PlaceSpeak publishes a monthly interview with experts in urbanism, public engagement, and civic technology. ELGL co-founder Kent Wyatt is featured in May. The entire interview is available at – In Conversation With Kent Wyatt.
The interview covers:
The switch from “Emerging” to “Engaging” Local Government Leaders
“Our goal was to engage all areas of local government, from interns in college to elected officials.”
The greatest challenge facing local government
“…reluctance to embrace technologies in local government.”
Resistance to the #13Percent initiative
“So what we try to do as an organization is to ask our members to challenge your employer or associations to ask what they’re actually doing — just talking about it isn’t actually solving anything.”
Engaging the citizen expert
“Get out of City Hall.”
Barriers to citizen engagement
“Jargon — we don’t speak normal, we don’t communicate in easy ways, we don’t look like our communities for the most part.”