Ladies and Gentlemen, Welcome to City Share.
11.30.2009 // by: Alison
Stand is pleased to announce City Share, a speaker-based lunch series focused on finding creative solutions to community issues, that will act as an enhancement to our weekly planning meetings.
City Share continues the dialogue that began with four simple questions, expanding it into a much broader conversation. Each session will feature a guest speaker—someone who has been instrumental in enacting creative solutions to issues in their community—who’ll be visiting us via video chat.
After each speaker shares the story of their struggles and successes, there will be a brief Q & A session before we break up into small groups to discuss our thoughts and reactions to the topic.
City Share is free and open to the public. Join us every first and third Wednesday of the month from 12-1 pm for light lunch, broad insight, and thoughtful discussion.
To kick off this new conversation series, we’re pleased to be hearing from Ben Berkowitz, the founder and CEO of SeeClickFix, an online neighborhood tool that allows anyone to report and track non-emergency issues anywhere in the world. Prior to SeeClickFix, Ben was founder and CEO of CT WEB NET, a web and graphic design firm working primarily for local governments and schools. He is also the head of the Upper State Street Association, a New Haven business improvement initiative. Additionally, Ben has been covered and quoted in the San Francisco Chronicle, Hartford Courant, New York Times and the Christian Science Monitor about his work with Gov 2.0.
Please join us Wednesday, December 2 from 12-1 pm at CreateHere.
Lunch will be provided, so you don’t need to bring anything to the table except your ears and your ideas.
If you plan to attend, please RSVP to blair [at] chattanoogastand [dot] com.
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Putting Chattanooga on the Map—In 3-D
11.20.2009 // by: Ben
“I can guarantee that this will make all who participate in it no money…”
This is an unexpected project introduction at a business start-up event. But then again, the Chattanooga 3-D project is anything but expected. Intended as an event to incubate small business start-ups, 48Hour Launch was designed as a start-up resource for the entrepreneurial community. 89 people gathered over the weekend, the vast majority of whom worked on projects that they hoped would eventually turn into viable financial enterprises. Chattanooga 3-D on the other hand, started with the goal to “start something” cool that would benefit Chattanooga, even if it had no tangible economic impact for the participants.
The brain-child of Stephen Culp, Chattanooga 3-D was begun in response to Stand’s call for people to “start something.” Using a combination of Google Sketch-up and Google Earth, teams of volunteers have taken hundreds of pictures and are using them to make three-dimensional renderings of Downtown Chattanooga. During our 48-hour long event, over 20 people—by far the largest team at 48Hour Launch—built 3-D models of most of Main Street in Downtown Chattanooga. In the wake of the 48Hour Launch, the project is continuing full-throttle, as anyone with a good camera and a few hours to learn the program can contribute to the 3-D maps Chattanooga.
As we saw at 48Hour Launch, entrepreneurism and innovation is not only of great economic benefit, but is also a vital part of civic engagement. The ease with which people can join in this project allows for broad participation, and the potential applications are equally broad. Architecture, attractions, businesses, streets, greenways, parks, art…whatever you want to do with it can be done. The Chattanooga 3-D project is aptly described as “open-source,” the goal being to create this map, release it to the community—and see what happens. Embodying Stand’s goal of empowering individuals, they are providing a resource and leaving it up to the initiative and creativity of all of us to determine how we can best use this information.
If you have a few hours to spare, and would like to contribute to this project, head over to their website at http://www.chattanooga3d.com/ for details on how to get involved.
Under Construction: New Stand Website is Officially in the Works (Amongst Other Things)
11.19.2009 // by: Alison
As of Monday, the master plan for Stand’s new website has been passed over to our highly talented web developer, Matt. This means that in early December, we’ll be launching a brand new, redesigned, and far more user-friendly Stand website. So, please bear with us in the mean time.
In addition to the website, we’ve got a couple other big developments on the horizon.
1. We Stand: From November 23 through January 29, Stand Headquarters will be temporarily overtaking the CreateHere front space. We’ll be unveiling an interactive civic laboratory called “We Stand” that will be up until the end of January. This project features installations and events focused on global challenges, local tools, citizen-owned solutions, and the power of place.
2. City Share: Beginning Wednesday, December 2, our lunchtime planning meetings will be expanded into a speaker-based lunch series that we’re calling City Share. Every first and third Wednesday of the month will feature a community leader from a different city, present via video chat. After each speaker shares the story of their struggles and successes, participating Chattanooga citizens will break up into small groups to discuss their thoughts and reactions to the topic.
Dec 2: “Gov 2.0”
featuring Ben Berkowitz, founder and CEO of See.Click.Fix.
Dec 16: “Visioning in Real Time:
featuring Russell Stall, executive director of Greenville Forward.
Jan 6: “Collectives and Collaboration”
featuring Justin Langlois and other members of Broken City Lab.
Please join us every 1st and 3rd Wednesday from 12-1 pm at CreateHere for light lunch, broad insight, and thoughtful discussion. To find out more about City Share, “We Stand,” or the website revamp, email us at hq [at] chattanoogastand [dot] com.
Planning Meeting 10/4: Where Will You Be When the Data is Released?
11.02.2009 // by: Alison
Hot on the heels of last week’s highly successful lunchtime planning meeting, we’re following up this Wednesday with a focus on starting to make plans for the day of the data’s release and beginning to build a task force to see these plans come to fruition.
We want your input. Things are about to get really exciting around here, and we need as many rolled up sleeves as possible in the front end. Please join us Wednesday, November 4 from 12-1 pm at CreateHere.
We’ll provide lunch, so you don’t need to bring anything to the table except your ideas. If you plan to attend, please (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
From here on out, our planning meetings will take place on the first and third Wednesdays of the month, so the next one won’t be until November 18. If you want to get your two cents in, now is the time.
To see pictures from last week’s planning meeting, click here.
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