By Paul Hepburn.
Are local public sector bodies effectively using the potential of the internet to communicate its messages and improve their policy development processes?
Recent research by the University of Manchester into how the internet was used during the Manchester Congestion Charge referendum, conducted towards the end of 2008, sheds some light on how far local ... Read More
Archive for June, 2010
Young People Helped To Create ‘Apps for Good’
Tuesday, June 29th, 2010A mobile application allowing people to access information about their rights when being stopped and searched by police, and to rate and share their experience, is among the results of a recent pilot project to encourage young people to develop social ‘apps’ for smartphones.
The ‘Apps for Good’ programme ( http://appsforgood.org/ ) allows young people ... Read More
Online ‘Echo’ Grassroots Deliberation Seeks Critical Mass
Tuesday, June 29th, 2010Prototype software for online multilingual deliberation, grassroots networking and civil engagement has been released by its German creators for public testing at http://www.echologic.org .
The software, ‘echo’, is being developed by publicly-funded Berlin charity ‘echo source’. The charity aims to create the infrastructure for people and organisations to build their own projects linking into a ... Read More
Budget Realises ‘Worst Fears’ For Public Sector IT
Tuesday, June 29th, 2010Many of the public sector information technology sector’s worst fears about cuts were realised in last week’s ‘emergency Budget’ from the UK’s new Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government, one IT policy expert has told E-Government Bulletin.
Martin Ferguson, head of policy at the Society of IT Management (Socitm), said that some of the cuts announced in ... Read More
Alun Michael Chairs Parliamentary IT Committee
Tuesday, June 15th, 2010The Right Honorable Alun Michael MP has been named as new Chairman of the Parliamentary IT Committee (PITCOM), a non-partisan group formed in 1981 to build links between Parliamentarians and the technology industry.
The appointment came as something of a surprise as PITCOM was reconstituted last week following the election of a Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government: ... Read More
The Problem With Democracy
Tuesday, June 15th, 2010by Edward Andersson, Simon Burall and Emily Fennell.
The democratic structures and institutions in the majority of democratic nations were built for another age. This is as true of the UK’s largely Victorian and Edwardian democratic structures as it is of other countries. Pressures of time and events, combined with changes in technology and society, are ... Read More
Digital Dialogue ‘Could Engage 1% Of Population’
Tuesday, June 15th, 2010It is now potentially possible to engage as much as 1% of the UK population – more than half a million people – in a single public engagement exercise, using digital technologies and techniques of ‘distributed dialogue’, according to a new paper from public participation charity Involve.
Such techniques have already been tested in Eastern Europe, ... Read More
‘Hyperlocal’ Information ‘Invaluable For Local Authorities’
Tuesday, June 15th, 2010News and information websites run by and covering small sections of a community – termed ‘hyperlocal’ sites – offer “limitless” possibilities for improved council service delivery, one London borough web manager has told E-Government Bulletin.
Liz Azyan, project co-ordinator for Camden Council’s website redesign project, said hyperlocal websites can help both the council-citizen engagement process, and ... Read More
