Posts By Robert Singleton

One Night in Santa Cruz: Nonexistent Political Compromise

It’s a Tuesday night and it’s sprinkling outside, much to my dismay, as I head over to City Hall to witness what is expected to be a long and onerous council meeting. As I near the chambers it becomes obvious that a large swath of people have already begun to pour out onto the patioRead… Read more »

Communication Breakdown: Government Still Undervalues the Need for Legitimate Public Buy in

This past week my co-founder Manu and I headed to Sacramento for the annual California WateReuse conference, a policy/trade event that focuses on promoting the development of recycled water and desalination. Those in attendance included some of the industry’s best engineers, a wide array of public agencies and utilities, and of course, the public outreachRead… Read more »

How Event Polling Best Reaches Target Constituencies

Government, by necessity and obligation, must understand the competing interests and ideologies of the variety of identity groups that it serves. Put another way, those who are in charge must always have an ear to the ground if they want to remain in charge. That being said, there is no silver bullet in terms ofRead… Read more »

Why Governments Have Failed at Crowdsourcing

Two Words: User Acquisition Local, state and national Governments have yet to fully take advantage of the many platforms available for crowd sourcing policy primarily because they have failed to court a significant enough user base to generate a genuine and sustained online community. Without a diverse enough, self-regulating community of users who are continuallyRead… Read more »