*** Democracies Online Newswire - http://dowire.org *** *** Headlines from top blogs: http://dowire.org/feeds ***
Time to kill some trees. The committee Members of the Victorian Parliament and their staff really put together an amazing resource. Thank you to committee consultant Peter Chen <http://members.optusnet.com.au/pjchen> for providing this announcement specially for DoWire. Steven Clift Democracies Online http://www.dowire.org P.S. The UK received a lot of credit for considering an e-democracy policy, the Queensland executive for adopting a policy, and now at the political representative level the Victoria perhaps they will build e-democracy policy into the rule of law. Victorian (.au) Parliament Releases Electronic Democracy Report http://www.parliament.vic.gov.au/sarc/E- Democracy/Final_Report/ToC.htm The Scrutiny of Acts and Regulations Committee of the Victorian State Parliament of Australia has now released their Final Report on electronic democracy issues for the State of Victoria. The Report represents the work of a joint Parliamentary Committee (representing both major political parties and chambers of the legislature) and makes 90 recommendations for the use of ICTs in the political and policy processes of the State of Victoria. The Report is based on research, interviews, public submissions, and evidence taken over the course of 2004-5, and drawing on material collected during the previous Parliament. Experts from Canada, US, and Europe were consulted in the development of the Report, which also included public consultation and discussions hosted on a community informatics bulletin board operated by the State Library of Victoria. The final report is divided into four sections: 1. Background and Introduction - outlining the key issues, social and technical drivers, and defining electronic democracy relative to need 2. Access to Information - examining means by which government information can be made more accessible to the public, stimulating local content creation, distribution and preservation, and improving non-government information distribution 3. Political Processes and Participation - which discusses means by which online consultation processes can be developed in the State of Victoria, electronic and online voting systems, and political campaigning reforms 4. Parliamentary Processes - which examines ways to expand the reach of Parliamentary information, use of ICTs by Members of Parliament (inside and outside the legislature), and the impact of ICTs on Parliamentary processes. Key recommendations include: 1. Greater use of syndication technology for government content 2. Improvements to W3C standards compliance 3. Improvements to public archiving of electronic documents and FOI applications processes 4. Introduction of electronic voting machines to address literacy and disability voting issues 5. Expansion of online publication of candidate information in election campaigns 6. Establishment of an online consultation training and networking best practice unit 7. Use of Creative Commons-style licensing systems for some government data sets 8. Parliamentary webcasting 9. Use of ICTs for Parliamentary petitions, committee meetings, and evidence taking 10. Endorsement of OSS licensing systems for "critical" systems oversight The full report can be downloaded from: http://www.parliament.vic.gov.au/sarc/E- Democracy/Final_Report/ToC.htm or http://members.optusnet.com.au/pjchen/downloads/Final%20Report%20v1_6. pdf The Report represents the views and options of the Committee and was tabled in the Parliament in early May. The Report is now under consideration by the Government (executive) of Victoria, who will respond to its recommendations by the end of the year. __END__ ^ ^ ^ ^ 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
