Launch Of You2gov.Com Brings Power To The People In The Digital Age

Today, a first of its kind political social network, You2Gov.com, was launched to provide American citizens with an online forum where they can find up to the minute information on the issues they care about, form their own "interest groups" with others, and leverage their collective power to influence their representatives in Government. The announcement was made today by You2Gov.com CEO Alan W. Silberberg at the National Conference of State Legislatures Summit, where thousands of legislators, businesses, government officials and others have gathered to discuss public policy.

New Orleans, Louisiana (PRWEB) -- Today, a first of its kind political social network, You2Gov.com, was launched to provide American citizens with an online forum where they can find up to the minute information on the issues they care about, form their own "interest groups" with others, and leverage their collective power to influence their representatives in Government. Most Americans don't have the time or the resources to launch campaigns, track legislation, connect with other citizens, write letters to their elected officials, or research news and information about specific issues. You2Gov.com aggregates all of this information together with tools so that with just a few clicks, every American -- not just big businesses and their lobbyists -- will have the power to act on and influence the national, state and local political issues. The announcement was made today by You2Gov.com CEO Alan Silberberg at the National Conference of State Legislatures Summit, where thousands of legislators, businesses, government officials and others have gathered to discuss public policy.

"You2Gov.com brings Power to the People in the new media era," stated Silberberg. "Every day thousands of decisions are made by political bodies around the country, from city councils to the 50 State legislatures to the United States Congress, while citizens sit on the sidelines because they aren't sure what is happening when or where or who will listen to their opinions before the decisions and laws are final. Most Americans don't have the money to hire lobbyists to get inside information and access to their elected officials. With You2Gov.com, regular Americans now have their own access to power, and it's free. The information on the issues, the research, the form letters and contact information for elected officials is all there. All You2Gov users have to do is log on, share their ideas and concerns, connect with like-minded citizens and take action, either individually or collectively. It's that simple."

You2Gov has received overwhelming support at the NCSL Summit from political leaderships of dozens of States, non-profits and education constituencies. Silberberg added, "We are very excited about the reaction we've received here in New Orleans. Everyone from elected officials to educators and non-profits executives have expressed that a website this comprehensive and powerful will better educate citizens and help them to become more civically active and effective. That is our mission and we believe American citizens are going to be just as enthusiastic about all that You2Gov has to offer."

As the Internet rapidly becomes integral to politics at all levels, You2Gov's non-partisan social network platform is designed to create access for regular citizens, where in the past only the connected have had influence. Individuals can build online communities around issues, access new research and information, share the information with friends and family, and organize their group to call, fax, email and write their elected officials, all using tools provided for free on the website.

You2Gov.com will provide one-touch communications with elected officials at the State and Federal Levels; government accountability office reports; Federal Election Commission data; Congressional Legislative Tracking, updates on Presidential actions; Congressional reports; and news stories, tv clips, feeds and information links to all 50 states. You2Gov also provides the framework for users to post comments, videos, and photos, form groups, suggest blogs, and link up to other social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace.

The idea for You2Gov.com arose during the Democratic primary, when it became apparent that the votes of unelected Superdelegates would control the outcome. You2Gov.com founder Ralph J. Shapira wanted to contact the uncommitted Superdelegates from his state, California, to express his views, but realized he had no idea who they were or how to contact them. He assumed countless other Americans across the country were feeling the same frustration, and he decided to devote his energies to creating a social network platform that would facilitate citizen mobilization access and communications with government officials.

Over the next several months, Los Angeles, CA-based You2Gov will launch a number of initiatives in conjunction with the Democratic and Republican Conventions and the November Presidential Election, a time of heightened political interest, in order to assist more Americans to participate meaningfully in their democracy. For more information on You2Gov, visit www.You2Gov.com or contact Lisa Cohen at lisa @ lisacohen.org.

www.you2gov.com

You2Gov CEO Alan W. Silberberg will be attending the NCSL (National Conference of State Legislators) annual meeting in New Orleans this week, and will be presenting new information to the Legislators and their staffs, as well as the Media and Press in attendance.

www.ncsl.org

You2Gov is already linked to all 50 state legislatures, as well as to the U.S. Senate, and House of Representatives and is poised to provide seamless one touch communications with your elected officials at the State and Federal levels, and within weeks will be rolling out additional new features designed to make You2Gov your one stop place for all things social and political on the web.

We look forward to joining with all of the State Legislatures and the hard working people who work tirelessly in them for all of us, this week in New Orleans. Most importantly we look forward to showing these leaders from all across America, how You2Gov is quickly becoming the site to organize around issues and take action.

DENVER - To honor a long-time Louisiana state house reporter and bureau chief, the National Conference of State Legislatures is re-naming its press room at the 2008 Legislative Summit after John LaPlante.

LaPlante, who passed away in April 2007, covered Louisiana politics and government for more than three decades. As the capitol news bureau chief for The Advocate in Baton Rouge, LaPlante led a team of six state house reporters covering the Louisiana Legislature. Previously, he worked as a reporter, editorial writer and assistant city editor. He also taught courses at Louisiana State University, where he was an alumnus.

"NCSL pays tribute to John not only for being an outstanding reporter and editor, but also for his passion and dedication to journalism," said Gene Rose, director of communications for NCSL, who worked with LaPlante with the establishment of the first Capitolbeat conference in Denver. "John served his colleagues and his profession well. NCSL is honored to have had the opportunity to know John and work with him."

Click here to read the whole thing.

I am really keen to hear how well these events and training providers have been advertised to schools. Did you know CfBT were offering events in your subject area? Have the dates reached subject leaders in schools? Has anyone been on the training and have anything they can share, feedback or evaluate for us?

If you are a core subject leader have you had your SNS training yet? There will be consistent messages across the Maths, English, ICT and Science subject leaders' meetings and it will be important to collaborate not just as core subjects but also as a wider team of curriculum subjects. Having had the training is there anything you would wish to share - especially to foundation subject subject leaders who will not have had the same training? What gaps, if any, do you feel were left in the training materials? What further training would you wish to have?

For core subjects the strategies will shortly (end Feb/ Start March) be producing frameworks to flesh out the PoS statements and illustrate progression in skills and content across levels and school years. Hopefully these will be of great benefit when it comes to writing schemes of work, etc. to ensure that the full

As ever, if you can provide any answers or would wish to share any information relevant to this post, please hit the comment link below.

The subject of transforming education was featured in a recent NCSL podcast. According to Meagan, this podcast  featured:

"Trying to lower the drop out rate could mean making high school curriculum more challenging for students. In terms of retaining teachers and principals, schools may have to spend more time dealing with the issues of pay and salary. And when it comes to affording a college education, states are looking to identify factors that are driving up costs and exploring new ways to offer financial aid."

This five minute podcast sounds like a good value for anyone who cares about education issues, especially policy makers.

Curious about the other top ten issues discovered by NCSL? Check out their press release.

Thanks to my colleague Anastasia for showing me this item.