Disqus - Latest Comments for Dave Briggs

Re: The UK e-democracy debate – getting stale?

Dave Briggs — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 06:46:11 -0000

Andy Williams asks whether there should be a collective publication for discussing these issues, which ties in with some thoughts I was having. I am halfway through building a collaborative space at http://lgedem.org/ which hopefully will provide a place for these conversations to continue in more detail.

Re: The UK e-democracy debate – getting stale?

Dave Briggs — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 08:33:46 -0000

Ah, I see. Gotcha. Anyway, we are taking this away from the main aim of the thread, which is e-dem.

I would be interested to know how people define e-dem and what it is actually trying to achieve. Is it any of the following?

* Greater participation in elections etc through electronic voting etc
* Greater participation in elections etc through better communications
* Better policy through consultation
* More involvement in local politics from previously uninterested citizens

I wonder if e-dem is about improving existing processes or creating something new?

Re: The UK e-democracy debate – getting stale?

Dave Briggs — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 08:09:28 -0000

Andy - I can't see how the mention of social media in that conversation was irrelevant when we were talking about an organisation that promotes the use of such technologies whilst not actually using them on their own web presence, as far as we can tell. It also provides the platform for us to told these discussions, whether through this blog, or elsewhere, in a way that wouldn't be possible without it.

One of the joys of the social web is the ability it provides people, whether in local government, the third sector or just interested individuals, to create stuff that make things better. This can be applied to edemocracy as it can anything else. Whether it is just using the web as a platform for debate or as a medium through which stuff can actually be delivered. More harmful in my view is a reitcence to do things in the mistaken belief that it's just a flash in the pan, or today's trendy tool.

It's true that the social web is "just" a tool, but sometimes tools are cool ;-)

Re: The UK e-democracy debate – getting stale?

Dave Briggs — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 06:51:29 -0000

One issue is the question of 'where?'. Where exactly is the local gov edemocracy discussion supposed to take place? We need an open, collaborative space where these issues can be discussed and investigated.

Re: What is ICELE for?

Dave Briggs — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 06:44:27 -0000

@Stephen C - good idea

@Andy - maybe the problem with ICELE is that they are an organisation created do deal with an issue that removes the need for organisations - see Clay Shirky...

Re: What is ICELE for?

Dave Briggs — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 06:09:11 -0000

Wally - that might have been true a few years ago, but the tools exist now to be able to connect and involve an awful lot more people. Note that the key word that are cropping up are engagement and participation, which are what we want to improve. Using a blog or other interactive medium is just a tool to achieve those improvements and using them blindly is unlikely to get many responses from those other than 'the usual suspects'.

Having said that, though, why should shouldn't those usual suspects be given a platform and be engaged with. By and large such people *care* and surely we want to encourage caring wherever we can.

I'm ignoring your undertone of 'it hasn't worked in the past, so let's not bother now'. Hardly a forward thinking, positive outlook on things.

Re: What is ICELE for?

Dave Briggs — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 05:01:35 -0000

There are some fascinating discussions to be had around participation and local government and edemocracy and other uses of social media can have terrific benefits in this area. Of course, done badly, they can also have a tremendously negative effect.

These discussions need to be held in an open collaborative environment, though, so every angle and perspective can be offered, whether by elected councillors, local gov officers or citizens themselves.

Recent events such as the barcampukgovweb have shown that there are significant numbers of people, active in the social web, or are interested and care about the government of their country. I see no reason why this shouldn't be the case about local as well as central government, and the key is to enthuse these folk into greater participation. To do this will require some relinquishing of control by local authorities of communication channels, amongst other things. It will hurt, but the benefits will be significant.

Re: The BBC, Democracy & The Internet – Job Done?

Dave Briggs — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 04:45:03 -0000

I welcome the offer of an open and collaborative approach from Stephen. Before creating anything new though, are there any existing networks that could be used?

Re: Image Editing on the Cheap.

Dave Briggs — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 18:46:37 -0000

Yay! Thanks for this. I already had Skitch for screen grabs, and being a tighwad, will give Seashore a go. Thanks so much for this!

Dave

Re: EchoSign 3.0 Released - the Complexity Dilemma

Dave Briggs — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 13:57:20 -0000

Interesting that you use Zoho as a blog editor - does it let you post straight to your blog, or is it a copy and paste job?

Re: EchoSign 3.0 Released – the Complexity Dilemma

Dave Briggs — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 13:57:20 -0000

Interesting that you use Zoho as a blog editor - does it let you post straight to your blog, or is it a copy and paste job?