The Bristol project team developing the CampaignCreator tool - see Can a council host community campaigns? - has now recruited US-based e-democracy evangelist Steven Clift to help with their work. Steven will facilitate advisory group discussions, share draft guidebook content, and also invite others with community campaigning or online advocacy experience to join in the discussions. Stephen Hilton has already extended an open invitation to the group on his blog, so things should get interesting shortly.
One of the issues that I and others have raised, is whether a council can be expected to host discussions that may well be critical of politicians and officers. As Paul Hilder points out in a comment to my item:
There is a simple fix: the campaign portal should be owned not by the council, but by local civil society. In some areas there are community coalitions or CENs which could lead on this, and LSPs or councils could endorse or "dual key" this use of the technology without needing to sit atop it and control it in a way which will inevitably quell civic action.
I'm looking forward to discussion on whether Bristol council is prepared to give up control of the platform. Meanwhile you can keep up with Steven's other international assignments on his blog. I think he should bring a useful perspective to CampaignCreator.
Technorati Tags: e-democracy, Engagement 2.0
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