Discussion around e-democracy, online engagement and the like can become pretty rarified as consultants, commentators, researchers find it a fruitful field for ... well you know what I mean. The talking-about to doing-it ratio shifts while grass roots pioneers like oncom (about which more later) are left struggling. It was refreshing therefore to read this on the UK and Ireland E-Democracy Exchange from Geoff Reid, following a rather arcane discussion of e-democracy benefits for government. Key point:
Why is it that central and local government think they should be the driving force behind e-democracy? Why isn't e-democracy being encouraged to grow organicly from the 'grass roots' level upwards, free from overcomplicated government influence?
Here's the whole thing:
Much of the above conversation has produced loud whooshing noises a few inches above my head, return on investment, business cases, benchmarks and quantitive surveys....it's all Greek to me. This doesn't really surprise me as I'm not involved with e-dem in any commercial or official capacity, I'm just a rank amateur gulping for air in rarified atmosphere.
Just over one year ago I started a small web forum called Talkswindon, (www.talkswindon.org). I didn't start the forum for any other reason than I was quite irritated with one of Swindons two MP's who was, and still does, display an arrogantly dismissive attitude towards her constituents.
Apart from the local newspaper, which seems totally enthralled by our MP's, there was no effective medium in Swindon for people like myself to air their opinions publicly and enter into a publicly recorded exchange of views with their MP's and local councillors. Thus Talkswindon was born.
A few months of networking and getting to know local councillors has paid dividends. The forum is thriving, expanding at a sensible pace and good, worthwhile results are being achieved through interaction of councillors and members of the public. Swindon Borough Council has been using Talkswindon as part of its public consultation for the restructuring of the Residents Parking Scheme for the last 10 months.
To get a complete picture of how deeply the forum is entwined with local politics you'd probably need to spend several hours reading the forum, and I don't wish to bore you with a blow by blow analysis of the forum....I'm not qualified to do so anyway.
Is it e-democracy?, I don't honestly know.....unless e-democracy is enabling citizens to communicate easily with their councillors, and providing a venue where councillors can argue with each other, their ward residents and come to a better understanding of each others positions, then get a positive outcome in more cases than not....then it's e-democracy at some fundamentally useful level.
Does it frighten the councillors and MP's?....yep, exactly as it should do. Content is provided by the users of the forum, is unedited and the admin team operate a strict 'no censorship, no deletion' policy in all but the most dire of cases, (of which there has been only one in the last year), the forum moderates itself by peer pressure.
Anyway, this is a long post to break my duck with, and I don't wish to drag this thread too much off topic...I should really spend a few hours here before diving in I think....but I'll leave with one parting question.
Why is it that central and local government think they should be the driving force behind e-democracy?. Why isn't e-democracy being encouraged to grow organicly from the 'grass roots' level upwards, free from overcomplicated government influence?.
The online communities network oncom has been going for 10 years, and as I've mentioned here does a great job for local democracy. I interviewed oncom volunteer Jill Sanders and others at last year's e-democracy conference. Oncom has been nominated for this year's New Statesman's New Media Awards. Jill makes the case:
There is nothing like Oncom, probably because there is no funding stream for such an independent network. The entire ten years have been on a shoestring but nevertheless through a mix of volunteer help, professional expertise, dogged persistence and goodwill, this local community network has gone far, far further than any other. It now has citizen journalists publishing news, events, campaigns, issues, concerns, direct to the network as well as the councillor pages, police pages, election projects, loads of local community, national and global links and much more. It is truly an e-community designed to enable ordinary people using the local web, and despite the lack of support from gov or local council - even though it does what they are always banging on about - it continues.... Why should Oncom win the award - because it's worth it!
I have an interest, and shouldn't promote any one project, but can say there is still just one day within which you can nominate, comment or rate projects. Do take a look through those already there to get some idea of the spectrum of official and grass roots activity in the different categories. Meanwhile, Geoff's post has sparked further discussion on the Exchange, which you can join here.
I think there's a real dilemma for grass-roots e-democracy - in common with much volunteer-based community activity. It can be hugely time-consuming and demanding for the (usually small) group running the project, while (hopefully) involving a wider group or network. Their strength lies in their independence, and their weakness in the likelihood of volunteer burn-out. If they get grant support from the council they risk being subject to pressure to conform. As Oncom has found, it is difficult to get funding from other sources. It's equally difficult to see how to run these projects as social enterprises (any examples?) without losing focus.
You can argue - as Bill Thompson does - that stuff no longer happens in one place. The network is the platform ... which is OK for Net sophisticates, but (as Bill acknowledges) challenging for many. No business model for (e-) democracy, nor should there be ... but how can we celebrate and support the grass-roots enthusiasts?
Update: Simon Dickson reflects on how much time it takes to run a political blog. A lot, to do it well.
Technorati Tags: e-democracy
Readers may also wish to know that Talk Swindon has also been nominated for a New Statesman New Media Award. See: http://www.newstatesman.com/nma/nma2007/nominations/200705300011
Posted by: KCorrick | May 30, 2007 at 05:52 PM
Shane McCracken offered this response on the Exchange to Geoff - quoted with his permission:
Welcome and I'm glad to see you here. Please don't expect too much rarefied atmosphere. As a living breathing grassroots "doer" of e-democracy you've
got a lot to tell us all.
