Hi again. I've gotten a few prominent locals to email Council but we could use a bunch more even if you just want to cut and paste the below into an email to: Council@bouldercolorado.gov.
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Dear City Council Members,
Please do not spend taxpayer money on the inferior eSign system ordinance 8318 authorizes, but accept the free offer from maplight.org to implement a true online petition system that is far superior in every way.
Thank you.
Your name
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Maplight's letter to council with their free offer is below. I've attached a screenshot of part of their proposed petition interface
If you'd like to speak to Council in person, come sometime 8:30-9:30 tonight to sign up at council chambers on the second floor of 1777 Broadway at Canyon Boulevard. Sign up to speak for the hearing on 5C&D.
You can monitor the council meeting to watch how they progress through the agenda so you get there at the right time by watching here: https://bouldercolorado.gov/boulder8
--------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Daniel G. Newman <dan@maplight.org>
Date: Mon, Mar 4, 2019, 4:54 PM
Subject: Maplight offer to Boulder: free open-source online petitioning system
To: <Council@bouldercolorado.gov>
Dear Members of the Boulder City Council,
My name is Daniel G. Newman and I’m the president and co-founder of MapLight, a nonprofit based in Berkeley, California. MapLight produces software to support a more transparent and participatory democracy. I’m writing to offer MapLight’s services to the City of Boulder for free, to produce open-source software for online signature gathering for initiatives and referenda.
I understand the Council will be discussing the next steps for electronic signature gathering by use of a tablet during your meeting tomorrow, March 5. Before the Council moves forward with any plans to invest significant time or resources into advancing electronic signatures via tablet by utilizing software such as eSign, we hope you will also consider taking advantage of MapLight’s services to implement a plan that allows for true online signature gathering, at little or no cost to the city of Boulder.
Attached to this email, I have included a letter outlining our proposal in more detail, as well as our initial sketches for what online signature gathering for Boulder could look like.
Thank you in advance for your consideration.
Sincerely,
Daniel G. Newman