Here's a round-up of the videos from the recent e-democracy '06 conference - done now because early next week my friends at Headstar will be publishing an edition of the their excellent (and free) e-government email bulletin, including a report on the conference. If you haven't subscribed, you can do so here. For those visiting this blog from the bulletin - or just chancing upon it - the videos require Quicktime, which you can download free here.
Full items on this blog
The challenge for e-democratisers: deliberation as well as demands
No 10 strategy chief challenges Matthew Taylor challenges e-democracy toolmakers to support deliberation
Not just e-democracy, new democracy, says MySociety founder
E-democracy toolmaker Tom Steinberg says we need a new philosophy of democracy, not just more tools
Blending participatory and representative democracy, with added e-
Mary Reid explains how two aspects of democracy can be integrated, drawing on local experience
Making e-democracy part of the everyday - even if that's YouTube rules
Researchers Molly Webb and Jo Twist say follow people's interests online and on the street
We have been warned: democracy can be hacked
Russell Michaels and Jason Kitcat on the vulnerabilities and doubtful value of e-voting
Additional videos
Below are additional videos for which I haven't yet written a full item. Items will follow later on this blog, or a forthcoming Headstar blog. Clicking people's names will bring Quicktime movies up in a pop-up.
Jill Sanders, a volunteer with Oncom, explains how local people can develop successful online communities. As I reported earlier, this isn't always welcomed by the local council.
Ian Johnson, Head of Branch at the Department for Constitutional Affairs, reflects on e-democracy within Government, and adds in an e-mail follow-up "e-democracy is in its development stage. It's about experimentation, finding out what works and what doesn't in different contexts, listening to feedback, adjusting and learning. It's about sharing knowledge and encouraging others to have a try." Ian points out a slip of the tongue confuses blogging Minister David Miliband and his brother Ed.
Bryan Lewis explains the work of Westminster Digital in webcasting Parliament and, increasingly, other programmes and events. Their portable Streampac system enables inexperienced operators to produce their own shows.
Gavin Sealey explains his work in Newham with young people, and as a manager of the local issues forum.
Ben Whitnall and Gez Smith work for the leading e-democracy consultancy and developer Delib, so they are well placed to explain what tools for online deliberation are available to meet the challenge issued by Matthew Taylor
David Hunter runs Votivation, which aims to make make democracy fun by enabling people to develop and vote on views online. Cash and celebrities are involved too. David also explains here the importance of relating real world value to online social networking.
Carin Lennartsson was running impressive demonstrations of Readspeaker, which can speak your web pages without sounding robotic. She took time out to explain to me how it works, and the benefits it offers to people with literacy difficulties. In Lincolnshire they are using the system to create podcasts where people can check job opportunities.
Ross Ferguson, of Hansard Society, and Michael Cross of The Guardian were talking together about the second wave of e-democracy. Hansard Society is working with government on the Digital Dialogues programme. Michael writes on -e-government and e-democracy. I chipped in and asked what was working well - and how widespread uptake of e-democracy tools was now. What emerged was that take-up was patchy, and as yet it wasn't clear what significant impact e-democracy would have on traditional representative democracy. Continuing experimentation, mixed with healthy scepticism was needed.
Carol Hayward is project manager for the e-democracy programme in Bristol - which has a reputation as one of the most innovative in the field. She explained that as well as developing its own projects, the council aims to empower others to develop and use their own tools. Councils can be nervous of losing control over activities - but only by being more flexible will they develop the relationships and trust necessary for real communication and engagement. This approach is evident in Bristol's Digital Challenge bid.
Comments and additional contributions welcome below. Thanks again to everyone I interviewed. I've been amazed and gratified at events by how willing people are to offer up a couple of minutes on camera - and how coherent. Next time I'll do better with the lighting and audio.
David, what do you use to post up video clips? I just tried Video Egg and it worked but included code in the RSS feed in my reader....
Posted by: Nick Temple | November 24, 2006 at 04:48 PM
Nick - these videos were edited and compressed in iMovie to produce Quickime movies. I created the thumbnails from screenshots using Snapzpro, then uploaded them to one of my other sites, and put some html in the blog post to produce the pop-ups (courtesy of my son Dan). I'm going to try blip.tv too.
Posted by: David Wilcox | November 24, 2006 at 05:08 PM
Nice reportage, feels like having been there. Thanks David. W
Posted by: Wainer | November 25, 2006 at 10:52 AM
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