Michael knows I think his Civic Gaden concept is fantastic. But I'm concerned about it being deployed in a way that makes it just a new label for a bad idea, the Walled Garden.

From the Principles of the Chicago Digital Access Alliance:

5. LOCAL INFRASTRUCTURE IS NECESSARY FOR COMMUNITY-DRIVEN CONTENT DEVELOPMENT. Content must reflect the ideas, identities and innovation of community residents and their respective neighborhoods. Local infrastructure must be established to allow for community control over content. Civic, educational and government web sites must be available for free to residents at ALL times through a Civic Garden accessible on the wireless splash page.

A Walled Garden creates another level of inequality - those citizens who have full access to the Web, and those who can visit only sites that have been chosen from on high. Full, free access to all .gov and .edu sites (and what about .org?) sites begins to address that inequality in civic, though not commercial, life.

I hope Minneapolis is not just changing the name of their previous plan for a Walled Garden of selected sites, and is in fact embracing the idea that all .gov and .edu sites should be freely available at all times. And what about Neighborhood Revitalization Program sites, which are .org?
Becca Vargo Daggett | Homepage | 03.14.07 - 9:09 am | #

Peter,

Thank you for presenting the Civic Garden concept.

What we are trying to do in Chicago was inspired in large part by the Minneapolis Community Benefits Agreement. I consider the Civic Garden an evolution of the idea of the walled garden.

If we accept the straightforward and sensible notion (as Minneapolis has) that city and community content should be made available for the betterment of our civic life, then it is no stretch at all to recognize that we are residents and citizens (in non-exclusive sense) of the wider polity... i.e. of our state and of the nation. So... if we have a public interest in providing access to any (city) government content why not all government content? Thus: all .gov!

A similar argument follows for educational content and online activities, and leads us to consider .edu in the same vein. Indeed much of the early life of the Internet was in the context of university life, where the cost of access was not directly carried by those associated with the academy but was provided to all within that setting. it's time to break down those walls.

Minneapolis brings us further along with the provision of community portal content available on similar terms.

The non-commercial Internet has relevance and represents something distinct, and something to be promoted for the common good. What more healthy environment for public life than a Civic Garden?
Michael Maranda | Homepage | 03.13.07 - 8:38 pm | #