Press
Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Act
26/01/2010
Read the Local Government Chronicle article here.
Future Democracy '09 - Conference Highlights
19/01/2010
Future-Democracy is the world's leading conference on using technology to improve democracy. This year's conference was held on November 25th in London, with speakers coming from across Europe to share ideas. Watch the conference highlights here.
E-Government Bulletin - Citizenscape
21/09/2009
Do Citizens Dream Of Virtual Sheep?
by Dan Jellinek.
At this month's 'e-participation' conference EDEM2009, hosted in Vienna by the city's University of Economics and Business (http://edem2009.ocg.at/), Egita Aizsilniece of Dutch social networking specialists Dijksman described a real-life "dream factory" in the Dutch municipality of Breda.
Any Breda citizen can dream a dream, describe it to their neighbours, put it to a vote, and - after discussions, votes and meetings - see it brought to life. Each dreamer owns and manages his or her dream, and with enough support turns it into a formal "initiative". Citizens use social networking tools for debate, and local politicians also have a chance to express their views.
The city's council aims to use the project to turn negative complaints about public services into citizen-led action for change. The 'Breda Morgen' (Breda Tomorrow) platform (http://www.breda-morgen.nl) went live in October 2008 and has attracted 44 dreams in the past six months.
So what dreams have been coaxed into life? Aizsilniece mentioned a baker who wanted to open on Sundays but was forbidden by Dutch law. After entering his wish as a 'dream', he was able to join forces with the owner of a local park who wanted to run special weekend events and had noticed that the law allowed Sunday baking for such events. "They merged their dreams and it came true."
Any public body could launch such an experiment, she said. "It is not about technology - the technology is there. It is about commitment."
Another international project is looking at ways of aggregating existing informal political debate already taking place online and feeding it into formal democratic processes.
"CitizenScape" (http://www.citizenscape.org), currently being tested with EU funding at Bristol City Council, Genova in Italy, Donegal in Ireland and Zilina in Slovakia, is building a 'container' into which discussion from elsewhere may be gathered. More complex interactions are enabled by "travelling widgets" such as one due to go live in November which will allow anyone to present a link to an electronic petition on their own website. Once someone signs it, they will be encouraged to use the tool themselves, creating a viral effect.
"We could spend a huge amount of money marketing our own site - but people already have their own spaces on the web, so why not go and find them there?" said Catherine Howe of UK consortium member Public-i.
Finally, a more quirky tool was unveiled in the form of a virtual sheep.
In the UK-based trial project "Shepherding Change"
( http://innovate.direct.gov.uk/node/84), a group of councils has disguised a consultation tool aimed at young people as a Tamagotchi- style virtual pet. The cartoon sheep, designed to run as an application within existing popular social networking sites, is only kept healthy and happy by the young person 'feeding it' answers to consultation questions. So the message could be: "Make your sheep happy - tell us what you think about school dinners."
Once its owner responds, their sheep becomes happy, and they receive five coins to spend on must-have accessories for the animal such as a top hat. If they tell their friends about the game, they receive more coins. Well-fed virtual sheep spell highly-engaged citizens - you heard it here first.
NOTE: This is an edited version of an article that appears in this month's issue of Total Politics magazine (http://www.totalpolitics.com). Total Politics is a media partner of Headstar's November 25 event Future Democracy 09:
http://www.headstar-events.com/edemocracy09/
NOTE: Comment on this story now, on EGB Live: http://www.headstar.com/egblive/?p=255
Brighton & Hove Council launch Webcasting
04/05/2009
Reader's letter in local Regency magazine. Read..
Bristol City Council - Citizenscape Launch
07/02/2009
Article from Bristol Evening Post's publication Seven "The Deafening Reality"
March 2009 - Bristol City Council "Our City" magazine
Noise Bulletin Feb/March 2009 Read...
