iSolon.org is a policy institute committed to
exploring and advancing opportunities for democratic reform brought
about by new information technologies. It focuses on the
most difficult areas of democratic reform─where elected officials have a
conflict of interest in bringing about reforms that might reduce their
own power.
New from iSolon.org
August 3, 2010 (future event)
J.H. Snider describes the role he believes state constitutional conventions should play in the democratic process, with a focus on Maryland's state constitutional ballot item on November 2, 2010.
July
5, 2010
Md. to vote in November on whether to hold constitutional convention
The Washington Post features J.H. Snider in a front page article on the merits of changing Maryland's Constitution by voting yes to convene a convention on the November 2, ballot. For details, see Marylandconcon.org.
June
24, 2010
Maryland to webcast more hearings, meetings over Internet
The MarylandReporter.com describes J.H. Snider's critique of yesterday's announcement by Maryland's Governor and other state leaders concerning government transparency
June
15, 2010
A year of digital TV: who won the transition?
Ars Technica (a division of Wired Magazine) cites J.H. Snider's reflections on the DTV transition on its one-year anniversary.
June 14, 2010
It's the Public's Data: Democratizing School Board Records
Education Week publishes J.H. Snider's article on using new information technology to enhance accees to public school board records.
June 3, 2010
Experts Debate Federal
Spectrum Leasing, Transparency Proposals
TRDaily (Telecommunications
Reports) cites J. H. Snider on the lack of transparency within the
U.S. Department of Commerce's National Telecommunications and
Information Administration (NTIA).
May
30, 2010
'Troublemaker' fights secrecy in government
The Capital (Annapolis, Maryland) publishes an article on J.H. Snider's local open government efforts.
May 24, 2010
Federal Trade Commission Staff Discussion Draft:
Potential Policy Recommendations to Support the Reinvention of
Journalism
The FTC discussion draft cites iSolon.org's conflict-of-interest automation proposal six times (see March 10, 2010 presentation and working paper below). The draft will be discussed at the FTC's June 15, 2010 National Press Club event on the Future of Journalism.
May 20, 2010
How Craig McCaw Built a 4G Network on the Cheap:
The mobile pioneer's Clearwire controls airwaves worth $20 billion or
more
Bloomberg Businessweek cites J.H. Snider's work on media policy.
May 8, 2010
2010 Freedom of Information Summit
J.H. Snider
presents on
Transparency
in the Digital Age. WikiFOIA summarized the summit
here.
April 29, 2010
House
transparency caucus vows to regain
public's trust in government
Nextgov,
a publication of the National Journal Group, Inc., cites J.H. Snider on
the political implications of the lack of Democratic leadership support
for the new Congressional Transparency Caucus.
April 18, 2010
Maryland's Fake Open Government
The
Washington Post publishes J.H. Snider's commentary on what's
wrong with open government in Maryland and how to fix it. One
proposal is to update Maryland's Constitution. For information on how that might happen, see
MarylandConCon.org
April 6, 2010
Spotting Holes in OpenGov
Plans for Public Engagement
Steve Buckley from U.S. Transparency interviews J.H. Snider about his essay, Deterring Fake Public Participation
April 4, 2010
A hotbed of techie agents of government transparency
The Washington Post cites J.H. Snider on the recent "TransparencyCamp" held in Washington, DC.
March
26, 2010
Parent school group picks new leaders
Capital article on J.H. Snider's election as vice chair of Anne Arundel County, Maryland's Countywide Citizen Advisory Committee with a mandate to use new information technology to improve democratic deliberation among public school parents.
March
14, 2010Sunshine Week: Experts say access to online public records
must expand
The Capital (Annapolis, Maryland) quotes J.H. Snider on Anne Arundel County's compliance with not only only the letter but the spirit of Maryland's right-to-know laws. It does so again in Open government for more than just a week, March 18, 2010.
March 10, 2010
Federal Trade Commission Workshop on "How Will
Journalism Survive the Internet Age?"
J.H. Snider presents his proposal for using semantic web technologies to automate conflict-of-interest reporting.
