This amended version is the product of your collective efforts. In the coming weeks, SF Tech Dems will be initiating a support drive to numerous other organizations and individuals to build the necessary support and show the legislature that our technology community is united behind this bill.  Shown below this message is the amended version for your review. Please take a look at it, admire it, and distribute it to your friends. Now we need their support and YOURS! This issue is front and center because all of us are working together on many fronts -- advocacy, media, advertising, and grassroots efforts.

Along with a number of other open government advocates, I've launched a campaign to put a definition of "open data online" into California and San Francisco law. The issue is that often when documents and data are published online, they cannot be accessed or used in a meaningful fashion because they cannot be searched, indexed by Google, or combined in a meaningful way with other documents for analysis. I want to tackle this not by mandating that certain documents and data be published online, but simply by creating a reference standard so that when new mandates pass, or new documents are published online as a matter of course under existing law or regular business, they are in accessible formats.

We need your support.

• Please sign on the the campaign here and get more background and advocacy tools.

From time to time I get asked for my opinion about digital strategy for SF elections. I'd like to share here a few of the top things that I think would be effective today. Would love to hear other ideas and feedback in the comments!

One of the important things to recognize in SF today is the changing nature of the creative class and how influential the emerging creators from Gen X and Y really are. Knowledge work is the driver of modern industry and SF is the Mecca for these folks around the world. Software developers, for example, often do what the do for the joy of creating something out of nothing - the same kind of force that drives painters and sculptors. The same with bloggers and other multi-media creators.

There are thousands and thousands of these folks in SF, and they cross demographic boundaries.

They are also very influential, generally progressive but pragmatic and not tightly tied to a particular ideology or historical movement. Many of them are not registered with a party. They are also very open and easy to engage with, as long as you have a thick skin (which anyone running for SF mayor must).

Some things I would do if I were running for mayor in SF today, and that would benefit any candidate:

• Attend as many of the public networking/mixer-style SF Meetups as possible;
• Meet the local photographer groups and join their photo walks;
• Use Twitter and Tumblr to share quick bursts of real thoughts and actions, not press releases;
• Interact with people who respond on social media channels;
• Work with Yelp and Open Table to integrate SF restaurant health inspection scores with reviews from those sites to save millions in public health costs;
• Comment on local blogs covering the race and interact openly with other commenters;
• Hire a digital strategist to work full time on setting up opportunities and identifying platforms to get your message out. I have a friend in mind who really should be working for one of the campaigns - won't mention his name here because he is currently employed.
• All of these new media are dramatically public. Each interaction is magnified.
• and, shameless plug, use NationBuilder (where I am chief organizer) for your campaign. It is simply the best grassroots advocacy software platform available, and it is very inexpensive.

All of this advice is what I would tell anyone, and have told others. It is good advice. I wish I'd know a lot more about this stuff - and about traditional voter outreach and election strategy - when I ran for Congress two years ago.

(My company, NationBuilder, does not endorse candidates or take consulting fees. Neither do NationBuilder employees take consulting fees for candidates or political organizations. Personally, I like my former boss, SF City Attorney Dennis Herrera, for mayor, but there are several good candidates and it's great that SF voters get the chance to pick three with ranked choice voting this year. Individual members and officers of SF Tech Dems have varying opinions and favorites in local elections - as a club we exist to provide grassroots technology advice to municipal and state officials and politicians and to enccourage technologists to be active in the Democratic Party. Need advice? Just ask!)

The SF Tech Dems had its first membership meeting on Thursday, where we heard from Stephen Valentino, founding member of the California Democratic Party Computer and Internet Caucus Clean Tech Committee, took new memberships, and discussed our candidates' questionnaire.

The Tech Dems are considering a candidate scorecard for the SF mayoral race, which will them be targeted to local residents with Facebook ads. 

We're recruiting new members, and you can join online at $50 for an individual membership and $80 for a household.

Check out a full photo set from Thursday's SF Tech Dems meeting here on Flickr.

Dennis Herrera, San Francisco's City Attorney, has joined the SF Tech Dems as an advisory board member. Said Herrera:

"It's incredibly important that we as a city work to engage our vibrant tech community in the political process. San Francisco has the great privilege of being home to a number of groundbreaking tech companies that can provide us with outstanding input on policy decisions to move our great city forward.

"We are already far beyond most other American municipalities in open data and social media platforms, but we can do better. San Francisco should be leading the charge in technology innovation in government. The city needs to to begin having a serious dialogue with our technology community so they can provide us with the best possible guidance on issues affecting them like government IT spending and tax policies to encourage entrepreneurial growth. We have all of the tools and resources we need to be a champion of tech issues in the Democratic party and San Francisco must utilize those resources and lead."

Other Tech Dems advisory board members include Brigette Hunley, chair of the California Democratic Party Computer & Internet Caucus, Silicon Valley legislator Sally Lieber, and SF Board of Supervisors President David Chiu.

