The Sun Herald has announced that the 198 page rebuild report for New Orleans has been released online.

Shortly after Hurricane Katrina hit, Governor Barbour announced the formation of the Governor’s Commission on Recovery, Rebuilding and Renewal to develop a broad vision for a better Gulf Coast and South Mississippi.

The Governor’s Commission focuses on giving local leaders access to ideas and information that will help them decide what their region will look like five, ten, even twenty or thirty years from now. The Commission is advisory in nature. The final decisions on implementation will almost exclusively be made by local officials and private investors, not Jackson or Washington.

But not only are the “local officials and private investors” making the decisions. No sirree! They also have a forum which allows Joe Public to get involved too – not one way communication to the voters but a many-way conversation between interested parties. So as well as phoning in, or attending meetings, you can go to the forums here.

Make Your Voice Heard
* FINAL REPORT RELEASED *The Governor’s Commission on Recovery, Rebuilding and Renewal released the final report (click here to download).
Participate in the Commission’s on-line discussion forum. The comments on this discussion forum will be passed directly to the Governor’s Commission and appropriate local agencies. When you follow this link you will be asked to create a user name and password. This will allow you to participate in this discussion community.

This is definitely the way forward for politics – online communities to help recover, rebuild and renew offline communities.

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