Neighbourhoods blogger, Kevin Harris has just introduced me to Hugh of Harringay Online. The most superficially interesting thing about his site is the spelling of Harringay. The actual local authority area is Haringey, and within the area – for reasons that are lost in the mists of time – is a differently named neighbourhood within the borough.
“…launched in July 2007 as the Harringay Community Website for the residents of Harringay – that’s Harringay neighbourhood, NOT Haringey borough.”
That’s the throat-clearing conversation that Hugh has to have at the start of every introduction to his project.
But the really intersting thing is the site itself. It’s a great site. It promotes exactly the kind of eavesdroppable conversational local forum that can be such a fantastic resource to local councillors – as long as they don’t get too involved in it themselves. One that doesn’t just privilege shouty interest groups, but that instead fosters a valuable content-rich bubble of local conversation.
It’s a classic example of how local democracy can be promoted most effectively if local politicians and officers aren’t the prime movers.
Update: It looks like Will Perrin is reading from the same page.
Update 2: The LGEO Research site has an interview with Hugh here.
A blog about representative democracy, social media and a conversational politics. How will peer-to-peer communications change local democracy? How is representation changing? 
[...] § Recent Comments Harringay – not Haringey « Local Democracy on LGEOResearch first PDF Newsletter: Learning from Your Neighbourhood Networks Online – Feat. [...]