Textizen is a new text message public consultation method launched by Code for America.
It's an admirably sure footed example of how to use a much underrated portable information technology - printed paper - in order to listen to people where they are.
And it's a very precise articulation of why you'd use printed paper in this way in the developed world.
And of course, being the mean spirited toad that I am, I'm wondering if I'm entitled to feel aggrieved about Textizen.
To illustrate why someone as mean spirited as me might claim they have good grounds:
Manchester 2006
Philadelphia 2012
And more specifically and less superficially, if you download the case studies from here, for example the one called:
"Using Thumbprint City to Get People Involved in Local Democracy"
those case studies will explain how to use printed paper in exactly the way Textizen proposes, and what happens when you do.
And they will articulate why.
But is any of that grounds for feeling aggrieved?
We all text at bus stops, it's not that big an insight!
And people can, and do, come up with similar good ideas in different places.
Especially six, or even nine, years later.
Though my experience of the process of coming up with ideas is they don't usually fall from the trees quite so fully formed.
It takes a bit of craft knowledge and learning by doing.
But where I might have more grounds for feeling aggrieved is by asking why is this still news after six years?
* *
In the midst of ranting, I found another very nice example, again from Philadelphia, this time encouraging literacy in children