The proposal consisted of a presentation (an audio recording of the presentation starts at 143:20) and accompanying working paper, both with the same title, "Automating Conflict-of-Interest Reporting."
March 1, 2010
How
can we strengthen two-way communication with the public and improve
governing in the new media environment? J.H. Snider's presentation before the 111th Congress Stennis Congressional Staff Fellows Program.
March 1, 2010
Scholars look to increase research on open government
Nextgov,
a publication of the National Journal Group, Inc., cites J.H. Snider on
how elected officials' agendas can set academic and foundation agendas,
and the lag time between open government innovation and scholarly
assessments of it.
February 19, 2010
Deterring Fake Public Participation
The International Journal of Public Participation publishes J.H. Snider's essay on the growing plague of fake public participation in America.
February 9, 2010
Baltimore Sun columnist and Midday host Dan Rodricks moderates an hourlong discussion on the pros and cons of a Maryland constitutional convention with iSolon.org President J.H. Snider, Maryland Senate Minority Leader Allan Kittleman, and Maryland Legislative Counsel Dan Friedman.
February 5, 2010
Religious education at statehouse an example of what the public doesn’t know
The Iowa Independent cites J.H. Snider's work on a rarely disclosed but important legislative perk.
February 4, 2010
Rewrite
state constitution?
It's a question for voters
The Baltimore Sun cites J.H. Snider's Baltimore Sun
op-ed in describing the Maryland Senate's debate over
SB26:
Maryland Constitutional Convention - Sense of the Voters.
January 22, 2010
Open Government: Defining, Designing, and Sustaining Transparency
J.H.
Snider presents his arguments on how the open government public policy
debate should be framed at this two-day workshop sponsored by Princeton
University's Center for Information Technology Policy.
The
video of Snider's presentation begins at 38:00.
January 8, 2010
The Baltimore Sun publishes J.H. Snider's op-ed on Maryland's 2010 ballot item to call a constitutional convention. For additional information, see Marylanders for a State Constitutional Convention.
December 18, 2009
Debate the News:
Summarizing the Comments Submitted to the FTC
Free Press's SaveTheNews.org includes iSolon.org's comments in its roundup of comments submitted for the Federal Trade Commission's workshop on the future of journalism.
November 30, 2009
For a TV
broadcast aired throughout the Middle East, the Voice of America
interviews J.H. Snider on the lack of think tank accountability in the
United States.
September
5, 2009
If Men Were Angels....: Should the Checks & Balances System Include Electoral Reform Juries?
Paper presented at the Representation and Electoral Systems Division's theme panel, Citizens' Assemblies and Deliberative Democracy, at the Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association, Toronto, Canada.
July 28, 2009
Public
more satisfied with agencies that pursue transparency online, study says
Nextgov, a publication of the National Journal Group, Inc., cites J.H. Snider's methodological critique of a market research firm's report on the benefits to Federal agencies of improved transparency.
July 22, 2009
Harvard's Nieman Watchdog
publishes J.H. Snider's article arguing for the development and
implementation of a Bias Modeling Language to automate watchdog
journalism. This article launches
iSolon.org's BML Semantic Web Project.
July 9, 2009
Citizens
Assembly News Digest -- Special Edition -- July 2009
This special edition of iSolon.org's Citizens Assembly News Digest
provides an analysis of the referendum results on the recommendations of
the f British Columbia's Citizens' Assembly on Electoral Reform.
July 4, 2009
The Rumpus, an online magazine, discusses J.H. Snider's Nieman Watchdog article on media free riding.
June
27, 2009
Taking steps to deal with media parasitism
Harvard's Nieman Watchdog publishes J.H. Snider's second article in a two-part series on the problem and solution to media free riding.
June 22, 2009
Free riding: a deeply embedded media tradition
Harvard's Nieman Watchdog publishes J.H. Snider's first article in a two-part series on the problem and solution to media free riding.
June 12, 2009
The switch to digital TV—an early bailout that went awry
Harvard's Nieman Watchdog publishes J.H. Snider's critique of the digital television transition on its final day. The transition began more than 20 years ago.
