Neighbourhood blogger Kevin Harris has emailed me with a tip about this post over at SmartMobs: According to this Pew survey …
Some 74% of internet users-representing 55% of the entire adult population–went online in 2008 to get involved in the political process or to get news and information about the election. This marks the first time that [...]
Filed under: Centralisation, Obstacles for democrats to overcome, Web 2.0 and democracy | Tagged: Pew research | No Comments »
When it comes to technology start-ups there’s a nine out of ten chance that the idea will fail. Far from being considered a problem it’s recognised that doing something different is a risky strategy. But it is also one that can lead to enormous rewards if you get it right.
True failure only happens when the [...]
Filed under: Democratic renewal, Design, Web 2.0 and democracy | No Comments »
Kevin Harris has a long but worth-reading post over on the New Start magazine’s blog.
Filed under: Community, Transparency, Web 2.0 and democracy | Tagged: Kevin Harris | No Comments »
David of Debategraph has dissected the G20 communique, using his Debategraph application.
Quite a brilliant idea, Debategraph. It does everything that a pro-democracy technology should do - it enables a wide range of people to rationalise a problem. Once that’s done, elected politicians can make and explain their decisions - not in terms of interests bought [...]
Filed under: Consultations, Web 2.0 and democracy | Tagged: Debategraph, Eave | No Comments »
So much is changing so quickly. Newspapers and broadcasters are changing. Governments now communicate using radically different means to the ones that were practiced a decade ago. Here’s Exhibit A.
We now have free interactive tools that enable us to hold huge multilateral conversations based upon collaborative filtering and reputation management. We can find useful strangers [...]
Filed under: Centralisation, Obstacles for democrats to overcome, Political parties, Web 2.0 and democracy | Tagged: Decentralisation | No Comments »
The reason that there is such a wide-ranging debate about what democracy is, and how it is likely to change in the coming years, is in no small part, down to the fact that technology is making new things possible. The technical infrastructure available to us is changing, and creative minds are being applied to [...]
Filed under: Democratic renewal, Obstacles for democrats to overcome, Web 2.0 and democracy | No Comments »
I want to tell you about Mixed Ink - a really good concept in collaborative authoring that I encountered on my travels a few weeks ago.
I was in Miami (‘ark at me!), touting a democracy project that I’ve been nurturing for years.
The conference I was at was designed to showcase bright ideas in the use [...]
Filed under: Consultations, Deliberative democracy, Web 2.0 and democracy | 1 Comment »
I’ve been feeling slightly guilty about having neglected this site for over a week while I’ve been away. My colleague here, Anthony, has done a sterling job examining the Conservative Party’s local government proposals in my absence.
To compound the felony, I’m going to nick a signpost from Anthony’s other blog - the Democratic Society - [...]
Filed under: Web 2.0 and democracy | Tagged: inequality, Wealth | No Comments »
Do keep an eye on the Google Reader page that I’ve set up - I’m trying to track as much of the blogosphere’s comment on local democracy as I can - particularly where there is anything that touches on interactivity.
If you have your own shared items, please send me an e-mail from the gmail account [...]
Filed under: Centralisation, Public administration, Web 2.0 and democracy | No Comments »
In a welcome bit of political prodding (it always usually comes form civil servants or NGOs) Conservative Home is urging Tory councillors to use Twitter. You can see a detailed list of twittering councillors on Cllr Tweeps.
Filed under: Councillors, Web 2.0 and democracy | No Comments »
One of my favourite political bloggers, Shuggy, has a short post up here about opinion and it’s validity (or lack of). My own favourite variation on this is the view that ‘opinions are like a*seholes - everyone has one, but no-one really wants to hear them.’ (an aphorism that I can’t recall the source of [...]
Filed under: Being a politician, Conversational localities, Distributed moral wisdom, Web 2.0 and democracy, What makes a good representative? | No Comments »
The concept of ‘local’ is pretty hot right now. There is the upcoming launch of Talk about Local, for example, which ‘intends to train thousands of people who don’t have a voice to find a powerful online expression for their neighbourhoods’.
Then there are the various events that are springing up, with localism their focus, such [...]
Filed under: Web 2.0 and democracy | Tagged: belocal, clg, local, Localism, politicians, talk about local, web | 8 Comments »
I don’t know about you, but this term ‘Goverati’ makes me slightly nervous.
“What is the goverati? It is made up of people with first-hand knowledge of how the government operates, who understand how to use social software to accomplish a variety of government missions, and who want to use that knowledge for the benefit of [...]
Filed under: Pressure groups, Web 2.0 and democracy | Tagged: Clay Shirky, Matthew Parris, Switzerland | 3 Comments »
Here’s Wandsworth’s Councillor James Cousins on the value of interactivity for councillors:
“What is surprising is not just how many local people were tweeting, but how many were eager to engage and use Twitter to communicate with their councillor. While I often sit in a draughty library with no-one attending my surgery it is quite the [...]
Filed under: Being a politician, Conversational localities, Councillors, Web 2.0 and democracy | No Comments »
Michelle is pointing to the Tufts University ‘Digital Democracy’ course wiki.
On the plus side, as Michelle says, it’s a move that should be welcomed, and it’d be interesting to see how other Universities will approach such an open handed approach with their education programmes.
BUT, looking at that syllabus, it’s rather depressing the way that it [...]
Filed under: Web 2.0 and democracy | No Comments »
There’s a terrific post here, authored by Dave Briggs - brimming with positivity and enthusiasm as ever. It’s a really good round up, and a good introduction to what is possible for users that already have their heads in the right place.
I’d add a number of observations to it that I hope make sense.
Firstly, I’ve [...]
Filed under: Being a politician, Centralisation, Obstacles for democrats to overcome, Web 2.0 and democracy | 1 Comment »
Shorter version: If you’re a politician, it may be a good idea to get into blogging. But do it under a pen-name! It’s safer that way, and it will make you better at your job.
This is an old-ish question nowadays. And as the big question around social media at the moment is ’should everyone Twitter‘, [...]
Filed under: Being a politician, Web 2.0 and democracy, What makes a good representative? | Tagged: Blogging, Chatham House Rule, Machiavelli | 1 Comment »
Democracy blogs
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Engaging with articulate commenters
I started my blog, Slugger O’Toole in early June 2002 purely as a research tool for a paper I was planning to write on the future of Unionism in Northern Ireland. At the time, I was still trying to assemble the writing team and hadn’t even approached a funding body.
Of course I didn’t need funding to [...]
Filed under: The media, Web 2.0 and democracy | Tagged: Blogging, commenters, engagement, intelligent commons, Slugger O'Tooe | No Comments »