I’ve been a bit preoccupied lately, busy with things that have kept me away from this blog.
Our babysitter is on vacation (go figure) so Sue and I have been scrambling with our schedules to pick up the slack. And while it’s still a bit tricky to get work done with two girls in the house when there’s a sitter around, it’s impossible without the assistance of another grown-up, so I’ve been doing a lot of trips to various playgrounds and libraries.
I’m also moving my office from one end of the house to the other. In the meantime, I’m in boxes and on couches in coffee-shops.
But the big news is I’m running for Town Council here in Pound Ridge. The official announcement is Sunday but like a typical PR guy, I’m leaking it here on my blog.
For a whole lot of reasons, like that we live in one of the richest communities in the history of humanity and our library is closed more often than not, I’ve been playing with the idea. Yesterday, at a fundraiser for our Congresscritter, our town’s Democratic Committee chair asked me if I was interested and after listening to John Hall and Steny Hoyer extol the virtues of public service I told him I’m in for the race.
We’re a suburban bordering on exurban community. The issues are property taxes, services for residents, parking in the commercial area of town and wetlands protection. Big sexy stuff, I know. But I’m also interested in how we can apply some of the stuff we play with in our Web 2.0 playground and make it work for the residents of this small town. Like using RSS and email alerts to residents for important town news and using the Town’s web site to bring more openness and transparency to Town government.
I’m a technologist at heart and I believe technology can be used to make people’s lives better. And in this role, as a presumptive Council Member, I want to use technology to help ease people’s interactions with their local government – normally a difficult process in the best of times.
So there you have it. It’s going to be an interesting (to say the least) next few months. I’ll try to document it as best I can here and elsewhere. And if any of you have any profound thoughts, please pass them along.
