Pioneering the world's first decelerator

[patwater]

@vr00n following up on that thread on BAR on the rampant proliferation of accelerators: https://www.facebook.com/groups/refactorings/permalink/2069315966452575/

Why not actually build a decelerator? I was struck by @christophertull 's conversation at the CA water data challenge. The guy was calling for many more tech (and really just smart, thoughtful) young and others with a fresh perspective to run for special districts and local government in California. Theres tons of random local gov's and golden opportunity to get a wave of change to more effectively manage the digital tsunami.

I picture an ARGO decelerator as a structured space for reflection and deep dialogue with civic leaders, civically minded technologists and woke muni managers. The goal is to prepare participants in the decelerator to come out prepared to serve on a local muni board / council / commission. Thoughts?

[patwater]

So noodling on how this could work a bit more, I think there's a lot that could be learned from the Coro Fellowship -- specifically the program designed for mid-career professionals. The Coro Executive Fellowship was designed for folks looking for greater civic leadership and involved a monthly group inquiry (think analogue data dive) into a specific subject area. In addition could provide subject matter training into the mechanics of serving on a board (finances, procedures, key issues / trends etc) and hear from leading domain experts.

This connects to Issue #2 on the CA Civic Tech Corps as several of those fellowships would be natural breeding grounds and allies for this effort.

@vr00n curious to your thoughts. When you get back from India would be great to schedule a call and mind meld about this.

[patwater]

FFFFFOUND CA Leg Chiefs of Staff and Leg Directors contact info (H/T Juan Lopez): https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1gFeGy72R_-FSFrjXbKCAAvVsvNjyV7t_TUvFoB12vys/edit#gid=1