Posts tagged websites
Boulder Valley School District opens online forum
Oct 10th
October 3, 2012
Boulder, CO – The Boulder Valley School District has launched BVSD Listens, a new comprehensive community engagement website developed by MindMixer. It’s a place parents can engage, communicate and collaborate with the superintendent and school board – along with other residents – on where they see the district heading.
The goal is communication – involvement. Parents and community members who sign up with BVSD Listens will be part of the planning process on issues like the school year calendar and the role schools can play in Boulder’s future as a city.
BVSD Listens allows contributors a chance to share new ideas, second others’ ideas, expand upon existing ideas, give feedback on initiatives, and work with school leaders on a variety of topics online anytime, anywhere. The Boulder Valley Board of Education, Superintendent Bruce Messinger, and other key administrators at BVSD will be tuned in to the site.
The discussion has begun with the following topics and will branch off from there based on contributor input:
- Which calendar guiding principles are most important to you?
- What is the best way for the district to communicate with you?
- What is your favorite thing about Boulder Valley Schools?
- How do you see the public schools and the students they produce contributing to your vision of our community’s future?
BVSD Listens also measures and tracks participation, identifying the most interested citizens and most compelling topics. The tools make it easy for administrations to communicate back with parents, and they deliver measurable results and invaluable insight as plans move forward.
Nick Bowden, CEO of MindMixer, says,“ Our tools go beyond just technology. Our mission is to build community contributors. Ideas, voices, and perspectives are shared to facilitate deeper and better conversations that yield actionable insights and a stronger community.”
As part of its service, MindMixer consults and collaborates with clients to identify issues that are critical to stakeholders in order to update topics and content for their websites.
SOPA is "Dead" direct from Film industry lobbyist Chris Dodd in Hollywood
Apr 16th
Dodd, the head of the Motion Picture Association of America, said the industry-supported Stop Online Piracy Act is “history”, in an interview with Bloomberg Television that will air this weekend.
“That’s over with. It’s gone, in my view. It’s dead. It’s behind us,” said Dodd, a former five-term Democratic U.S. senator from Connecticut.
The stark comments, from the man who pushed for tougher anti-piracy laws, come after a concerted effort from the technology community to block SOPA from passing the U.S. Congress last year. Google (Nasdaq: GOOG), Wikipedia and Reddit all went dark in protest; web domain registration provider GoDaddy.com was subject to a boycott because of its support for the bill.
Opposition to the bipartisan SOPA began to grow late in the U.S. House of Representatives, resulting in the measure getting shelved in January.
SOPA would have empowered the U.S. Department of Justice to go after “rogue” foreign websites dedicated to piracy and copyright infringement that are outside the agency’s jurisdiction. The Justice Department and copyright holders would have been able to get a court to block people in the U.S. from accessing foreign websites that host infringing content, like so-called “torrents” of movies, music and software.
The tech community said the bill was too broad and would have unfairly ensnared websites that host user-generated content that often contains infringing material. Further, opponents bristled at provisions to “deputize” payment networks like eBay’s PayPal and Internet service providers to root out copyright violations.
While SOPA may be dead, Dodd said efforts to get Congress to crack down on intellectual property theft will continue. The push will likely come after the 2012 elections, Dodd said.
“The issue hasn’t gone away,” Dodd said. “In fact, even those from the technology community, the overwhelming majority believe we must do something about intellectual property.”
1. http://www.ibtimes.com/archives/articles/reporters/dan-rivoli/