This free training will target entry-level folks who don’t know a Twitter from a MySpace but may already be engaging their customers with newsletters, or their government with public comment. PR pro George Millington, Realtor and social media enthusiast Jonathan Fleming and I are taking on this project with support and help from the Around Dublin Team. We also hope to get a local business or two to offer raffle prizes to get folks in the door, and we’re providing food, because what good event is complete without it?

So, what does a Citizen 2.0 training consist of? This is what we hope to convey in our two-hour program:

Participation in local government is important. It’s the only way to influence policies that may affect you, it keeps politicians accountable, and local government decisions and community effort are key to driving local business development.

Barriers to participation are significant. It’s hard to make the time to stay up on local government or to get motivated to get involved. If you have been involved, it can be discouraging to not see any change from your efforts, or you may simply feel like you have nothing to contribute.

One of the ways to break down the barriers is Citizen 2.0. This is a community member engaged through simple Web communication tools to know what’s going on in their City, with the means to quickly and easily add meaningful input. Citizen 2.0 is streamlined activism for modern life. It’s the blog I built to harness energy around modifying a local library project, and it is bringing people together around community and economic development in non-traditional ways.

Social media is the Web-tool enabled culture that drives Citizen 2.0. We’ll cover the culture of collaboration, transparency and immediacy of Web 2.0, and give an overview of blogging and an introduction to tools such as Facebook, Skype, Yelp, Twitter and Google Alerts. This demo will include how to “talk the talk” when it comes to getting started with these tools.

We’ll close with advice on how local citizens can make a difference using social tools to build community, advance issues, drive local business development, and participate in local policymaking. We’ll also pump the Around Dublin Blog and its ongoing evolution. During a final Q&A, we’ll also be signing folks up for Twitter.

As you can tell, I’m very excited about this. I hope it’s interesting to you as well, and will spur continued creativity in community building.

If you’re planning to join us, please RSVP to adriel@adrielhampton.com so I can get an idea of turnout. Thanks!

Related posts:

1. Citizen of the Year

I agree with the commenter that BMR units are best in the for-sale context. However, I think that impugning BMR residents wholesale is poor form indeed. I own a BRM unit. It’s what brought me to Dublin from the home I rented in Walnut Creek. It was a way to gain stability at a reasonable price, and the City sharply limits any prospect of me making a significant return on a sale within 55 years.

In the rental context, BMR apartments are often built all together in a single building. But in the inclusionary model, like at Avalon II, the affordable units are in the same building as much more expensive units. I believe that our community benefits much more from mixed-income developments than from setting aside those units in all-affordable apartments. I also strongly favor these programs as a way for cities to provide opportunity and stability in housing, which is not a simple trade commodity.

It is simply too easy to accuse BMR residents for problems in dense developments. And yet, when the rental markets dip, we see owners of market rate condos renting to anyone they can get. Each of us is responsible for creating the community we want to see. If I ignore drunks in my public park, I can expect more drunks in my public park. If I push those poorer than me way from me, I can never expect them to learn from me.

Obviously, this is about more than BMR alone. And now that that is off my chest, let’s build Dublin together.

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