*** Democracies Online Newswire - http://www.e-democracy.org/do ***
While in London last June I had a chance to visit with a number of campaign web leaders in the UK (and fellow do-wire members). I asked Mary to send in a short essay for distribution. I misplaced it until now (BTW - I am way behind on e-mail right now, feel free to resend)! The site she works on <http://www.edwarddavey.co.uk> is a model, not just for campaigning, but with the power of incumbency, even more important - representation and governance. After the U.S. election in 2000 I participated in a discussion about how to leverage the online tools used to gain power for representative accountability, accessibility and openness. It might be time for our elected officials and members of Congress to look over pond for good examples. Steven Clift Democracies Online P.S. Speaking of the UK - Congratulations to FaxYourMP <http://www.faxyourmp.com/> for second place in the UK Internet Awards <http://www.uknetawards.co.uk/2001_awards.asp> for innovations. ------- Forwarded message follows ------- From: "Mary Reid" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Article about www.edwarddavey.co.uk Date sent: Fri, 22 Jun 2001 13:12:32 +0100 The biggest swing of the night The UK parliamentary election campaign lasts for around 4 weeks. So how can a candidate make an impact with an election website during that very short period? The answer, of course, is to build the e- campaign on top of the candidate's 'peacetime' site. Edward Davey (Liberal Democrat) was first elected to Parliament in 1997, beating the sitting MP, but with a tiny majority of 56. In June 2001 he transformed that majority into 15,676, gaining 60% of the vote. This astonishing result was largely due to his personal popularity and the hard work of his team. But his website was hailed by some as the best by any candidate, and it certainly played a part in his success. http://www.edwarddavey.co.uk was first launched, with good local media coverage, two years ago, after a three month period of requirements analysis and design prototyping. The team is small - two party members with web design and technical skills, the press officer and Edward Davey himself. Web design and maintenance are done for free. The purpose of the site is to offer a two-way channel of communication between the MP and his constituents. He provides news of his work in the constituency and in Westminster; in return they can use the many feedback forms to let him know their views on issues. A large proportion of his casework now arrives via the site. The site was designed with a feasible level of maintenance (about one hour per week) in mind. Much of the content already exists in another format, although it is often edited to suit the medium. All old material remains viewable, so the site has now grown to over 300 pages. Stringent design criteria were used - the two click rule applies to all except some follow-on and older material, related links appear on every page, the site never appears incomplete, key content appears 'above the fold'. Visually the site conveys a busy professional image. In 2000 the site was shortlisted for a prestigious Yell Award. The publicity was a real boost, so that by this year it was attracting more traffic than most other MPs' sites. For legal reasons, the original site had to be suspended when the election was called, but the new election site was launched immediately. This was much more tightly structured and was fully integrated with the 'real world' campaign. As well as offering the predictable policy and news (and a very popular 'Get to know me' section) it also encouraged visitors to pledge their vote, to offer help or to display a poster. It also helped them to apply for a postal vote - up to the deadline, at least - or request a lift to the polling station. The election site has now been mothballed, but can still be explored from a link on the homepage of the main site. Mary Reid 22.6.01 Webmaster : http://www.edwarddavey.co.uk (Website for Edward Davey, Member of UK Parliament for Kingston and Surbiton) ^ ^ ^ ^ Steven L. Clift - W: http://www.publicus.net Minneapolis - - - E: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Minnesota - - - - - T: +1.612.822.8667 USA - - - - - - - ICQ: 13789183 *** Please send submissions to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *** *** To subscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *** *** Message body: SUB DO-WIRE *** *** To unsubscribe instead, write: UNSUB DO-WIRE *** *** Please forward this post to others and encourage *** *** them to subscribe to the free DO-WIRE service. ***
