My thanks to Henry Brown for posting these links on govloop.com, both of which are from ComputerWorld.

22 free tools for data visualization and analysis and the accompanying Chart.

Clicking about, looking for infographics on the U.S. budget deficit, I came across the second part of The New York Times interactive infographic, Budget Puzzle: You Fix the Budget.  NYT published the puzzle on 11/13/2010, which I recall, but I didn't see the follow up of a week later, How Twitter Users Balanced the Budget. 

Not a scientific sampling but a good example of informing and engaging a citizenry on a complex issue, "more than one million page views, and more than 11,000 posted Twitter messages about the puzzle, most including their own solution".  And the Times had several good accompanying pieces on the subject and exercise including a transparency piece, Behind the Times Deficit Project.

I'd like to see a mashup of Meetup, Study Circles, and a Games For Change mobile app, that generates actual recognition and street cred like the buzz a YouTube video gets for going viral.

NYT Budget Puzzle: You Fix the Budget, 11/13/2010

NYT How Twitter Users Balanced the Budget, 11/20/2010

More resource for the equation of addressing wicked problems and civic engagement...

While sitting at Whole Foods, downtown Austin, TX, having coffee and getting to 'inbox zero' I discovered that just north of me the ISOJ2011 was going on.  Went to the link to find that it's on livestream.com/isoj2011 along with captures of the previous sessions.

Online journalism has become an integral part of building the link between transparency and civic engagement.

MJ Broadbent, #VizThink, introduced an engaging presentation by Steve & Todd Cherches, who took us on a two-hour journey that challenged VizThink NYC members' visual interpretations, visual communication styles, and was just downright fun. These guys are full of energy and know how to push those visual buttons.

Voting is over - the winner of the first Reinhard Mohn Prize has been selected! 

Over the past four weeks, 11.600 citizens in Germany were invited to select the winner for the Reinhard Mohn Prize 2011 out of seven finalists. Voting is now over and the winner has been selected.

In view of this year’s subject - democracy and participation - the Board of the Bertelsmann Stiftung decided that the winner of the Reinhard Mohn Prize should be selected by a representative sample of citizens in Germany. 11,600 participants of the BürgerForum in 2008, 2009 and 2011 were therefore invited to cast their vote. For this purpose the web-platform www.abstimmung-rmp2011.de was created. Via this platform the citizens could access short descriptions, case studies and films to gather information about the seven finalists. From February 21, 2011 to March 23, 2011 a total of 72% of all invited citizens cast their vote for one or multiple projects (approval voting).

The winner of Reinhard Mohn Prize 2011 is: Participatory Budgeting Recife, Brazil.