Better Local Government and You.
That's what The Public Square Project is all about.
Do you live in the Pittsburgh region? Do you have questions about local government and ideas for making it more transparent, innovative, and responsive? Then join The Public Square Project!
The Public Square Project is a non-partisan government watchdog organization working to improve the quality of local government in the Pittsburgh region by advocating for better access to public information, promoting government transparency, and educating citizens about the policy-making process.
Introducing The Public Square Project.
It is my great pleasure to welcome you to The Public Square Project. The Public Square Project was born out of a simple idea: that local government matters. It matters to our quality of life, our economic competitiveness, our ability to attract talent. But unfortunately, too few of us actually understand how it works, much less how to influence it. As a result, we are left with too many undemocratic and ineffectual local government institutions.
That's where The Public Square Project comes in. The Public Square Project will empower citizens to make positive change in local government by building an online hub for information about government and public policy in the Pittsburgh region. It is our hope that The Public Square Project will provide a forum for new kinds of collaboration by bringing together citizens, government officials, policy experts, and nonprofit organizations to devise innovative solutions to the policy challenges facing the Pittsburgh region. In effect, we hope to create a new kind of "public square."
Although our organization may be new, the values that we stand for are not: transparency, accountability, innovation, participation. These are values that are too often missing from the way that local governments in the Pittsburgh region make public policy. The Public Square Project is dedicated to changing this culture by giving citizens the information and tools necessary to make our local governments better. In short, The Public Square Project is an experiment in citizen-driven local government reform. But this experiment cannot succeed without your help.
We hope that you will join our efforts to make local government in the Pittsburgh region more transparent and responsive to the needs of all of its citizens. Thank you for taking the time to visit our website and we hope that you will check back often as we grow.
Best regards,
Ryan Hopkins
President
The Public Square Project
info@thepublicsquareproject.org
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Blog
Report the News. Make Money!
The Public Square Project is now offering a one-time $75.00 stipend to the first 10 citizen journalists who publish a news story in the upcoming edition of The Pittsburgh Citizen, formerly PittPoint, the new citizen-driven news site and publishing platform developed by The Public Square Project (read more below). It's that simple: Report the News. Make Money.*
Citizen Journalism Workshop Recap
I've been a little absent from the blog lately (OK, more than a little), but I hope that you'll forgive me, as I've been spending a lot of my time working hard with the fantastic designers at Bearded Studio to finish up development of PittPoint, our new online community news site and citizen journalism publishing platform, which will be ready for launch next month.
Defining Transparency Priorities - Part 1
Yesterday, the Sunlight Foundation blog reported on a panel discussion at the recent Government 2.0 Camp about the meaning of transparency in the Obama administration. During the discussion, the participants came up with a list of the "Top 10 Measurements for Transparency".
Agenda Set for Citizen Journalism Training Workshops
Our first citizen journalism training workshop is just three days away, and so we thought it was a good time to share the agenda for each of the four workshops.
News
PMweekend Features Citizen Journalism Workshops
Belated thank you to Pittsburgh Magazine for featuring The Public Square Project's Citizen Journalism Workshops in PMweekend.
Blog Role
BY CHRIS YOUNG, Pittsburgh City Paper
Old-media journalists are losing jobs everywhere, while new-media journalists often lack the resources and expertise to fill in the gaps. But Ryan Hopkins hopes his effort to combine old and new media will improve local news reporting and create greater government transparency.
News Makers Unite!
Want to tell new kinds of stories about your neighborhood and city through the techniques of community journalism? Interested in participating in the launch of a new online community newspaper?