http://www.experientia.com/edemocracy Creative ways to increase citizen participation in online public services Thu, 10 Apr 2008 21:37:47 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en http://www.experientia.com/edemocracy/the-everyday-democracy-index-2/ WikiDemocracy is the first experiment in the world to write the parties' programs bottom-up. It is still under development and focused on Italy, but we plan to internationalize it as soon as possible. If you wish to cooperate in order to translate some pages, if you want to support with donations, ... http://www.experientia.com/edemocracy/wikidemocracy/ The UK government is keen for local government to harness technology to revolutionise its services; but a culture change is needed first, says The Guardian newspaper. The government is providing ever more pilot schemes and opportunities to engage but increasingly fewer people believe that "getting involved" is a good use of ... http://www.experientia.com/edemocracy/the-big-barrier-to-e-democracy/ The Economist has published a special report on technology and the public sector. Why is it, they ask, that business succeeds on the web and government mostly fails? In the leader article, they argue that the three main reasons are lack of competitive pressure, a tendency to reinvent the wheel and a ... http://www.experientia.com/edemocracy/economist-special-report-on-electronic-government/ Last week, the UK think tank Demos launched the Everyday Democracy Index (EDI). The EDI is an original and innovative tool for assessing the democratic health of European countries beyond the ballot box and across many different dimensions. That includes the formal dimensions of democracy, like procedural rights and election ... http://www.experientia.com/edemocracy/the-everyday-democracy-index/ Government websites are organization-centric, complicated and confusing, according to a survey of government web professionals in the United States, New Zealand and Canada, writes Gerry McGovern on his blog New Thinking. Governments are addicted to proving that they are doing their job properly. Many government websites are politics-centric. They talk about ... http://www.experientia.com/edemocracy/government-website-survey-from-organization-centric-to-citizen-centric/ Involve, a UK-based independent organisation focused on the practicalities of giving more power to ordinary people, just launched a new participation website. People and Participation.net is a new radical resource to help people across the UK influence Government decision-making. The site combines the strengths of an expert guide to participation with ... http://www.experientia.com/edemocracy/people-and-participationnet/ New Zealanders have been given the chance to write their own laws, with a new online tool launched by police. The "wiki" will allow the public to suggest the wording of a new police act, as part of a government review of the current law, written in 1958. Police say they hope ... http://www.experientia.com/edemocracy/new-zealand-police-let-public-write-laws/ Every year, the EU Benchmark Survey assesses the quality of online public services in Europe. For the first time, the survey also looked at the users experience when accessing on-line public services, in recognition of the growing importance of this topic, and found mixed results. From the press release: "The survey examined ... http://www.experientia.com/edemocracy/eu-benchmark-shows-mixed-results-on-user-experience-of-online-public-services/ Management guru Don Tapscott, the co-author of best-seller "Wikinomics", wants to teach governments to harness the power of the Internet to reinvent democracy. Tapscott is an evangelist for Web 2.0, the second-generation Internet based on participation through social communities such as Facebook and MySpace, participatory sites like free encyclopedia Wikipedia, and ... http://www.experientia.com/edemocracy/harnessing-the-internet-to-reinvent-democracy/ Tiago Peixoto sent us a link to this report presenting the results of a joint OECD-World Bank stocktaking of social accountability initiatives in OECD countries. The report which was written by Peixoto, together with Joanne Caddy and Mary McNeil is part of OECD's efforts to identify emerging trends and develop ... http://www.experientia.com/edemocracy/beyond-public-scrutiny-stocktaking-of-social-accountability-in-oecd-countries/ The method of selecting representatives for presenting the view of a constituency was deployed at the time when internet and mobile technologies were not available and there was no method of making a collective decision on policies to government the society. In today's times , most of the population have mobile ... http://www.experientia.com/edemocracy/relooking-at-democractic-processes-in-the-light-of-new-age-technologies/ In their most recent book, Don Tapscott and David Ticoll introduce us to the "age of transparency" [book site | blog | amazon page]. They argue that corporations and governments face unrelenting pressures for greater openness that will only increase - and that the costs of resistance far outweigh ... http://www.experientia.com/edemocracy/secrecy-and-the-perils-of-technocracy/ From climate change to social care, innovation will be critical to meeting the public service challenges of the future. But traditional approaches to generating new ideas will not be enough. Rather than focusing on processes and pipelines, policymakers and service deliverers needs to harness the potential of citizens to be ... http://www.experientia.com/edemocracy/unlocking-innovation-%e2%80%93-why-citizens-hold-the-key-to-public-service-reform/ A new website for young people has been launched by West Sussex County Council aimed at giving them vital information and a voice for their concerns. The front page of www.yourspacewestsussex.co.uk also has the first details of how young people aged from five to 19 will soon be able to apply ... http://www.experientia.com/edemocracy/new-uk-regional-government-website-for-young-people/ YouScotland.com is not a political party, it is a citizens' movement aimed at influencing the political process. With elections pending to Holyrood and at Council level on Thursday, May 3rd, electoral politics will inevitably dominate the next few weeks. But there will be another 204 weeks before there are new elections ... http://www.experientia.com/edemocracy/youscotland-represent-yourself/ Demos, the UK think tank for everyday democracy, has published a collection of essays by leading thinkers and practitioners that assesses how far the UK has already come towards a more collaborative style of government and sets out international case studies of some of the most interesting initiatives to date. ... http://www.experientia.com/edemocracy/the-collaborative-state/ Children will be able to find out about Government, public services and the world around them in a fresh, fun and informative way through a new website launched today. DirectgovKids aims to get children from five to 11 engaged with some of the areas of Government that have an impact on ... http://www.experientia.com/edemocracy/directgovkids-the-uks-new-government-website-for-children/ Involve (an independent UK organisation focused on the practicalities of giving more power to ordinary people) has produced an "Evaluation Guide - Making a Difference: A guide to evaluating public participation in central government", as a webguide and pdf document. Public engagement is becoming a central plank of public policy-making. Activities ... http://www.experientia.com/edemocracy/a-guide-to-evaluating-public-participation-in-central-government/ The Council of Europe symposium “e-democracy: new opportunities for enhancing civic participation”, will take place at the Palais de l’Europe, Strasbourg (France) from 23 to 24 April 2007. The symposium will discuss the nature and added value of e-democracy, based on lessons learnt from e-democracy experiences in Council of Europe member ... http://www.experientia.com/edemocracy/council-of-europe-to-hold-symposium-on-e-democracy-from-23-to-24-april-2007/