Steven Clift
Mon, 02 May 2005 07:18:39 -0700
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While governments seem comfortable providing power for elected official microphones at public meetings as well as "as is" video over television or webcasts, there seems to be an almost systematic humbling of representative use of the Internet in governance. While an elected official can say something "political" on a taxpayer subsidized microphone in a government building, to say those say words -in governance- online is proving quite difficult for most elected officials. Elected officials are left online with a simple biography, a picture, and their contact information. While some might have the ability to share press releases, few are given (particularly at the local and state level) e-mail newsletter facilities, blogs, or other tools that allow them to better represent and, yes, politically advocate for their constituents. If you are aware of places where representatives have access to real tools of e-representation or where requests for such tools have been denied, drop me a note: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Steven Clift http://dowire.org P.S. At least in the UK, they have been experimenting with local e-democracy, including blogs, etc. for local officials. This is the first I've seen this issue in the media. From: http://politics.guardian.co.uk/egovernment/story/0,12767,1471578,00.ht ml e-government's orphans Michael Cross Thursday April 28, 2005 The Guardian ... Yet the democratic accountability of counties, along with the rest of local government, could be doomed unless local politics gets on the web. Today, elected council members are e-government's orphans. While authorities across Britain are committing hundreds of millions to e- enabling their services, few are serious about plugging councillors into the process. In theory, by the end of this year, every English local authority is supposed to provide elected members with facilities to post a website. Most councillors need the help: they are usually from a generation that doesn't naturally turn to the web, and are too busy to learn. But many authorities provide the bare minimum: a poorly signposted static page containing little more than a name, photograph and contact details. Not surprisingly, such sites get few visitors: 70 a month is typical. Scarcely anyone would use their councillor's home page as a portal to local, let alone national, government. One reason for the local democracy's poor web presence is legal uncertainty. This shows up dramatically at election times. For example, Lancashire councillor Tony Martin normally has a lively, regularly updated site. However, during the campaign it has been replaced by a "vanilla" version showing just a photo and an email form. ^ ^ ^ ^ Steven L. Clift - - - W: http://publicus.net Minneapolis - - - - E: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Minnesota - - - - - - T: +1.612.822.8667 USA - - - - - MSN/Y!/AIM: netclift UK Office Hours - 1pm - 11pm - - T: 0870.340.1266 Join my Democracies Online Newswire: http://dowire.org *** Past Messages, to Subscribe: http://dowire.org *** *** To subscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *** *** Message body: SUB DO-WIRE *** *** To UNSUBSCRIBE instead, write: UNSUB DO-WIRE *** *** Please send submissions to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *** *** New RSS XML Feed Available: *** http://www.mail-archive.com/do-wire@lists.umn.edu/maillist.xml