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Last week I passed on my extensive outline below to the Do-Consult
e-mail list.

One reply shared a project you will want to check out:
  http://caae.phil.cmu.edu/picola/
  http://caae.phil.cmu.edu/picola/preview.html - Flash Tour
  http://communityconnections.heinz.cmu.edu/picola - More

My note and outline ...

In perhaps five, ten or twenty years, I cannot image most official
representative processes without "any time, anywhere" aspects of
formal and informal citizen participation.

Inserting online participation into representative democracy in a way
that adds value and not just more noise or time consumption is the
critical challenge.  While I am very supportive of special online-
only consultations, in the end, I'd like to see a full integration of
in-person and online forms of participation within the framework of
representative democracy.

I don't see democracy surviving in any real way if effective citizen
participation essentially mandates specific time and place
participation.  I believe people need real choices. Systems must
accommodate input over a few days or weeks and not just specific
hours.  If democracy didn't exist and you were going to build it
today, how would you build it differently or more conveniently?

Attached is a rough outline of the technical project requirements for
an Online Committee Room.

What do you think?  E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]

Steven Clift
http://www.publicus.net


Online Committee Room
Draft 0.6 - Steven Clift, Copyright 2004
Friday, September 17, 2004
Draft System Requirements Outline

Goals of system

- Preserve and enhance the democratic relevancy and deliberation
within the legislative committee process
- High value, quality input
- Ability to accommodate quantity without unorganized information
overload
- Quality exchange of questions - use the system to help ask the
right policy questions
- Member questions, ideas and opinions documented
- Public input received in multiple forms and displayed online -
allowing interest group accountability and greater understanding of
the complexity of policy choices and political interests
- Promote additional public testimony on the "any time, anywhere"
basis that citizens expect in the information age
- Encourage citizen understanding and participation in the
legislative process


Pre-Meeting

Items that may be places online within content management system
- Agendas
- Bill links, Option for members to share draft/working amendments if
desired
- Speakers List and Contact Details
- TV, Webcast Schedule Notes and Links
- Related Links to agenda items
- Pre-submitted Testimony Text, Handouts, Presentations (released
when speaking or earlier at the option of person testifying) - will
require web-based uploading facility and optional login accounts for
those testifying
- Pre-Submitted Member remarks, questions or other materials/links
- Legislative research documents


During Meeting

- Real-time webcast
-- Audio-only option
-- Video with subtitle capabilities
-- Option for contextual links around video window to agenda items,
documents etc. as they become relevant - content context links added
for view within archive version as well
- Ability to share presentation slides with remote audience
- Real-time release for testimony, handouts, etc.
-- In-committee uploading and release (with anti-virus/format
checking built in) - a computer somewhere in the room that accepts
documents on disk, usb flash drive, cd-rom - document formatting
guidelines recommended - file format, size, etc. for accessibility
-- Committees have the option of requiring digitally shared testimony
before hearings to allow real-time release - must have policy on
whether prior review is allowed by anyone/give those testifying the
right to control when documents are available - when submitted, when
hearing starts, when they speak during hearing
- Real-time release of member amendments, prepared remarks
- Vote displays
- Committee attendance display
- Optional real-time chat space for audience interaction (similar to
hallway space, note passing)
- Optional - assuming limited wi-fi network, audience members in
person and off-site could publicly make their presence known at their
option and engage the system and each other if logged in
- Option for representatives to receive digital notes from public web
form/e-mail/instant messaging

Chair's view:
-- Testimony sign-up "sheet"
-- Timer/clock, time allotment
-- Members question queue

Member view:
- (optional lock) - To prevent member use of laptop/web browser for
non-meeting business during committee meetings (noting that in MN you
can use laptops in the main Chamber but not committee meetings
because there you are really supposed to pay attention - need to
preserve discretion of the Chair to ensure member focus and decorum)
Audience view
- WiFi access in building/rooms option - a democratic right compared
to paid services or GPRS and other data services afforded by certain
lobbyists
- Need noise/sound/key stroke policies/white noise


Public Remote Access/Participation

- Public login with real identity optionally promote, required or
disabled where appropriate - must ensure values of decorum and
respect required of the legislative institution as compare to often
anonymous political discussion forums with less civil exchange
- View all real-time content
- Ability to "annotate" or add comments to the testimony of others -
option that may be turned on or off
- Remote testimony - standard video conferencing, Internet-based
video conferencing - perhaps applet based using open standards?
-- Submit textual testimony/additional documents, real-time or for X
amount of time after the close of the real-time meeting
-- Audio testimony - via Internet or telephone with special access
code to convert and place audio in proper place
- Citizen question queue - for members eyes/public option - used at
member discretion