June 11-14, 2009
Annual Convening of the National Institute on Money in State Politics
J.H. Snider argues for Redistricting Juries and other related
democratic reforms at the annual convening of the National Institute on
Money in State Politics.
June 4, 2009
ShowMeTheSpending.org Coalition News
ShowMeTheSpending.org features J.H. Snider's work on public school budget transparency.
May 20, 2009
Democratize
School Budget Data
Education Week, the leading trade publication in K12 public education, publishes J.H. Snider's commentary on how to use new information technologies to democratize public access to school budget data.
May 12, 2009
Turkeys,
Thanksgiving and Roll Call Voting Records
Karl Kurtz, the National Conference of State Legislatures's expert
on legislative institutions, discusses J.H. Snider's turkey paper
in The Thicket at State Legislatures.
May 11, 2009
Would You Ask Turkeys to Mandate Thanksgiving? The Dismal Politics of Legislative Transparency
The Journal of Information Technology & Politics publishes the final version of J.H. Snider's working paper researched during the Spring of 2008 while Snider was a Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government's Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy.
May 5, 2009
Senate to Expand Transparency of Senate Votes: DeMint thanks Rules Committee for quick response
Following up on his May 1 press release (see below), Senator DeMint thanks the Senate leadership for acting so quickly on his recommendation. The XML link, tucked inconspicuously and without explanation on the page for Senate floor roll call votes on the Senate, not Thomas website, can be found here.
May 4, 2009
Eye on Redistricting: Florida's Where the Early Action Is
Congressional Quarterly article on the the Hudson/iSolon
conference on redistricting reform.
May 4, 2009
Reforming American Redistricting:
Lessons from British Columbia
Conference on redistricting reform cosponsored by the Hudson Institute and iSolon.org.
May 4, 2009
The
Case for Redistricting Juries: Lessons from British Columbia’s
Revolutionary Experiment in Democratic Reform
J.H. Snider's Working Paper presented at the Hudson/iSolon
conference on redistricting reform.
May 1, 2009
DeMint Leads Bipartisan Effort To Make Senate Votes More Transparent: Democrats and Republicans urge modernizing Senate website with easily searchable XML vote database
In a press release announcing a letter to the U.S. Senate Committee
on Rules and Administration seeking to make U.S. Senate roll call
votes available to the public using the XML format, U.S. Senator Jim
DeMint cites iSolon.org's work on this issue.
April 27, 2009
Online voting records user unfriendly
Politico's Victoria McGrane cites J.H. Snider's work on public
access to legislators' voting records. For more information, see
Would You Ask Turkeys to Mandate Thanksgiving? The Dismal Politics
of Legislative Transparency (SSRN prepublication working paper
version). On May 6 McGrane wrote a follow-up story,
Senate picks up the slack on data, mentioning the impact of her
earlier story in getting the Senate to post its roll call votes in XML
format.
April 25, 2009
Citizens
Assembly News Digest -- April 2009
The latest issue of iSolon.org's Citizens Assembly News Digest.
March 18, 2009
Public School Systems Should Post Compensation Data Online
The Washington Examiner publishes J.H. Snider's Sunshine Week commentary on the
need to proactively disclose public expenditure data.
March 9, 2009
ShowMeTheSpending.org Coalition Partners
ShowMeTheSpending.org names iSolon.org
a coalition partner.
February 26, 2009
Mixing Advocacy, Scholarly Research and Journalism: Can the New America Foundation Square the Circle?
The Center for Media and Democracy's
PR Watch publishes J.H. Snider's article on the ethical tensions in a successful, state-of-the-art, public policy think tank.
February 18, 2009
Open Government Rhetoric Versus Reality
The Washington Examiner publishes J.H. Snider's commentary on the
politics of the recently passed digital TV legislation.
February 8, 2009
Need Teachers? Show Them the Money
The Washington Post publishes J.H. Snider's commentary on the need for
better public disclosure of teacher compensation data. For a
related commentary published in Education Week, see
America’s Million-Dollar Superintendents.
February 3, 2009
Strengthen Think Tank Accountability
Politico publishes J.H. Snider's commentary on the need for
better public disclosure of think tank ethics and ethical conflicts.
