IN THIS ISSUE:

• E-Petitions Analysed In Editor's Book On UK Democracy
• Funding Boost for Global Anti-Corruption Tool
• Don't Ask Me To Register For Online Public Services, Expert Warns
• Knowledge Hub threatened by cuts
• Mobile immersive education tools
• Collaborative e-Democracy research project
• Report: People Power In The Digital Age

NEWS: Electronic Petitions In New Book Analysing UK Democracy In Modern Age.

Electronic petitions have ushered in a new age of popularity for citizen petitioning unseen since the early nineteenth century, according to a new book by E-Government Bulletin editor Dan Jellinek...

Read full story here, People power and e-petitions...

Back to index

---

NEWS: Funding Boost for Global Corruption Accountability Tool.

A mobile phone app allowing citizens in developing countries to fight corruption in development projects is one of four £500,000 winners of the Google Global Impact Challenge, which recognises technology innovations by non-profit organisations....

Read full story here, Mobile app to check development projects...

Back to index

---

NEWS: "Don't Ask Me To Register" For Online Public Services, Expert Warns. Public sector websites should not ask citizens to register with them or create accounts just to carry out simple transactions or tasks, a leading private sector web specialist has said... Read full story here, Time to log-off...? Back to index

---

NEWS IN BRIEF:

Knowledge Threat: The Knowledge Hub, an online professional social network launched by the Local Government Association (LGA) to allow people in local government to share best practice ideas, is faced with possible closure after the LGA had its budget cut earlier this year. A consultation by the LGA to decide the Knowledge Hub’s future finished on 23 June, with results due to be announced over the summer:

Quick link: Knowledge Threat

Back to index

Immersive Learning: A white paper on the benefits of mobile immersive learning –e-learning using game technology to make the user feel they are inside a virtual learning environment – has been released by virtual world specialists Daden. The paper says tablet computers are now able to provide users with immersive learning on the move, opening up its potential for mobile learning:

Quick link: Immersive Learning

Back to index

Collaborative History: Italian researcher and author Pietro Speroni de Fenizio is collecting information on the history of e-democracy for a paper on the subject at internet conference State of the Net. De Fenizio is also writing a book on the subject. Bulletin readers are invited to contribute information on their favourite e-democracy projects using a collaborative Google Docs spreadsheet:

Quick link: Collaborative History

Back to index

---

Report: People Power In The Digital Age

The right for a group of citizens to petition the people in charge directly (at first the monarch, and then Parliament), to ask them to put right something they feel is wrong, dates back to the Middle Ages. Its use grew until in the early nineteenth century tens of thousands of petitions were presented to Parliament every year. Through the twentieth century, however, their use in Westminster dropped off, perhaps because there were by now better ways of influencing the people in power. In edited extracts from his latest book, "People power: a user's guide to democracy in the UK", E-Government Bulletin Editor Dan Jellinek examines the evolution of electronic petitions and how they have influenced the UK's democratic process... Read full story here, The evolution of the petition Back to index