CampaignCreator site goes live

The CampaignCreator site and campaigning tools being developed by Bristol council with £395,000 of government funding is now live. Login accounts may be limited during the pilot phase, but meanwhile the site does offer a some excellent general advice developed with Friends of the Earth. You can download guidance on starting a campaign, developing your case, building support, raising funds and other aspects of campaigning useful whether or not you are using online tools. As I wrote earlier, e-democracy guru Steven Clift is working with the advisory group to review development. I couldn't make it to the group's meeting last week, but hope to see more about what happened on the project blog.
Once piloting starts, it will be interesting to compare the site with others spotted by advisory groups members, including Citizenspeak and Campaignwindow. Although these are far more modest, the Bristol project should be able to offer more value in the guidance and support provided for groups. I've been sceptical about how far councils will go in supporting potential critics in their communities, but piloting may well prove me wrong. The task then will be for Bristol to sell the idea to other councils, or bodies prepared to host and support more local CampaignCreators.