One of the key interests on my blog is going to be trying to help rebuild/create/support what I call "local civic society" - the concept is a spin on the notion of conversational politics. To me "engagement" cannot be driven from the centre (i.e., a culture has to be allowed to develop), rather the centre has to create a space and wait for little people to fill it. I'd see the MySociety work as providing straw from which those little people can make bricks if they want to.
There are a lot of people doing stuff and providing resources, but I'm wondering whether anyone is providing a rallying/dialogue point. At the moment it seems (in blog terms at least) to fall between the a lot of niches - especially between the "politics" (esp party politics) and "government" niches. I'd see at 2 dichotomies that are barriers: one between blog openness and govt control freakery, and the other between necessary political "opinionatedness" (yuk word 1) and Civil Service apoliticalness (yuk word 2). That's all very basic for this list, but is anyone providing a reasonably visible bridge between these niches for public debate and discussion? Or is that a channel of information that I can aim to provide usefully? I'd welcome any other supportive initiatives that people know about. Votewise.co.uk recently discussed is one example. Rgds Matt _______________________________________________ Mailing list [email protected] Archive, settings, or unsubscribe: https://secure.mysociety.org/admin/lists/mailman/listinfo/developers-public
