wow this is very old from 2005 when lotv had just been born. I came up with the idea in 2004 and registered in Oct of 04 with the state of Texas as a NPO. In 2005 I went for IRS 501c3 status which took 2 yrs!

1. League of Technical Voters
[story]
Jack: “to what end” to improve decision making, make our government cheaper and more effective, prevent poor technical
decisions by government,
Kai: make a slide that is just the title, and second slide is this one. (Otherwise silona gets caught up in explaining this before telling
the story) Story must be first!
Adina: “The government is not a good buyer” rules have changed for technology and lawmakers are not keeping up: treating new
technologies like old and trying to write law based on old laws based on old technology.

2. Vision:
The League of Technical Voters is a
nonprofit, nonpartisan organization
dedicated to motivating and assisting
technical experts to improve lawmaking
and governmental process.
Motivate geeks
Help lawmakers
Help admins

3. The Future We Will Create!
• More knowledgeable and accountable legislators and
administrators
• New level of openness to government process
(Lawmaking, Bidding)
• Strong, influential community of technical activists
• Solid source of technical advice and information
available to legislators and administrators
• More technical experts on advisory boards directly
influencing procurement and policy decisions
• Credible, collaborative news resource for the press
Jack: Focus less on what you know, focus more on what you don’t: how does this impact other areas that you don’t spend time in
Marketing - some money could come from other orgs who want software - missing slide on funding model - part of funding comes
from shared dev resources working with other organizations
Bottom Line: Focus more on what will the org will produce and how much it will cost
Must also chop this down to ADD version: someone has 10 - 15 minutes and is focused on six other things. Make this version.
This slide is “how”, but WHAT does this functioning community DO? This should be vision: if we do what we want, what we wind
up having is:
-Collaborative news site where people are garthing rich, filtered information
-Involved, politically active technical experts
-Techies on advisory boards
-Influencing procurement and policy decisions directly
-Extreme openness in government bidding process

4. Core Values
• Transparent governmental process and
decision making.
• Unbiased and nonpartisan public
discussions of technical issues.
• Effective and timely response to rapid
changes in technology.
• Decisions based on expert factual,
scientific, and technical information rather
than special interest or partisan agendas.
Jack: Doesn’t have stances etc, but the org does have values (or should to draw people) “we value visibility into governement
ccontracting and decision making” “value having unvested experts involved in decision making” “visibility into lawmaking process”
Adina: “technology changes rapidly and it’s important to consider changes when writing new technology legislation (need to
respond)”
Another value: “supports decision making based on factual, scientific, and technical information”

5. Who is our Target Audience?
• Technical Experts
• Technical Leaders
• Legislators and Staff
• Government Administrators and Staff
• Visionaries In Technology
• Media
Adina: What about journalists? Visionaries? You wouldn’t hire him to build a system, but he’d be great on advisory board: how do
you know if he “gets in”?
Jack’s 5 points for org creation: Mission, Vision (in 5 years), Beliefs about the world, Values, Perspective (where today vs vision)
BOUNCE to overexended if needed

6. The Toolset We Will Use
Interactive Website:
• Integration of Social Network,
Communities, Blogging and Activism Tools
• Verified user identities and reputation
system insure verifiable resources
• Open source platform allows for
community driven expansion

7. How we will find
the People we need
Nurturing tech community growth is crucial
• Seed with conference speakers and
celebrity bloggers
Policy Makers
• Are hungry for unbiased resources
Media
• Attracted to verified collaborative
information source
Bounce to we will create an
army

8. Differentiation
• Technet.org
– Only organizes top level executives
• EFF
– 501c3 Not allowed to focus on lobbying
– Primary service is legal assistance
• Partisan groups (Moveon.org)
– Decide issues at top level
• Slashdot
– News source, but not politically involved
• CPSR.org
– Top-down issue based organization
Adina: include CPSA (computer professionals for social responsibility)

9. The Basic Funding Plan
• Initial site development through
sponsorship
• Continued bandwidth and server
maintenance covered by user fees
• Additional support from volunteers and
sponsors

