The Ann Arbor Chronicle » Wiki Wednesday

Ann Arbor, You’ve Got Documents

Dave Askins — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 04:40:07 +0000

The Ann Arbor Area Government Document Repository has now launched.

Let’s say you’ve got some electronic government documents of some kind – documents that you think ought to get a wider readership. You might be someone who has executed a Freedom of Information Act request. Or you might be a city councilmember who has an interesting staff report.

Whoever you are, if you’ve got docs, there’s now a place to store and share them with others: The Ann Arbor Area Government Document Repository.

Or let’s say you’re looking for some documents. Would you like to look at the drawings for the Stadium Boulevard bridge replacement project? Or maybe you’d like to see that Request for Proposals put out by the city of Ann Arbor for the Library Lot. Or maybe you’d like to see the old income tax study commissioned by the city back in 1997. Maybe you’d like to look at the collected digital scans of doodles made on the back of napkins by city planning commissioners at a March 23, 1964 meeting with out-of-town developers.

You’re already in luck … except for that last item – The Chronicle is not aware that any such meeting took place. By “in luck,” we mean someone has already uploaded to AAAGDR the exact documents you’re seeking.

What is the goal of this document repository? From the AAAGDR website:

The Ann Arbor Area Government Document Repository is a place to upload documents relevant to local governance.

You can use this site to share PDFs, Excel files, PowerPoint documents, raw data, and other files produced by local governmental bodies, including the City, County, and School District. Uploaded documents are given a clean URL that — among many uses — can be shared via email, posted in online forums, and contributed to local newspapers.

This site is free to use. There is no registration process, but you must provide a valid email address. Your email will not be published.

We reserve the right to moderate submissions.

Who are the people behind the “we”? One of them is Matt Hampel, who developed the project. Technical consultation and refinement was provided by Brian Kerr of Different Chairs, which is also hosting the project. AAAGDR is part of the ArborWiki Project, a general collection of local Ann Arbor information.

In this initial launch phase of the AAAGDR, not all of the functions that might eventually be developed have been included. Feedback can be sent directly to info@arborwiki.org.

Both Hampel and Kerr might be names already familiar to Chronicle readers as folks who will occasionally post a comment here on The Chronicle. We encourage the development of projects like the document repository and extend our thanks to Matt and Brian for their work.

Wiki Wednesday: Washtenaw Boards

Dave Askins — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 13:12:17 +0000

After featuring city boards and commissions recently, we offer equal time this week to county boards and commissions. The county maintains a membership lists on a directory of boards, committees and commissions, and external agencies to which the board appoints representatives. The directory is searchable by name and by date of term expiration. So typing in “Driskell” yields a result showing that Gretchen Driskell serves on the Accommodations Ordinance Commission and the Southeastern Michigan Council of Governments (SEMCOG).

This week, we’re suggesting that Chronicle readers focus on the names of these boards and commissions. In most cases, the directory listing for individual boards and commissions contains some useful information about the body. And that’s a good start for an ArborWiki entry, not to mention the people who are currently serving on that body. Note that in some cases, the county’s website listing is limited to the county’s representation on a body, and does not include other membership (e.g., the Ann Arbor SPARK board of directors).

Links below lead to the ArborWiki pages, which in almost every case still need to be created – something that can be done by clicking on the “edit this page” option after following the link:

There’s lots of names of people floating around those boards and commissions. As always, we encourage the creation of ArborWiki pages about people. Creating a new ArborWiki page about a person is straightforward, starting from the main ArborWiki page.

Wiki Wednesday: Running for City Council

Dave Askins — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 15:49:21 +0000

Yes, we know it’s not quite Wednesday yet, but here at The Chronicle it’s already Wiki Wednesday, an occasional series in which we remind readers of the online encyclopedia, ArborWiki, to which they can contribute their knowledge of the community. On Wiki Wednesdays we try to offer a clear path for contribution to ArborWiki.

Most links contained in this article lead to ArborWiki entries that can be edited or created from scratch.

This week we focus on How-To articles. ArborWiki isn’t really intended for general interest How-To articles – how to plant a garden, how to arrange an attractive flower bouquet, how to organize an effective political campaign. But each of those general interest categories could be Ann-Arbor-ized. For example, a garden in a particular place – like a lawn extension (the space between the sidewalk and the street) might require special permissions in Ann Arbor or need to comply with certain rules. Or one could imagine a flower bouquet made of wildflowers collected from locations in Ann Arbor where specific types are known to thrive.

Or one could imagine a nice nuts-and-bolts rundown of the mechanics of an Ann Arbor city council campaign.

That link currently leads to a page that doesn’t exist. A good place to start for filling in nuts and bolts information is the Ann Arbor city clerk’s web page on elections. Some of the basics include the difference between “pulling petitions” and “filing petitions.” Getting the packet of forms and petitions for a particular person (no blank petitions get handed out) from the clerk’s office is “pulling petitions.”