January 21, 2009
Don't Delay the Digital TV Transition
Ars Technica publishes J.H. Snider's commentary critiquing U.S.
House and Senate bills seeking to delay the digital TV transition.
December 2, 2008
Future Shop One-Page Flyer
Publicity for Future Shop.
November 18, 2008
Future Shop Praise and Preface
Publicity for Future Shop.
November
14, 2008
Future Shop: How New Technologies Will Change the Way We Shop and What
We Buy
Authors Guild backinprint.com reprint of the J.H. Snider and
Terra Ziporyn book on e-commerce published by St. Martin's Press in
1992. The book features
a new preface analyzing the growth of e-commerce during the past two
decades and
forecasting that the changes in the consumer marketplace over the next
twenty years could be even greater.
November 12, 2008
Voting for Glass Houses
In the November/December issue of the Columbia Journalism Review,
Michael Schudson and Danielle Haas report on J.H. Snider's "Would You Ask Turkeys to Mandate Thanksgiving?"
On May 11, 2009, the Columbia Journalism Review followed up
with another story on the same topic,
Senate
Goes XML: A quiet shift is hailed.
October 1, 2008
School board's TV debut delayed
The Capital quotes J.H. Snider's critique of excessively costly and undemocratic televised school board coverage.
September 27, 2008
Spectrum Policy Panel at the 2008 Telecommunications Policy Research Conference
The J.H. Snider's serves as moderator and discussant.
September 21, 2008
Democracy 2.0 Grant Summit - Money in Politics
J.H. Snider serves as a grant contest judge for this event co-sponsored by Mobilize.org, the Sunlight Foundation, and Common Cause.
August 18, 2008
Americans for Redistricting Reform Advisory Committee Member
Organizations
Americans for Redistricting Reform names iSolon.org as an Advisory
Committee Member Organization.
July 19, 2008
Annual meeting of the National Online Legislative Associates (NOLA)
J.H. Snider presents the findings of his
Shorenstein Center working paper and conducts a discussion on the future
of technology enhanced legislature procedure, Lake Tahoe, Nevada, July 18-19, 2008. NOLA is the trade association of online legislative information providers.
July 14, 2008
Would You Ask Turkeys To Mandate Thanksgiving? The Dismal Politics of Legislative Transparency
The Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy
publishes J.H. Snider's Working Paper #1. Published in the
Journal of Information Technology & Politics, May 2009.
July 14, 2008
Would You Ask Turkeys To Mandate Thanksgiving? Using Citizens Assemblies to Reform the Process of Democratic Reform
The Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy
publishes J.H. Snider's Working Paper #2.
June 28, 2008
Harvard Hosts 2-Day Citizens Assembly Conference; New Zealand Parliament Allocates $4.3 million for a Citizens Assembly
The latest issue of iSolon.org's Citizens Assembly News Digest.
June
27, 2008
iSolon.org Launches Citizens Assembly Facebook Group
The Citizens Assembly Facebook group provides an online place for
academics and practitioners interested in citizens assembly based democratic
reform to come together as a community to pursue their common interests.
May 30, 2008
The Role of News Media in the Governance Agenda
J.H. Snider serves as workshop discussant at this joint event sponsored by the Communication for Governance and Accountability Program at the World Bank and the Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics, and Public Policy at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, May 29-31, 2008.
May 17, 2008
Crackpot or Genius? Canada Steps onto the World Stage as a Democratic Innovator
The Journal of Public Deliberation publishes J.H. Snider's concluding remarks at the Harvard University Canada Program's conference on democratic deficits and citizens assemblies, May 8-10, 2008.
May 14, 2008
Designing Deliberative Democracy
(Cambridge University Press, 2008)
The Journal of Public Deliberation publishes J.H. Snider's review of the first major book to be written about citizens assemblies.
April 14, 2008
J.H. Snider selected to be a Rockwood Foundation Fellow in Media, Communications, and Information Policy
Snider will be a Rockwood Foundation Fellow for the 2008-2009 fellowship year.
