors is for the community to be able to acknowledge those individuals who are active participants within the community.”

The design of the Civic honors program is to be implemented by a university to bridge academia and involvement in community. The implementation of this idea will involve connecting education to society, first at the university level, then by replication of the program. The positive message is that it is not only possible to spread change within the community but is designed to become a part of the very fabric of the community. Sounding the call for individuals to play a larger roll in fulfilling the needs of the community by finding organizations that they not only feel benefit the community but organizations with which they want to work with. The program will begin by the college providing the opportunity for individuals to not only volunteer within the community but also have the ability to provide an accurate list of opportunities that will allow individuals to find opportunities that resonate with them.

Civic honors has been written to provide a platform for the message about the opportunities to work with the community. The first step is speaking to individuals, organizations, and universities that have the potential to become a vibrant part of the civic honors program. Hopefully, the message about what is possible within the community and how to use technology to bring people together becomes the message from the discussion of civic honors. That message is what designing a civic honors program is all about. Replication is imperative for success. That said, it is not just a program at one university in one community it is something that can expand beyond one community and to society in general. Being aware that resistance to change might occur from changes in the traditional ways individuals become involved in the community.[i] It is not often that individuals within society are introduced to a combination of civic participation with an inherent sense of civility. To work within the community without regard for politics but for the benefit of the society letting the civility or the virtue of citizens enhance society.[ii] Allowing citizens to develop a strong sense of community while empowering them to feel that action is possible creates a model of proactive behavior that enhances volunteering within the community.[iii]

While reading a about the civic honors program references will be made to the university as the principle source for implementing and designing the civic honors program. It is possible for any college to implement and design the program the discussion of universities being the instrument for change does not mean that universities are the only organizations within the community that could develop the civic honors program. Therefore it is ok to make the assumption that university also could be taken as a reference to organizations in general. The positive nature of the message that the civic honors program is attempting to spread does not exclude any actor or organizations from participation. That is the basic assumption that will allow community building in any community developing a stronger society as a whole. The discussion of civic society is not based on the assumption that civil society is linked to democratization. The assumption being made in relation to civic society is that organizations within the community are capable of broadening the concept of civil society in a way that can really benefit the community.[iv]


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[i] David Osborne and Ted Gaebler. 1992. Reinventing Government: How the Entrepreneurial Spirit is Transforming the Public Sector. Addison-Wesley Publishing Company. Pages 1-24.

[ii] Leroy S. Rouner. 2000. Civility. Notre Dame, Indiana: University of Notre Dame Press. Pages 25-36.

[iii] Margaret Bell. 1999. Civic Society at the Millennium. Article: Volunteering: Underpinning Social Action in the Civil Society for the New Millennium. West Hartford, Connecticut: Kumarian Press. Pages 27-42.

[iv] Kimberly Stanton. 1999. The Revival of Civil Society: Global and Comparative Perspectives. Article: Promoting Civil Society: Reflections on Concepts and Practice. New York, New York: St. Martin’s Press. Edited by Michael G. Schechter. Pages 243-252.

678 words posted by nels lindahl at 12:27 AM | Copyright | Reader Comments (0) | TrackBack (2)
This entry is currently stored in the admin category (9)

September 16, 2003

Survey Update

The study is going really well it is taking some time to setup the core of it and write all of the procedures and all of the information that will end up being in the codebook. It is interesting to see what all the different universities and community colleges are doing to showcase programs and what some very prestige’s universities are not doing very well.

Hopefully within the next month a sample case study will be completed that will only have a small dataset of 50 samples so that some preliminary work can be done and some hypotheses about the larger sample can be developed.

In an attempt to stay modern and up to date the study will end up being almost exclusively web based and will become completely automated at some point. The goal of this endeavor is to be able to setup a completely computer driven system of web survey that can be updated daily and collect more information than otherwise could be afforded because of not only time but budget issues.

While this goal is a priority the Civic Honors Project does not intend to argue that traditional formal survey methods are not useful. The argument is that perhaps as a companion or addendum it would be useful to have information gathered on a daily basis for some types of statistical study especially those related to information technology.

231 words posted by nels lindahl at 12:22 AM | Copyright | Reader Comments (0) | TrackBack (3)
This entry is currently stored in the news category (9)

September 05, 2003

Sneak Peak: FYI 2004 Civic Honors Project strategic plan

Perhaps it is time to question the direction of the Civic Honors Project during a couple of strategic planning meetings a new strategy has been developed. During the next year, the Civic Honors Project will be working on several key projects and starting an awareness campaign.

Actions items of the current FYI 2004 Civic Honors Project strategic plan:

1. Design a one year awareness drive
2. Do a case study of current programs,
a. Develop a working relationship for three pilot programs
3. Build an new information and attitude survey.

90 words posted by nels lindahl at 04:54 PM | Copyright | Reader Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
This entry is currently stored in the strategic plan category (6)