After pulling petitions, there’s no obligation to attempt to collect the 100 required signatures from voters in the ward a candidate seeks to represent. This year the deadline for submitting signatures is June 22, 2009 at 5 p.m. Those candidates who wish to run without party affiliation (independent) have until August 5, 2009 at 4 p.m. to file petitions. Here’s who’s on the clerk’s office list of people who’ve pulled petitions as of April 14, by ward and within each ward in the chronological order they pulled petitions:

Ward 1: Sabra Briere
Ward 2: Stephen Rapundalo
Ward 3: Stephen Kunselman, Leigh Greden, Marwan M. Issa
Ward 4: Marcia Higgins, Hatim A. Elhady
Ward 5: Mike Anglin, Scott Rosencrans

All except for Elhady have taken out petitions for the Aug. 4, 2009 Democratic primary election. Elhady is listed without a party affiliation for the Nov. 3, 2009 general election. None except for Rosencrans have filed completed petitions with the clerk’s office. Rosencrans pulled petitions on April 10 and submitted 106 valid signatures on April 13.

Candidates who might entertain the idea of submitting an extraordinarily large number of signatures (say 1,500) in a show of bravado are thwarted by the requirement that no more than 200 signatures be submitted.

In the packet provided by the clerk, there’s an affidavit of identity that needs to be filled out, a checklist for campaign finance reporting (it’s required of all candidates), and a form for the organization for candidate committees.

The ArborWiki article on How to Run for Ann Arbor City Council should contain at least all of that “mechanics” information.

But it should contain more than that. For example:

Where do I get economical yard signs? Do I have to provide the sign maker with art, or do they do that for you?
How do I get a mailing list of just the registered voters in my ward? How about just the voters who actually voted in the last election?
How do I get notified when somebody asks for an absentee ballot, so that I can send them a vote-for-me postcard?
What’s the latest hour it’s considered reasonable to knock on someone’s door?
How do I make a campaign website?

We conclude by reminding readers that ArborWiki is a tremendous resource already, that could be made even more useful with Chronicle readers’ help. The project is hosted on Ann Arbor District Library servers, so there should be no worries that work put into it will evaporate into a cloud. The “W” in Wiki stands for “work.” You’ve got a whole extra day this week. Get crackin.

Wiki Wednesday: Boards and Commissions

Dave Askins — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 12:28:13 +0000

This week we focus on city boards and commissions.

A standard criticism sometimes heard about Ann Arbor’s city government is that it does not include adequate input from citizens. A standard response to that criticism is to point towards the more than two dozen boards and commissions in the city’s organization on which over 200 citizens serve. But who are the people who serve on those boards and commissions? How long have they served? When do their appointments expire? What boards and commissions exist? For a given person on a given board, on which other boards, if any, do they serve?

Here at The Chronicle, we found it a bit easier than expected to find answers to those kinds of questions on the city’s website. When we inquired with city clerk Jackie Beaudry, she said the increased ease comes from upgrades last month to InSite (the online version of Legistar – the software for minutes and agenda creation).

We found the functionality for exporting the data to .pdf or to .xls files to be not yet implemented – only blank pages seem to be generated. However, the onscreen functionality of report generation allows the questions posed above to be answered in straightforward fashion. It’s easy to get a list of the 220 people who serve on various boards and commissions.

City of Ann Arbor website.

Clicking on a name in that list generates a report of all the boards and commissions on which that person serves. Clicking on the name of a board or commission generates a list of the board or commission’s membership, complete with contact information, and date of their appointment’s expiration. It’s possible to sort the list onscreen by the date when an appointment expires.

That’s useful, for example, if a citizen were interested in serving on a commission. One way to approach it would be to send an email to the next person on the commission up for re-appointment and just straight-out ask: “Are you planning to seek re-appointment? Either way, would you mind meeting with me to talk through what serving on the commission is like?”

What’s the Wiki Wednesday connection? We’d like to offer a suggestion more concrete than simply, “Add the boards and commission information from the city’s website to ArborWiki.” One way to start building out ArborWiki’s information on boards and commissions is to start with the people. More specific than that, we’d suggest starting with the people on a particular commission.

Take the environmental commission, for example, which we’ve copied and pasted below from a report generated from the city’s website. Follow the links from the names. You’ll be taken to a page that either exists on ArborWiki or doesn’t. If it exists, add the “appointed on” and “term ends on” dates for the environmental commission – if no one has already done that. If the page doesn’t exist, you’ll be presented the option to create one. It’s not much to know about a person that they served on the environmental commission in the mid 2000s. But it’s more than nothing. So it’s time to do some Wiki Wednesday work.

Kirk Westphal 2/2/2009 6/30/2009
D. Malama Chock 9/6/2006 9/5/2009
Margie Teall Councilmember 12/5/2005 11/9/2009
Carsten Hohnke Councilmember 11/18/2008 11/9/2009
Steven Bean 8/7/2007 8/6/2010
David Stead 8/7/2007 8/6/2010
Anya Dale 2/20/2008 2/20/2011
Summer Tucker 5/19/2008 5/18/2011
David A. Wright Energy Commission Rep. 2/23/2005 6/2/2011
John German 7/3/2006 8/7/2011
Rita Loch-Caruso 4/17/2006 8/7/2011
Matt Naud Ex-Officio non-voting 10/29/2007 no end date

It would be useful to have a page about the environmental commission itself, with its current membership.

