After beginning my current job as Director of Countywide Community Forums (CCF) in January 2010, I founded a blog meant to reflect the broader world of the work in which CCF is engaged; public engagement and collaboration in public spheres. Social Capital Review has featured writing by DeAnna Martin, Pamela Kilborn-Miller, Carrie Shaw and myself. As part of my work, I've also founded an independent initiative to help champion citizen engagement in open government, called Public Data Ferret. It's a database searchable by topic and jurisdictions, composed of neutral, blogged synopses of important public documents, and tutorials on user-friendly government databases. More background is available on the Ferret "About" page and the instructions/participation page. Shortly after Public Data Ferret's launch, I began a regular weekly live segment on the "Nine To Noon Show" on KOMO 1000 AM, Seattle, highlighting the latest work at the site. That lasted until "Nine To Noon" was cancelled in September, 2010. The Ferret project continues, however.

The Ferret radio segments to date follow, each in the form of a blog article with an audio link and a full transcript, as well as a link to the original Ferret write-up.

"Public Data Ferret On KOMO 1000: King County, Customer Service, and Public Trust," 8/4/10

"Public Data Ferret On KOMO 1000: Oversight Of Federal Resource Lands Lax, Watchdog Agency Says, 7/28/10

"Public Data Ferret On KOMO 1000: Seattle City Employees Retirement Plan $1 Billion In The Hole," 7/21/10

"Public Data Ferret On KOMO 1000: Regulating The Display Of Human Remains In Seattle," 7/14/10

"Public Data Ferret On KOMO 1000: Global Energy Use And Carbon Dioxide Emissions - 2005-2035," 7/7/10

"Public Data Ferret On KOMO 1000: Beach Water Quality," 6/30/10

"Public Data Ferret On KOMO 1000: Washington Hospital Infection Rates," 6/23/10

"Public Data Ferret On KOMO 1000: Real-Time Crime Data, & Human Trafficking," 6/16/10

"Public Data Ferret On KOMO 1000: State Disciplinary Actions Against Professionals," 6/9/10

"Public Data Ferret On KOMO 1000: Washington State Race Horse Fatalities," 6/2/10

"Public Data Ferret On KOMO 1000: Of Cockatiels And Collaboration," 5/26/10

"Public Data Ferret On KOMO 1000: Police Misconduct In Seattle," 5/19/10

"Public Data Ferret On KOMO 1000: 'Transportation 2040,'" 5/12/10

"Public Data Ferret On KOMO 1000: Consumer Product Recall Database," 5/6/10

"Public Data Ferret On KOMO 1000: Smuggling Weapons & Explosives Into Federal Buildings," 4/28/10

"Public Data Ferret On KOMO 1000" Seattle Database For Tracking Building & Land-Use Permitting," 4/21/10

"Public Data Ferret On KOMO 1000: Restaurant Inspections Database," 4/14/10

I was also privileged to discuss Public Data Ferret, and Countywide Community Forums recently with other guests in a broader conversation titled "Technology And Civic Engagement" on one of Seattle's public radio stations, KUOW-FM. In addition, one of our recent Ferret scoops got a write-up in the Seattle P-I.com. And we've recruited University of Washington communication grad Andrew Hart as Contributing Editor to Public Data Ferret.

You can follow the Ferret on Twitter. And collaborate.

(Last updated 9/26/10)

Posted by Matt Rosenberg at 11:06 AM | Comments (0)