You question about organic growth vs. top down imposition should be a fun one to discuss. I suspect that in this esteemed company of enlightened people that most, if not all, will agree that grassroots development is good. But that does not get over the fact that a large proportion of councils and public organisations still do want to impose a top-down approach.
Why?
One simple answer may be that public authorities simply do not know how to help grassroots development. Is it money? Publicity? Capital? Or perhaps simply engagement - decision makers actually listening and providing feedback to the grassroots developments such as TalkSwindon - so that people participating don't feel they are operating in a vacuum?
Another element is that too many LA's want to be seen to be doing something and therefore they feel the need to own and brand the grassroots
developments. And sadly in order to "protect" their reputation too many also want to control it thereby stifling debate.
A third element is that many grassroots activities start as a result of dissatisfaction and criticism of the authority and I guess that doesn't immediately dispose the authority towards them.
Finally some authorities simply don't really want it. I remember talking to the CEO of one Police Authority who almost choked at the idea of a dialogue
between police management and the public.
That my view. Much more important is the view of those working within local authorities and central government. However experience tells me that we may not hear too much from the council officers and civil servants and this is part of the problem with the organic development of grassroots e-democracy.
There seems to be a culture that inhibits many public servants from joining in discussions. More discussion about this was had recently over on Jeremy Gould's Whitehall Webby blog but essentially informal conversation between civil servants and the public is OK because it isn't available widely and in perpetuity but any other communication needs to go through formal communication channels such as the press office or a conference. The problem with social media and many e-democracy activities is that they fit
in the middle - an informal conversation that is widely available and lasts forever.
Also more important than my view is the answer to the question of how authorities can help grassroots organisations and perhaps you can help with that.
Posted by: David Wilcox | May 30, 2007 at 11:06 PM
This has been a strange week for me, full of Homer Simpson D'oh! moments.....
Talkswindon has been online for 14 months, but it was only a couple of weeks ago, (after following a 'you might like to visit this url' suggestion made by Shane McCracken in an email, that I realised that there is a massive community of people discussing, planning and arguing about doing e-dem stuff all over the globe. D'oh!.
I felt a bit stupid to be honest, I really had no idea what was available, or being discussed about various e-dem projects in Britain. D'oh,D'oh!
Still, I joined the UK & Ireland E-democracy exchange and had a look....
...and immediately wondered whether I, and Talkswindon, might seem like the village idiot blundering into the Vicars teaparty with the Bishop. D'oh!, D'oh!, D'oh!
To be brutally honest, I struggled to read, let alone comprehend, some of the posts on the UKIE e-dem exchange and they caused me a huge, ground-opening-up-in-front-of-me moment of self doubt, which was further deepened by Shanes comments, (reproduced above) regarding non participation by local government officers and councillors.
Why?, because Talkswindon was just about to open 3 new e-dem forums specifically modelled upon the workings of the Council Chamber in Swindon... and just when I'm simultaneously trying to start a bunfight with one of the cabinet members and encourage the rest of Swindon Borough Council onto the forum....Shane makes a comment which struck a resonant harmonic within my own way of thinking. (I hope to prove we're both wrong with regard to Swindon!).
I de believe it's easier to get councillors initially engaged in active e-democracy in the 3 or 4 months immediately prior to an election in which they are a candidate. I don't think there is anything underhand about this, just a sensible 'use whatever means are available' to promote themselves as widely as possible, they seem to adapt to using the forum very quickly and recognise it's a useful tool to have and use.
Getting them engaged outside of election time may prove to be more difficult, but I'll wait and see whether opening the 'Ask the Councillors', The 'Councillors Chamber' and 'Public Gallery' forums will encourage greater useage rate amongst councillors than the current 25% (15 out of 59 councillors).
Time will tell, the forums opened yesterday (Thursday 31st of May 2007) and as of today there is but a single question waitingh for the Councillors to discuss in the Chamber.
The Question?:
If e-democracy is to flourish within British politics, do councillors believe it should be lead:
* from above by central government
* by local government
* by the citizens themselves
Please discuss
At the moment it's what you might call a 'tumbleweed' posting... a bit arid, empty and with a mournful wind sighing gently through the deserted streets.....
Posted by: Geoff Reid | June 02, 2007 at 12:24 AM
Wow!, sorry for the double posting of comments, but I just noticed the reference to Talkswindon being nominated for a New Statesman Award. By a curious coincidence my wife bought home a copy of this months NS yesterday, the first time I've ever read it. (I'd actually asked her for private eye!)
Bless her, and thank you, to whoever nominated Talkswindon, it makes me really proud of Talkswindons members, who consistantly produce good quality discussion on a plethora of diverse topics.
Posted by: Geoff Reid | June 02, 2007 at 12:35 AM
Geoff - thanks for the comments. I think the best stuff is done by people close to those they aim to serve. The e-democracy exchange list is great - but can get a bit rarified, and isn't publicly visible unless you are signed up. Could you fit a bit of blogging in to your schedule to help open up e-democracy discussions?
Posted by: David Wilcox | June 02, 2007 at 08:31 AM