Monthly Archives: February 2008

The Harrogate Advertiser’s ‘Great Tesco Debate’

Posted on February 15, 2008 by Ben

I discovered this fascinating local debate site on my Google travels the other day: http://www2.harrogatetoday.co.uk/tesco/tescohome.asp. There’s all kinds of things to examine and weigh up here, far too many to meaningfully comment on briefly now — the binary nature of … Continue reading →

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‘Our Place’ meets heritage workers’ networking needs

Posted on February 14, 2008 by Ben

Following Chris’s post about English Heritage’s ‘Your Place or Mine’ the other week, we were pointed in the direction of a subsequent English Heritage social media project, the aptly-named ‘Our Place’. ‘Our Place’ describes itself as ‘…for people who work … Continue reading →

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‘Hey Monkeybrain!’ assists aggregated arguments

Posted on February 13, 2008 by Ben

‘Hey Monkeybrain!’ is an extension of Squidoo, a site that lets users collect content on a particular topic from all around the web in one place.  We’re not particularly enamoured with Squidoo itself (to put it politely) but, having first … Continue reading →

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Online engagement shouldn’t mean more ‘faceless bureaucracy’

Posted on February 11, 2008 by Gez Smith

Over the last few years, e-Democracy has generally focussed on what ‘tools’ you have available for your online work, and far too little on how these tools are actually used. One interesting discussion I’ve been involved in recently is around … Continue reading →

Posted in Consultation, Engagement, Participation | 1 Comment

Hammersmith use Youtube too…

Posted on February 11, 2008 by Gez Smith

Interesting venture here from the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, promoting their budget cuts and council performance through Youtube in the form of a brief music video. Read the full media release here. It’s not consultation as such, but … Continue reading →

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Office of Government Commerce launches Supplier Feedback Service

Posted on February 11, 2008 by Ben

I was pleased to read Kablenet’s piece on OGC ‘open[ing] the door for feedback’. The government’s procurement standards body, the OGC, has launched a supplier feedback service ‘invit[ing] suppliers of public sector goods and services to comment on contentious issues … Continue reading →

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Coca-Cola starts conversing with the world (at last)

Posted on February 6, 2008 by ChrisQ

Big American corporations get a lot of stick for their old school approach to business and communications. The commonly held perception (which is 99% true) is that corporations are still stuck in the broadcast model of communications, where multi-million pound … Continue reading →

Posted in Conversations, Debate | Leave a comment

New Local Government Network says local authorities should do more e-participation

Posted on February 6, 2008 by Ben

There’s a lot to spark interest and further discussion in this Kable summary of the New Local Government Network’s paper 21st Century Democracy: e-petitioning and local government. Leaving aside the debate about e-petitioning as a method in itself, I thought … Continue reading →

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Delib and Microsoft

Posted on February 1, 2008 by ChrisQ

We may not have given $30 billion away to charity, however Delib and Microsoft have more in common than meets the eye.  Yesterday, Bill Gates was in London giving a speech to the Institute of Directors about the internet, and … Continue reading →

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