March 20, 2008
The Quest to Protect Creative Policy Ideas
The Chronicle of Philanthropy publishes J.H. Snider's commentary on the problem of rewarding innovative public policy ideas when it isn't practical to patent such ideas.
March 17, 2008
Online contract access would let in more sunshine
In an editorial, the Capital (Annapolis, Maryland) cites J.H. Snider's critique of government databases that are not integrated
with each other.
March 13, 2008
Councilmen want county contracts published on Web: Say move will increase government transparency
In a front page story, the Capital (Annapolis, Maryland) cites
J.H. Snider's critique of government databases that are not integrated
with each other.
February 29, 2008
J.H. Snider on Spectrum Policy (half hour segment,
with Snider segment beginning at 18:50)
Counterspin, a radio program run on NPR affiliates, interviews
J.H. Snider about his Nieman Watchdog
article (see below).
February 28, 2008
OpenTheGovernment.org Coalition Partners
OpenTheGovernment.org names iSolon.org a coalition partner.
February 21, 2008
Is the spectrum just too complex for reporters?
Nieman Watchdog publishes a commentary summarizing J.H. Snider's Kennedy
School presentation.
February 19, 2008
The Government’s $19.3 Billion Auction of Spectrum
(as of Round 61 on February 12, 2008) Why don’t you know more about the government’s allocation of this vital natural resource?
J.H. Snider argues at a Kennedy School dinner sponsored by the
Shorenstein Center that spectrum politics has become a paradigmatic
example of special interest politics and that the quality of spectrum
journalism is a major cause of the problem.
January 28, 2008
J.H.
Snider, President of iSolon.org, begins his work as a resident fellow at
the Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics & Public
Policy, located at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government
Snider will be a fellow at the Shorenstein Center from January 28
through May 31, 2008.
January 28, 2008
Tom Fiedler Named Shorenstein Guest Lecturer -- Four Spring Fellows Named
Editor & Publisher reports on the appointment of the new
Shorenstein Center fellows, including iSolon.org's J.H. Snider.
January 17, 2008
Saskatchewan Premier and Citizens Assembly Advocate Defeated; New
Zealand Parliament Debates and Defeats Citizens Assembly Legislation
The latest issue of iSolon.org's Citizens Assembly News Digest.
January 16, 2008
iSolon.org Launches
Citizens Assembly Forum (beta version)
The Citizens Assembly Forum provides an online place for academics and
practitioners interested in citizens assembly based democratic reform to
come together as a community to pursue their common interests.
November 1, 2007
Ontario Citizens' Assembly
Proposal Down But Not Out
The National Coalition for Dialogue & Deliberation's Amy Lang summarizes
and reviews the latest issue of iSolon.org's Citizens Assembly News Digest.
October 19, 2007
Ontario Citizens Assembly Referendum Defeated;
Addendum:
Saskatchewan Premier Promises a Citizens Assembly if Re-Elected on
November 7
The latest issue of iSolon.org's Citizens Assembly News Digest.
October 11, 2007
New Voting System Goes Down To Defeat
In a front page story, the Ottawa Citizen quotes J.H. Snider on
the significance of Ontario's experiment with a citizens assembly.
October 5, 2007
School Board Backs TV Idea
Baltimore Sun quotes J.H. Snider's critique of local school
system's use of technology to cover itself.
September 14, 2007
Ontario’s Public Education Campaign Launches; U.K.’s Prime
Minister Explores Creating a Citizens Assembly
The latest issue of iSolon.org's Citizens Assembly News Digest.
June 19, 2007
Citizens Assemblies: A Mechanism for Enhancing Legislative Transparency
and Accountability
iSolon.org policy brief prepared for the workshop, "Toward More
Transparent Government," held at the National Academies of Science on
June 19, 2007.
June 15, 2007
From Dahl to O'Leary:
36 Years of the 'Yale School of Democratic
Reform'
J.H. Snider's book review essay tracing the history of the citizens assembly
proposal from Dahl's 1970 After the Revolution (Yale University Press)
to O'Leary's 2006 Saving Democracy (Stanford University Press).
