I passionately believe in Open, but I need your help to sell my case to the rest of the New Internationalist co-operative. You see, each year the co-op determines the subject of the next ten issues of the magazine at an annual general meeting, and they do it in a very co-op-y way, with lots of discussion, and consensus-building, and then -- when that all fails -- by direct democracy. Its a beautiful thing to watch.

Cross-posted from the New Internationalist Tech blog

While asking for input on the New Internationalist redesign process the other day, one of my friends replied (in jest) “Is ‘crowdsourcing’ the new ‘design by committee’?”

It got me thinking about why I’m excited by open and transparent design processes, and how concepts like crowdsourcing are exactly the opposite of design by committee. (Well, sometimes.)

For me, the excitement stems from a passion for learning. I like to “see inside the tent” and to learn about how others approach the same challenges I face in my work, for example: How to build successful online advocacy campaigns, How to produce compelling Web properties, and How to develop impact-filled, sustainable, Web strategies.

About two months ago, I was contacted by my colleague Leif Utne. He and Jon Warnow – both Web of Change alumni – have started an experiment in crowd-sourced funding for an incredibly important technology project: WiserEarth. I signed on immediately.

Here’s an e-mail from Leif about the project:

WiserEarth is an amazing resource, a global index of over 110,000 NGOs (and growing). But it sorely needs an API so we can all develop apps to display and interact with that data through our own sites.

That’s why Jon Warnow (of 350.org), myself, and nearly 2 dozen other progressive technology and activist leaders have launched this effort to crowd-source the $10,000 WiserEarth needs to finish developing their API. Just 1 day into this campaign we have $875 from 18 donors.

Can you or your organization make a donation today at http://openwiser.org? Give whatever you can, even if it’s small. And spread the word.

A WiserEarth API would benefit the entire progressive movement. Let’s help make it happen!

cheers,
Leif

p.s. Neither Jon or I work for WiserEarth. We’re just big fans who want to see the site succeed. And we believe a robust API is key to that success.

I hope you might take a moment to join me in supporting the initiative.

Few are as eloquent and succinct as Mr. Cory Doctorow. His note this year struck a cord for me personally, as he writes of economic uncertainty and the amazing thing that is "open." Here's the full text of his "Thanks for 2008 -- see you next year!" e-mail:

As the software landscape shifts from installed software to Software as a Service (SaaS), and as “support” for those services moves from asking a question on a mailing list to professional support teams — the one thing that is sometimes lost is that sense of connection to other people using the software. So, when I see innovative software providers like Democracy in Action launching a full-fledged networking and collaboration platform for their user community — I’m left inspired by what’s possible when engaged people put their minds to it.