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Citizenville: Connecting People and Government in the Digital Age by Gavin Newsom, Lisa Dickey
ralowe's review against another edition
1.0
hot pink. thursday february 6, 2003: the san francisco lgbt center former ceo and president thom lynch directed the sfpd to beat queer protesters bloody for challenging a cabaret mayoral fundraiser for gavin newsom. it shouldn't be as hard as it is to find the incident online, newsom's handlers did a bang-up job. loss and its ontologies is a key figure in the story of newsom, san francisco and radical queer possibility. *citizenville: how to take the town square digital and reinvent government*, which was written by a venture capitalist public relations firm, demonstrates the supremacy of "pragmatic"ќ force over ethical discourse and action. the firm's force aims to assert absolute non-partisan profit motive above any and all other considerations. strategies to this supposedly pragmatic end include the time-honored political tradition of the skillfully calculated curation of data (optimally while at the same time advocating for the supposed notable magnitude to which that data promotes democracy (a libertarian notion which has never the case even pre-ajit pai actually but w/e)). e.g., although newsom in a later chapter uses his experience with his vanity project of being the owner of a wine shop (and vineyards), he never even acknowledges the contradiction of the punitive and ableist anti-drug directive of newsom's other vanity project of the notorious "care not cash"ќ initiative which opens chapter 2; nor newsom's own public battle with substance use, overcome with his access to wealth and not being houseless, rather than being deprived for his own good. newsom's is an epic oedipal tale of loss concerning how san fran's non-normative cultural context was weaponized as tech innovation to then in turn mainstream and eradicate all area non-normativity covering its tracks. "VC"ќ is affectionately named in chapter 2, after getting all that "care no cash"ќ noise out of the way, yet never unabbreviated and defined. completely obliterating organized labor in nearly every possible conceivable form is the passionate laser focus of the venture capitalist cabal animating a gladitatorial possessive individualist gavin. the libertarian redistribution of state bureaucratic infrastructure through hobbyist volunteerism, competition, experiment, civic duty and of course automation thereby liquidating the social, cultural and legislative protections provided by organized labor. government employees comprise the largest union demographic in the san francisco bay area. dynamiting this job security would offer little bulwark for any broad-based challenge to the ruling class. in this passion gavin is functionally indistinguishable from fellow trust fund brat donald trump. with a 2013 publication date it extensively maintains an agenda for san francisco linking willie brown, ed lee and london breed as so completely enthralled to corporation interests, barely offering even a trickledown narrative to sugarcoat this desolation. for those queers bashed in front of the lgbt center in 2003, the reward for choosing to challenge the status quo is getting to watch it win often. learning how to continue to be willing to challenge it constitutes the relationship one develops to failure. failure is something you dread because it literally means your life is one the line, not your ego. gavin's stakes are never that. patrick bateman-looking mother fucker.
schenkelberg's review against another edition
3.0
A powerful, well-written, and deeply perceptive book by Gavin Newsom. In it, he artfully describes and explains our crumbling institutions of government, then supplies a plethora of examples and even more ideas about a new, people and community-driven system of governance that will rise from rubble of our monolithic systems, enabled by technology. Newsom is a solid writer, and his energy and initiative in his field is contagious.
niceread's review against another edition
3.0
The book had some interesting examples of how to improve citizen participation in government through technology, but his naive faith in technology and belief that privatization will solve everything was a little hard to take after awhile. I wouldn't have guessed that this guy was an elected democrat, but I guess that is how far to the right the Dems have moved.
jmanchester0's review against another edition
5.0
Government right now is functioning on the cutting edge - of 1973.
Part of the point of this book is making government more participatory. To truly have a government for, by, and of the people. It‰ЫЄs going to take some work, because as my girlfriend wrote in the margin of this book, ‰ЫП[the government would] rather not know what we want so they can keep voting however they want.‰Ыќ They don‰ЫЄt really want our participation.
Well, too bad. They‰ЫЄre going to get it, if 2017-2018 is any indication.
This isn‰ЫЄt going to be easy. There are so many ways we are behind technologically - and they all connect to money and power. Politicians don‰ЫЄt want to give up their power, so they don‰ЫЄt want to change. Companies don‰ЫЄt want to give up their monopolies, so it‰ЫЄs harder to introduce things like city-wide free wifi or solar panels.
Oooh! How do we fix this:
Because the government doesn‰ЫЄt have an official PR department to help burnish its image, people go about their daily lives oblivious to how enriched they are by it.
This way:
Overcoming bureaucracy, updating the museum pieces of governance, revealing the real people who make up our government, restoring trust: technology can help us do all of these crucial things, if we allow ourselves to embrace it.
Some fantastic thinking about bringing our country into the digital age. Into the 21st Century. It seems like it‰ЫЄs about time.
We need to engage people in the democratic process. We need to reinvent government.
And this book offers quite a variety of solutions. From using apps to X Prizes, the author gives some excellent ideas to really make this a government of the people.
We need to work together and start implementing them.
Part of the point of this book is making government more participatory. To truly have a government for, by, and of the people. It‰ЫЄs going to take some work, because as my girlfriend wrote in the margin of this book, ‰ЫП[the government would] rather not know what we want so they can keep voting however they want.‰Ыќ They don‰ЫЄt really want our participation.
Well, too bad. They‰ЫЄre going to get it, if 2017-2018 is any indication.
This isn‰ЫЄt going to be easy. There are so many ways we are behind technologically - and they all connect to money and power. Politicians don‰ЫЄt want to give up their power, so they don‰ЫЄt want to change. Companies don‰ЫЄt want to give up their monopolies, so it‰ЫЄs harder to introduce things like city-wide free wifi or solar panels.
Oooh! How do we fix this:
Because the government doesn‰ЫЄt have an official PR department to help burnish its image, people go about their daily lives oblivious to how enriched they are by it.
This way:
Overcoming bureaucracy, updating the museum pieces of governance, revealing the real people who make up our government, restoring trust: technology can help us do all of these crucial things, if we allow ourselves to embrace it.
Some fantastic thinking about bringing our country into the digital age. Into the 21st Century. It seems like it‰ЫЄs about time.
We need to engage people in the democratic process. We need to reinvent government.
And this book offers quite a variety of solutions. From using apps to X Prizes, the author gives some excellent ideas to really make this a government of the people.
We need to work together and start implementing them.
c_bulin's review against another edition
3.0
Overall it was an easy read. Technology is treated as too much of a panacea in my opinion, but some of the barriers he mentions are legitimate. When he sticks to topics he is more familiar with (the government side of the engagement coin) he does much better than when he speaks of technology, in my opinion.
freddsch's review against another edition
3.0
Read it for an essay. Seems to be a lot of people talking about a lot of good things but repeating themselves and kinda lacking a direction.
jentrification's review against another edition
3.0
easy read, polished off in a few hours. some repetitive concepts from other books that i have read (the end of big, etc)