The first meeting of the SF Tech Dems is tonight, 5:30 p.m., at 1408 Market St.. Sign up for email updates here. 2011 dues are $50 for an individual; $80 for a household; and $10 for other memberships - join and pay dues online here.

David Chiu, President of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors and founder of Grassroots Enterprise, a consultancy focused on Internet communications, has joined the advisory board for the San Francisco Technology Democrats. Chiu made his commitment to the organization at the California Democratic Party Convention in Sacramento on Friday. In this advisory role, he joins Brigette Hunley, Chair of the California Democratic Party Computer & Internet Caucus, and Sally Lieber, former three-term Silicon Valley Assemblywoman.

"San Francisco should be the headquarters for the innovation economy of the 21st century and not just another bedroom community for Silicon Valley," said Chiu. "But as a founder of an online technology company, I know firsthand that building a tech business here in San Francisco can be difficult. I'm excited to be a part of SF Tech Dems, an organization that advocates for a pro-technology agenda that will make it easier for entrepreneurs to create jobs in our great city of San Francisco."

Photo by Steve Rhodes

Sally Lieber, a longtime Silicon Valley legislator and current candidate for California Senate, has joined the SF Tech Dems advisory board. Lieber is a frequent Democratic speaker on technology issues, and was featured in the inaugural episode of Gov 2.0 Radio along with O’Reilly Media’s Tim O’Reilly. She talked to SF Tech Dems co-founder and president Adriel Hampton about the importance of political advocacy around tech issues in California and in local government.

“It’s vital that the voice of technology and that technology issues are in place in our City Halls and in the Capitol in Sacramento and not just in Washington, DC, which has been the case for many, many years. We are finding more and more that the community can be served much more efficiently if there is an understanding of basic tech issues within government. There are a tremendous number of opportunities where bills could be happening that could be beneficial to the community in terms of technology issues, but aren’t happening because there is not a real understanding of these issues within government.

“I’m very hopeful that the SF Tech Dems can help in promoting tech issues, can get two-way communication going between the community and officeholders and candidates, and can really help turn Government 2.0 into Policy 2.0, and bring the lessons learned within the tech community, and the way things are done in the tech community, into government for much better outcomes.”

Sally Lieber represented Silicon Valley in the Assembly for three terms, and also served as an councilwoman and mayor of Mountain View. She is well known as a feminist and a progressive. Hampton asked Lieber what kind of experience she brings to the table as an advisory board member for the Tech Dems.

“I really come out of Silicon Valley. I feel like I’ve been steeped in the tech issues for many, many years. When I served in local government, we were very involved in promoting tech issues, and in making sure that our high-tech companies in Silicon Valley felt they had a home base there and that they were well-supported and nurtured by the community. Many of them were very small companies which came right out of our downtown community in Mountain View. I really felt coming to Sacramento that there wasn’t that same focus on tech issues as there really should be, particularly when we are talking about San Francisco, the 8^th largest economy in the world. There are so many opportunities where we can do things better in government, if there is basic understanding of how technology can be used to serve the community.

“We could do a much better job of bringing in ideas and crowdsourcing solutions for the problems we have as a state if we leverage the  technology that is already out there in the consumer sector, and the communities of people who are already online, to come together, whether it is through camps or online organizing. That kind of organizing ought to be brought into government and utilized for the public good.”

**For Immediate Release**
Friday, April 29, 2011 

SF Tech Dems Launches at California Democratic Party Convention
New Democratic Club will Support and Influence the State Party on Technology and Good Government Issues 

SACRAMENTO - Suki Kott and Adriel Hampton today announced the formal launch of SF Tech Dems, a new San Francisco Bay Area Democratic club which seeks to support and influence the California Democratic Party on technology and good government issues. 

Charter officers include Treasurer, Suki Kott; President, Adriel Hampton, and VP of Creative, Jen Drake. Brigette Hunley, chair of the California Democratic Party's Computer & Internet Caucus is the first member of the SF Tech Dems' Advisory Board.

"I am honored to serve on the advisory board of SF Techdems, San Francisco's newest democratic club," Hunley said. "This new club will help the CDP Computer & Internet caucus accomplish our mission on a local level in the Bay Area."

The CDP Internet Caucus was formed to harness the power of the internet and communication technology to further Democratic ideals, issues, and legislation; to assist Democratic Clubs and Assembly Districts; and to elect Democratic candidates.

SF Tech Dems will raise and spend funds to ensure that civic technology, open government and Gov 2.0 ideals are well-represented on the agendas of Democratic candidates in San Francisco and California. The Tech Dems will also endorse and sponsor legislation related to technology policy and good governance. 

The club will be recruiting members this weekend at the State Democratic Party Convention and will hold a membership and fundraising drive in late May in San Francisco.

"We aim to focus on good government through technology: efficiency, collaboration, transparency and agile innovations to build a better representative democracy," said Hampton. "We are pleased to support the efforts of the Computer & Internet Caucus, and to push issues of concern to the civic tech community in San Francisco and the State level."

Contact: Adriel Hampton, 925-895-3744, techdems@adrielhampton.com