10. What it will cost
First Year Following
Development 1,503,267.08 years
of software Maintenance 1,016,057.8
0
One time 335,000.00 of software
equipment Infrastructure 200,000.00
Infrastructure 200,000.00
Limited 352,700.00
Marketing 645,900.00
Marketing
Total Total per year 1,568,757.8
2,664,167.08
0
Here’s how I came up with my dollar amount: got estimates from tech team, looked at num of people over X time, some extra
amount, flat fee for incorporation: They suggest finding marketing and financial people you need NOW. Before you pitch.
Talk about what a phase 1 success looks like:
-Marketing to everyone
-Building the initial site
-Buy materials
-Buy bandwidth

11. Our Current Status and Timeline
Staff:
• 9 people currently working on spec
• 11 additional employees required
Release:
• Beta Release: 6 months from funding
• Hoping for March 2006 beta release

12. Additional Resources We Need
• Advisory board development
• Legal advisor
• Financial advisor
How to get the word out needs to be talked about “presence at tech conferences” OSCon, Security and Privacy Conference

13. Exit Strategy
If the advisory board decides that it is time
to shelve the organization, they will
choose the current viable nonprofits who
will receive the organization’s assets.
We never see that our social objective will be completed as it is not a finite goal.
We hope that user fees and volunteerism to keep the organization running past the point of sponsorship.

14. Fin

15. An Interesting Side Effect
Software usable by other nonprofit
organizations
• Open source
• Ready in one year’s time
• Well documented, thoroughly tested
codebase
• Large support group and user base

16. Financials

17. Software Development Expenses
Personnel Loaded
Project Mgr 103,740.00
Tech Lead 100,282.00
1. 5 System Administrators 123,046.32
QA Lead 84,566.72
DBA 106,400.00
Usability specialist 98,420.00
Graphic Design 66,500.00
4 PHP Coders 319,200.00
Optimizer 93,100.00
Tech Writer 78,174.74
Test Writer 93,100.00
Technology Director 172,900.00
Office Manager 63,840.00
TOTAL 1,503,267.08

18. Other Expenses
Buildout & Office equip 25,000.00
Production equipment 60,000.00
Database/web servers 250,000.00
TOTAL 1st YR 335,000.00
Overhead 107,400.00
Equipment 92,600.00
TOTAL per YR 200,000.00

19. Overhead Expenses
Monthly Yearly
Rent/parking 4,500.00 54,000.00
Utilities 450.00 5,400.00
Telephone/Connectivity 900.00 10,800.00
Office supplies 300.00 3,600.00
Food/supplies 1,500.00 18,000.00
Education/books 300.00 3,600.00
Misc 1,000.00 12,000.00
TOTAL 8,950.00 107,400.00

20. Marketing Expenses
Conferences 3/month 144,000.00
Volunteer Coordinator - loaded 79,800.00
Print materials for conferences 10,000.00
Print materials for 4 audiences 40,000.00
Marketing Studies ?
Business Cards 1,000.00
Executive Director - loaded 172,900.00
Web Designer - contractor 60,000.00
Graphics Designer – contractor 40,000.00
Marketing Expert - contractor 60,000.00
Hosting costs - contracted 1,200.00
Miscellaneous costs 10,000.00
2 laptop computers and projectors 7,000.00
Total 645,900.00

21. Software Maintenance Expenses
Project Mgr 103,740.00
Tech Lead 100,282.00
System Administrator 82,029.08
QA Lead 84,566.72
DBA part time 50,000.00
PHP Coder 79,800.00
Optimizer part-time 70,000.00
Tech Writer part-time 36,000.00
Test Writer 93,100.00
Technology Director 172,900.00
Community Coordinator 79,800.00
Office Manager 63,840.00
TOTAL 1,016,057.80

22. Problem

23. Overextended Policymakers and
Administration
• Are uninformed on technical issues
• Lack resources to evaluate new
technologies
• Rely on sources of information with vested
interests: corporate lobbyists
• Lawmakers protect old technologies
instead of fostering new technologies
Anyone who understands a process, such as installing a systsem, this is just another process (gov)

