Mission Statement
The Public Square Project is a non-partisan government watchdog organization working to improve the quality of local government in the Pittsburgh region by advocating for better access to public information, promoting government transparency, and educating citizens about the policy-making process.
Through our various initiatives and programs, The Public Square Project will be guided by
the following values:
- Public information must be freely available and readily accessible;
- Local government must be creative, efficient, transparent, and responsive to the needs of all of its citizens; and
- Public officials must commit to the highest standards of ethical conduct and avoid all appearance of nepotism and impropriety.
The Public Square Project believes that the foundation of all good government is an educated, engaged citizenry and high levels of voter participation. Our goal is to empower citizens of the Pittsburgh region to demand more from their local government and public officials.
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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.