We've just completed a series of video tutorials for writers using the local PolicyOptions.org website and PolicyOptionsWiki.org website for publishing issue briefs.

Both these sites are a work in progress and we hope these short video tutorials can help new users learn how to use them.

The first version of the PolicyOptions.org content management system (CMS) is nearly completed. You can see the public demo site at http://trenton.policyoptions.org, which is our pilot site. The video tutorials for this site show how the editorial parts of this site currently functions for "reporters" entering news items to their local site. In the coming weeks we'll have more to share on the Trenton PolicyOptions.org pilot, which is being managed by team of students and faculty from The College of New Jersey's Bonner Center Civic and Community Engagement.

Meanwhile, we have also posted video tutorials for using the PolicyOptionsWiki.org site. These cover how to set up an account, edit a page, and create a new issue brief using the templates we've provided.

We anticipate integrating the issue brief content and wiki functionality into our PolicyOptions.org 2.0 upgrade planned for later this academic year.

The PolicyOptions.org Initiative focus on local content distinguishes it from other public policy news sites we've seen. It's difficult to find local public policy oriented content because it's usually too time consuming (and therefore expensive) to generate it. We believe mobilizing college students to manage local PolicyOptions.org websites is what will make our approach affordable. The work of these students, coupled with user generated content (submissions from agencies that want to publicize a meeting, funding opportunity, proposed regulation or legislation, new study or book), should keep the News and Resources sections of PolicyOptions.org up-to-date with relevant content.

Our hunch is that in medium sized cities and smaller towns there simply is not that much local content to be gathered and kept up-to-date. The mayor's office has an annual budget that needs to be analyzed; there are only a handful of locally-focused community foundations, and the non-profit sector in any given area won't be so large that a team of three to five students working 10 hours a week will be able to report on their policy-related activities.

These include grant awards, new regulations or legislation, and reports and studies of various kinds.

In the start-up phase, each local information bureau will need to identify the sources of information for these and other activities. The bureau will need to join various mailing lists to receive press releases, email announcements, and other sources of regular public and non-profit information.

We began our Trenton Pilot project earlier this month with four summer interns. They are being paid to from a grant The College of New Jersey from the J-Lab New Visions Program.

We have created a section of this blog to document the research process these students are going through this summer.

The guidelines for researching and writing a PolicyOptions Issue Brief have been updated on the PolicyOptionsWiki.org site. These guidelines are a work-in-progress, but should be useful for researchers and professors alike.

The Spring 2007 semester has a number of professors piloting the PolicyOptions Issue Brief template in their classes. For more details, please visit the PolicyOptionsWiki.org page for these profiles. If the profile of your course and how you are utilizing the issue brief template are not found there, please take the time to add it.

Finally, if you are hearing about this initiative for the first time and are interested in learning more, please contact me directly at rhackett@bonner.org or by phone at 609-924-6663.