Readers will recall that Our Petaluma #22 talked about a KYN proposal that has evolved from several years of volunteer-driven, community-centered projects that encouraged greater use of ICT (Information and Communication Technology) in all sectors of a community: education, government, business, health care, and non-profit organizations. We have given the title Sparkplug, to those interested and concerned citizens who have stepped up to the plate and volunteered to become involved. This behavior is a perfect example of what we have been “preaching” – the greatest resource of any community is collective wisdom, knowledge and creativity of its citizens.
Idealistic? Naïve? Not sustainable? Perhaps; but, volunteers have discovered that it’s do-able. In the late nineties, PetalumaNet volunteers created the first websites for City Hall, the school district, the community at large, and even the Argus-Courier. Over the past few months, citizen-journalists have posted blogs that reported, analyzed and proposed projects and special events designed to address community needs and concerns. To make the long story short (a most difficult task for this blogger), a new neighborhood-centered initiative has been created based upon what has been learned since 1995, plus the recent emergency preparedness project – PetalumaNERT.
Project OPEN – Our Petaluma Electronic Network has been brewing for the past several weeks and will be launched sometime during the February 12-22 presidential birthday celebration period. Why were these dates selected for this announcement?
You will recall that George Washington, our first president served when our nation was originally created as “one” governmental body from many separate colonial units of government. The United States of America was the result of a process that still is an extraordinary example of what democracy is all about. During this formation period of our nation, the words, We the People, represented one of the world’s greatest calls to action by a group of people seeking a better way of life. Although we all studied and learned about this period of history, it appears – IMHO – that we have forgotten what an important lesson it really was in the 1700s and still is in the 21st Century.
Later, Abraham Lincoln, our 16th president, was faced with our nation splitting apart over the issue of slavery; however, he managed to preserve the unity of our nation. One lesson that this blogger remembers from reading books about this amazing individual is that man does not make the circumstances, but that circumstances make the man. One of my major concerns is whether or not, We the People of Petaluma are gradually losing “our sense of community.” Project OPEN has been conceived to make greater use of ICT to connect our community. A new cooperative Weblog is being created BY Petalumans, FOR Petalumans, and ABOUT Petaluma. Stay tuned.