24. Technical Experts:
the Untapped Resource
• Natural Mavens
• Have vast knowledgebase
Technical experts rarely involved politically:
• Uninformed on political process and language
• Perceived time constraints
• Disenfranchised as voters
• Discouraged by poor Tech Volunteer
management
Kai: Unclean process: perhaps “not always logical” or, maybe, “not clean because requires mechinations that don’t feel entirely
honest; being political”
Adina and others: One slide on who are these technical people? They are people who… communicate this way.. Mavens… etc.
Here’s what they look like and what will they add - instead of negative, talk right away about this is target population and why.
Adina: within the “ecosystem” are people who have become managers etc. who have tech knowledge but have some people skills
too: perfect for this role and all they need is understanding of process
Jack: techies are hooked on making things happen, making change
Adina: Face to Face is THE way to communicate and how things get done. Simply don’t work via email

25. The Fix

26. We Will Create an Army of
Active Technical Experts
Technical experts become:
• Current on relevant legislation
• Publishers of expert opinions
• Technical advisors
• Lobbyists
Sam: Creating culture of involvement
-Phrase silona likes: Collaborative news source
-Call slides “Army of Active Techies” and talk about techies will be doing if this works, and other is “Informed Politicians” and talk
about what they will be doing
-Use subheads like children’s story - if you read just the sub heads you should have a high level narrative that reads like children’s
story

27. Stronger Smarter Policymakers and
Administrators
Legislators, Administrators and Staff:
• Search for and read expert advice
• Obtain aggregate opinion data
• Request expert, nonpartisan assistance
• Develop informed briefing packets from
reputable sources
Adina: Arron Pena has blog and nonpartisan group already working on some tech issues etc. (Good seed?)
Someone listening to this are likely looking for buzzwords that say that you understand the process
Jack: If you can make staff members look good to their politicians, you win. Pitch this to/collect staff members.

28. First We Gather the Experts!
Bring Techies together:
• Provide fast, relevant, filtered information
• Create culture of involvement
– Flexible levels of involvement
– Community space
• Educate on current political process

29. Next We Offer Services to the
Policymakers and Administrators
• Verified Information – can check the
credentials of a poster
• Easily searched and filtered
• Request help and information from our
experts
• If topic too complex they can see what
most experts feel is proper action

30. We Motivate the Experts into Action
• Proactively we send information to
policymakers and Adminstrators through
typical channels
• We teach Experts how to properly deliver
information to Policymakers
• We have experts directly influence
creating of legislation and policies by
serving on Advisory Boards

31. Software Development

32. Feature Milestones
• Milestone 0 • Milestone 3
– Blog Engine – Reputation Balancing
– Basic Profile • Milestone 4
– Polling – Discussions
• Milestone 1 – Polish
– Reputation/Ratings • Milestone 5
– Extended Profile – Petitions
• Milestone 2 – Email/Call Drives
– Groups – Payment
– Connections – Invitations

33. Design Challenges
• Traffic
• Community tools and control
• Good culture creation
• Reputation system
Look to gaming community for good culture and community tools

34. Actors
• Guest User -> invited ->Registered User -> validated ->
Voter -> good reputation -> Blogger
• Special Case Users with artificially high reputations
– Digerati – celebrity bloggers
– Executives – corporate voices with security concerns
– Informers – watch legislation
• Policymakers: Legislators, Administrators and Staff
• LoTV Staff
• LoTV Administrators
• Community Coordinators

35. Feature Set
• Blogging software
• Social network software
• Activism tools
• Reputation system
• Community Forums
• Filtering software integration
All known pieces of software
Integration is new
LJ
Orkut friendster linked in
Move on
Slashdot
yahoogroups
Google
Big bonus – we don’t spam members!

36. Blogging Software
• Rate Post and Comment
• Filtering includes custom user views
• Tagging and Tagsonomy
• Reputation
• Trackbacks
• Cross syndication

37. Social Network
• Profile
• Interests
• Contact info -varied levels of availablity
• Networking (aka friending)
• Job validation
• Skills ranking
• Reputation Ranking

38. Activism
• Voting – aggregate data for Policymakers
• Petitions - public
• Customized Emails and Faxes
• Community creation
• Events postings
• Cross links to other websites outside of
LoTV
• Advisory boards

39. Community Forums
• Bulletin boards
• Email lists
• Calendars
• File exchange
• Verified groups ie IEEE
• Groups have hierarchy
• Groups that intra-group relationships

40. Reputation System
• Individuals direct and indirect
• Skills
• Posts
• Comments
• Groups as entities
• Group postings and participation
• Group members

41. Filtering
• Multileveled
• Posts and comments
• Community Forums
• Individuals
• Groups as entities