Privacy Policy
Information Collection & Use
In order to post comments to this Web site, you must first complete the registration form and create a user name and password. During registration you are required to give a valid email address. The Public Square Project is the sole owner of any information collected on www.thepublicsquareproject.org.
Communications from the Site
Newsletters
If you wish to subscribe to our newsletter, we will use your name and email address to send the newsletter to you. Out of respect for your privacy, we provide you a way to unsubscribe. Please see the “Choice and Opt-out” section.
Service-related Announcements
We will send you strictly service-related announcements on rare occasions when it is necessary to do so. For instance, if our service is temporarily suspended for maintenance, we might send you an email. Generally, you may not opt-out of these communications, which are not promotional in nature. If you do not wish to receive them, you have the option to deactivate your account.
Customer Service
Based upon the personally identifiable information you provide us, we will send you a welcoming email to verify your username and password. We will also communicate with you in response to your inquiries and to manage your account. We will communicate with you by email.
Information Disclosure
We reserve the right to disclose your personally identifiable information as required by law and when we believe that disclosure is necessary to protect our rights and/or to comply with a judicial proceeding, court order, or legal process served on our Web site.
Choice/Opt-out
If you no longer wish to receive our newsletter and promotional communications, you may opt-out of receiving them by following the instructions included in each newsletter or communication or by emailing us at info@thepublicsquareproject.org.
Links to Other Sites
This Web site contains links to other sites that are not owned or controlled by The Public Square Project. Please be aware that we, The Public Square Project, are not responsible for the privacy practices of such other sites. We encourage you to be aware when you leave our site and to read the privacy statements of each and every Web site that collects personally identifiable information. This privacy statement applies only to information collected by this Web site.
Access to Personally Identifiable Information
If your personally identifiable information changes, or if you no longer wish to receive our newsletter or post comments to our site, you may correct, update, delete or deactivate your account by making the change on our Login page or by emailing such changes to info@thepublicsquareproject.org.
Security
The security of your personal information is important to us. We make every effort to protect the personal information submitted to us, both during transmission and once we receive it. No method of transmission over the Internet, or method of electronic storage, is 100% secure, however. Therefore, while we strive to use commercially acceptable means to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee its absolute security. If you have any questions about security on our Web site, you can send email us at info@thepublicsquareproject.org.
Changes in this Privacy Statement
If we decide to change our privacy policy, we will post those changes to this privacy statement and other places we deem appropriate so that you are aware of what information we collect and how we use it. We reserve the right to modify this privacy statement at any time, so please review it frequently. If we make material changes to this policy, we will notify you here.
Contact Us
If you have any questions or suggestions regarding our privacy policy, please contact us at info@thepublicsquareproject.org.
Last Updated: February 13, 2009
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Blog
The Public Square Posterous
In order to provide the latest and greatest in blogging technology, The Public Square Project is now going to be blogging at our new Posterous blog - The Public Square Posterous, which you can check out that this link, or at publicsquare.posterous.com. Come on over and join the conversation about government transparency, Government 2.0 technology, and citizen journalism.
Public=Online
On Thursday of this week, I was in Washington, D.C. to participate in a panel discussion on the importance of transparency at all levels of government. The panel was hosted by the Sunlight Foundation and Google and held at Google's D.C. office. I'll share my thoughts on the panel in the next post, but I wanted to first explain why I was there.
Year One of The Public Square Project: Where We've Been, Where We're Headed.
It's hard to believe that it has been one year since we kicked off the work of The Public Square Project with a series of citizen journalism training workshops held at The Union Project in East Liberty. Since that time, we have registered some key successes, dealt with many challenges, and made our share of mistakes.
Report the News. Make Money!
The Public Square Project is now offering a one-time $75.00 stipend to the first 10 citizen journalists who publish a news story in the upcoming edition of The Pittsburgh Citizen, formerly PittPoint, the new citizen-driven news site and publishing platform developed by The Public Square Project (read more below). It's that simple: Report the News. Make Money.*
News
Public Square Project is quietly tapping the power of local citizen journalists
A grassroots project is quietly emerging as a profound voice for citizen activists in the region.
PMweekend Features Citizen Journalism Workshops
Belated thank you to Pittsburgh Magazine for featuring The Public Square Project's Citizen Journalism Workshops in PMweekend.
Blog Role
BY CHRIS YOUNG, Pittsburgh City Paper
Old-media journalists are losing jobs everywhere, while new-media journalists often lack the resources and expertise to fill in the gaps. But Ryan Hopkins hopes his effort to combine old and new media will improve local news reporting and create greater government transparency.