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To access links, see Steven Clift's blog: http://dowire.org/notes/?p=223 Post: What I really think of the UK Local E-Democracy National Project, announcing What's Next Now that I am no longer under contract with the UK Local E-Democracy National Project and the project is officially closed (but also reborn) I can tell you what I really think. :-) It was an excellent project. It produced and is sharing more knowledge than any other e-democracy project in history. It did spend 4.5 million GBP which didn't hurt. To be honest, the problem might be that you need a few months to read all of the reports, case studies as well as visit the pilots. I consider this project a model for other national governments around the world - distract attention away from limited investment/follow through in national e-democracy initiatives by centrally resourcing local experiments and pilots. Individual local governments themselves cannot justify too much experimentation with local tax dollars so, come on Sweden, hey there Netherlands, what about you Australia how about it? We do know that Italy is digging into local e-democracy with national funding. Of course now that local e-democracy received its first investment, I certainly hope the Democratic Engagement Branch in the Department of Constitutional Affairs will be ratcheted up to push e-democracy in central government and in civil society. With Ian Johnson, Elspeth Rainbow and others they have a good policy team in place. Back to the National Project's results, I encourage you to download and read this great overview of the pilots and their products. * Deeper and wider community engagement - e-democracy and its benefits for local autorities, councillors, and communities - or better known as the "benefits study" * Recent power point presentation - These slided from Mary Reid, Board Chair of National Project, also provide a similar overview. Once you read this, particularly Appendix B, you can dig into the pilots like Issues Forums, E-Panels (consultations), E-Petitioning, Weblogging, Democaster and other webcasting efforts, etc. that interest you. You might also find these recent reports to be useful: * What works - Key lessons from recent e-Democracy literature * e-Democracy Survey 2005 - Local authorities experiences of democracy on and off line Some constructive criticism ... Now for some honest input as requested by project director Isobel Harding in the inaugural podcast (with Griff Wigley, another Minnesotan I helped bring into the pilots) for the new International Centre for Excellence in Local e-Democracy: * Add an E-mail Newsletter - They needed/need something for the public and perhaps something internal that would have alerted folks in the pilot projects as to what was happening across the project. Luckily, they paid me to write a brief on the subject of e-mail newsletters. * Improve Website - The value of the knowledge generated by the project is obscured by a very difficult to navigate website. Perhaps this was a no win situation, but someone should do a spring cleaning and make sure the good stuff (like the benefits study) is easy to discover. FYI - it looks like their products are cross hosted in the UK e-government ProductShare site. * Reboot your Interactivity - The individual blogging of project leaders like Mary Reid, Stephen Hilton, and Isobel Harding provided insights into the initiative - but no outsider would know that is where an online sense of "project life" was found. For a while the News column on the right had some interesting topical updates on e-democracy more widely, but overall "blog" comments and discussion on the national project site didn't work. I have some ideas I'll share soon. Announcing the International Centre of Excellence for Local eDemocracy. Now the big news. Of the 22 e-government national projects funded by the then Office of the Deputy Prime Minister and now the Department for Communities and Local Government, the e-democracy project is the only one granted an extended life. While it doesn't appear that they have new pilot project funding to spread out like the first time (they should IMHO), they do have one million GBP to encourage the transfer of e-democracy tools in the UK, seek EU funding for projects, and disseminate local e-democracy knowledge globally. Since they commissioned me to gather up a bunch of international case studies for them, I am quite interested in the direction they take on the global scene. The new Centre was announced in a speech by Jim Fitzpatrick, MP (formerly a ODPM Minister, now the Minister for London). Here is the text of a short article from the EU eGovernment Observatory : The UK Government will be providing ?1 million (nearly ?1.5 million) for the setting up of a Centre of Excellence for Local eDemocracy. Based on the results of the national Local eDemocracy project, the new centre aims to take forward the eParticipation agenda both in the UK and abroad. The UK�s Local eDemocracy project was set up in July 2004 with the goal of tackling increasing voter apathy and the observed general disconnection between citizens and the local political process. In its two years of operation, the project has made a significant contribution to improving the democratic process at local level by providing innovative tools and products for local authorities. Over 100 new products have been developed and are being widely used. These include, for example, ePetitioning and eConsultation tools, on-line citizens� panels, webcasting and community TV, blogging platforms and support for local council websites. Following on from the success of the national project, the new Centre of Excellence will seek to provide a reference point for the ongoing development of local eDemocracy, not only in the UK, but also in other countries. With the help of �1 million in funding from the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM), over the next two years it will develop products, guidance, and research materials for public sector bodies seeking to engage communities on-line. The centre � which will initially be based in North Lincolnshire, home of the national project � will have a wider scope than its predecessor, serving community groups and parishes as well as the main tiers of local government. I'd love to exchange views and news with other DoWire participants via blog comments on additional efforts to kick start local e-democracy around the world and what you'd like to see the new Centre focus on over the next two years. I'll be sure to pass on your comments to their new board. Steven Clift Democracies Online http://dowire.org P.S. The DO-UK YahooGroup will be moving to uk@ on the http://groups.dowire.org site. I am looking for co-hosts from Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland to join Tom Steinberg with MySociety.Org. A co-host agrees to feed the online community of practice at least once a month with a news item for comment. Interested? E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *** Democracies Online Newswire - http://DoWire.Org *** To comment/for links: http://dowire.org/notes/?p=223 To network: http://groups.dowire.org Submit posts: http://dowire.org/submit Member profile for Steven: http://groups.dowire.org/main/contacts/stevenclift ----------------------------------------- Group home for Newswire - Steven Clift's blog posts by e-mail: http://groups.dowire.org/main/groups/newswire Replies go to members of Newswire - Steven Clift's blog posts by e-mail with all posts on this topic here: http://groups.dowire.org/topic/113534 For digest version or to leave Newswire - Steven Clift's blog posts by e-mail, email [email protected] with "digest on" or "unsubscribe" in the *subject*. 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