Reminder: Pages for other people or commissions can also be created using the form at the bottom of the ArborWiki home page.

Wiki Wednesday: Who ARE These PEOPLE?

Dave Askins — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 15:33:34 +0000

It’s Wiki Wednesday again, an occasional series in which The Chronicle reminds readers of the online encyclopedia, ArborWiki, to which they can contribute their knowledge of the community. In the inaugural edition of our Wiki Wednesday series, we suggested adding to some ArborWiki entries consisting of name lists. One of those name lists was a historical record of people who have served on Ann Arbor city council.

Following that link reveals a whole host of additions, since last week, some dating back to the 1950s. Other additions are more recent.

What good is a list of names, though, if we don’t know who these people are? Take as an example one of the recent additions to the list of city council members who’ve served sometime in the past: Jean Carlberg. If you click on her name in that ArborWiki list, the result (as of this writing) takes you straight to a blank editing window for the page about Jean Carlberg, which doesn’t currently exist. It’s ArborWiki’s way of saying, “Hey, this page needs to be created – how about giving it a shot?” That makes it easy to add whatever you might know about Jean Carlberg. ArborWiki needs an entry for Jean Carlberg. She’s been mentioned in The Chronicle as recently as today. And that’s not the first time.

And there’s plenty of other people who need an entry as well. For a quick overview of all the people who already have an entry in ArborWiki, visit the People page. You can’t click on something that’s not there, so what if you notice a gap – a name that’s not on the list that should be? There are a couple of different ways to create a page for somebody. We’ll highlight just one. Head to the ArborWiki home page and scroll to the very bottom. Here’s what you’ll see:

This image is linked to the ArborWiki home page. If you'd like to create a page about a person, follow the link, type the person's name into the form, and hit the "Create page" button.

Bear in mind that in creating a page for someone, the idea is to provide encyclopedia-type information, not a promotional resume. It might not be a great idea to try to write your own entry. Have at it.

Dine Away from Home for Homeless

Dave Askins — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 13:18:18 +0000

Here at The Chronicle, we enjoy any opportunity for a road trip, and we’ve spotted one in the form of a fundraiser that combines dining and donations.

The fundraising effort for SOS Community Services is called Dine Out to Help the Homeless. It’s a two-day affair, ending on this Saturday, Nov. 22. According to Kate Zellers, development associate for SOS, the nonprofit has teamed up with seven area purveyors of food and beverage to solicit contributions from diners this weekend. Customers can make their contribution to SOS in the form of an extra “menu item” for the donation – a special dish that will make you feel warm and fuzzy inside even if you only enjoy a small portion.

Reflecting on how well-received our Election Day coverage was, The Ann Arbor Chronicle has decided to do our part by including in our Saturday itinerary all of the participating restaurants (even if we’re not planning to file detailed updates from the field):

Saturday, Nov. 22 Chronicle Itinerary
Side Track Bar and Grill
Corner Brewery
The Arena
Arbor Brewing Company
Blue Tractor and Cafe Habana
Grizzly Peak
Old Town Tavern

Our first thought was to make this progressive dinner a perfect parallel to our Election Day coverage by bumming another ride off city attorney Stephen Postema (or more accurately, his son and daughter). But his park-anywhere pass was only good for Election Day, so we figured we’d opt for the ride that requires no parking: AATA buses. Whether they’re bio-diesel hybrids or cute purple Link buses, they require no driving or pedaling and barely any walking, so we’ll be able to sample the full range of food and beverages at these various establishments. Yes, we do understand that the promotion is not called Getting Hammered for the Homeless.

Based on our conversation with Zellers, here’s what we’re expecting at these establishments. Our server will be wearing a button or some other type of “flair” to alert customers to the SOS promotion. At some places, there’ll be a menu item labeled as the SOS donation. We figure our servers will probably “upsell” the donation in very much the same way fries get up-sold from chips at The Old Town: “Now, your hand-pulled pork barbecue sandwich comes with chips, but would you like fries?” So we imagine it could go something like this, “Now, we’re going to pour your beer into a glass, but would you like us to pour some of your cash into the donation pitcher as well?” And in fact, at some of these bars, the SOS donation will be handled less like menu items and more like a pitcher that’s passed for musicians.

In any case, our plan is to make it easy for wait staff. When they show up at the table, our first question will be, “Can we start off with the SOS donation appetizer?” And we’ll be hoping for a response along the lines of, “Sure, I’ll put that in for you right away!” Mmm, fresh-baked dough-nation right out of the oven.

Schedule-wise we’re not committing to anything but the order of establishments listed out above. But depending on WiFi connectivity at different places, we might file simple updates on our location. Hello in advance to Chronicle readers we might meet along the way!

Editor’s note: The links to the restaurants above lead to the ArborWiki entry for each establishment. If one of those places is missing some useful information that you can supply, use that “Edit” button and add it.