Post-Meeting

- XX Hours/Days for Extended Public Comment and Submissions
- XX Hours/Days for "linear" (one after another) comments on
testimony, comments on comments
- Member Questions - Ability for representatives to post unanswered
policy questions - to those who testifies, the public, others (create
an opportunity for value-added input)
- Real Names - Allow committee/system to require registration with
identity verification to open full account and service
-- Allow requirement to be turned off as a whole, for particular
hearings where unregistered or anonymous participation is desirable
or needed
--- ability to time-delay, review/remove inappropriate posts as well
as the ability to limit use of that feature by event (guidelines and
procedures will be required to keep within the law/freedom of
expression - must make clear what the equivalent of disorderly public
conduct online is in real practice online - will be extremely rare
just as it is with the physical removal or arrest of protester at in-
person government hearings)
- Full archive access for all materials


Committee Summary Module - analysis and time saver

- # of x,y,z statistics
- 50 word/500 character self "summary" field built in throughout -
aggregated summary view
- More/external links gathered
- Committee member recommended links
- Ability to use content analysis tools/plug-ins (likely a commercial
product)

Image Gallery

- Ability to upload digital photos if taken
- Or grab webcast photos via connected computer or television cameras
- upload standard "testimony" image for each testifier each year -
ability to show photo while speaking with audio-only feed, or show on
web site

Committee Pack and Go

- Convert all/selected documents into PDF format optimized for
printing/paper saving - (convert XML into standard published format)

Policy Survey Module

- Ability to ask multiple choice and open-ended questions of those
testifying, the interested public, the "general" public or e-citizen
survey panel
- Output views built-in - use for information gathering not
plebiscites or hot button issues with leading questions - survey to
gather input/stories/resources
- Note Queensland and Issy, France examples


Online Hearing Module

Ability to use the system without an actual in-person committee
meeting
- Set date range ... One, two, three weeks, etc.
- Establish structured "agenda" - not a "free for all" web forum for
example
- Allow initial asynchronous testimony by select expert, panelists,
"signed up" members of the interested public
- Support Q and A from legislators to those testifying
- Allow public commentary through out or during select times as
determined by the Chair
- Upload audio, video, testimony text (require such text to be
submitted via forms with limited formatting - no formatted Word or
PDF documents), additional documents in various formats (Word, PDF,
HTML, PPT, etc..)
- Registration system, make use of "real name" or anonymous
participation an option of the Chair

Citizen Panel Module

Two options:
- An invite-only system for outreach to targeted groups where
enhanced input is desired (clients of a specific government program,
etc.) OR a "citizen jury" like approach where a sample of citizens
are invited to participate
- Open System - Where targeted outreach is coupled with "those who
show up" - particularly in a pre-committee hearing phase
- Offer input to meeting agendas for example????

Reports to Legislature Review Module

- Summary text collected/submitted uniformly
- Summary presentation submission from agency - slides, audio, video,
etc. with time/word limits
- Full digital - multi-format access (useful for archival/historical
purposes as well)

Real-Time Module

- Complement IP-based video conferencing abilities
- Moderated HTML Interview Q and A (Washington Post, US House)
- Moderated chat-based interview system with transcripts


Draft Notes

- This is an early draft.  It is designed as a discussion point and
is not part of any formal project.

- Creation of full system requirements would assist those with any
content management system (proprietary, open source, etc.) build a
state of the art system within their current technical foundation

- Ideally, a funding organization would help E-Democracy.Org and a
consortium of other interested organizations build this system as a
module(s) contributed to a widely used open source content management
system(s) with momentum.

- The key outcome of this system would be to allow the citizens - any
of us - to viably participate in representative process on our own
time, from anywhere.

- The "Online Committee Room" could be used at all levels of
government and might be extremely useful for full local government
council meetings, meetings of government appointed task forces and
commissions, and not just committee meetings.


^               ^               ^                ^
Steven L. Clift    -   -  -  W: http://publicus.net
Minneapolis    -   -   -  -   E: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Minnesota  -   -   -   -   -   - T: +1.612.822.8667
USA    -   -   -   -   -       MSN/Y!/AIM: netclift

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