News & Comment

Archive for July, 2009

Tell Them What You Think beta

Posted by MichaelaD on Jul 31 2009 | Consultation, Democracy and government, Good examples

Tell Them What You Think beta A massive government-wide consultation finder database! About time! Its currently in beta so its not all singing and dancing as yet, but what a fantastic premise. We at Delib are no stranger to a consultation finder database but the scale and utility of this site deserves some extra attention. On a personal note Im a big fan already and was actually directed to it from a… read more

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Internet and democracy debate – 15 minute edit

Posted by ChrisQ on Jul 28 2009 | Debate, Delib news and events

So, we've finally got our 15 minute edit of the Internet and democracy debate we ran earlier in the month.

To explain - we weren't allowed to film in Parliament, but we were allowed to take photos and record sound, so we've made a film in the old-school way, but matching sound with photos.

The video features introductory debate remarks by each of the panelists: Danny Alexander MP (Chair), Peter Kellner… read more

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How Teenagers Use The Internet

Posted by Gez Smith on Jul 14 2009 | Advice, Engagement, Good examples, Social media, web 2.0 and other buzzwords

Odd one this, Morgan Stanley recently took on a 15 year old intern named Matthew Robson, and asked him to write them a briefing paper on how teenagers use different media. It's 'shaken the city' apparently, a location you would have thought would have been reasonably difficult to surprise by now given recent economic events, but no matter. In a nutshell, he reported that teenagers don't listen to the… read more

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Conservatives Promise More Control Over Aid Spending

Posted by Gez Smith on Jul 13 2009 | Debate, Democracy and government

Odd to have a blog title that sounds like a news headline, but that's essentially what this story is. The Conservatives have announced that, if elected, they will hand over control of a portion of the government aid budget to a popular decision making process, allowing people to vote for what they want to support. A top idea in principle, although it has seemingly attracted criticism along the lines… read more

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Discussing the good and the not so good…

Posted by AdamC on Jul 09 2009 | Bad examples, Consultation, Conversations, Democracy and government, Good examples, Participation

As part of my daily activities with Delib, I’ve been speaking to council employees who are involved in budget consultation at their various establishments. Because of this, I've been fortunate enough to quickly gain a good understanding of the differing councils’ perspectives on consultation. As you’d expect, there are some councils that run very extensive budget consultation and some that, it would be fair to say, seem to be avoiding… read more

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Who Can Talk Online?

Posted by Gez Smith on Jul 06 2009 | Advice, Conversations, Debate, Democracy and government, Engagement

This is a straightforward story on the face of it, but raises some questions the more you think about it. A civil servant has been sacked from DCSF for posting a negative comment about Hazel Blears on www.theyworkforyou.com, on a seemingly unknown site, using her work email address - see update below.Straightforward case in a way, posting on the… read more

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Internet debate round-up

Posted by Ben on Jul 01 2009 | Debate, Delib news and events, Democracy and government, Participation, Social media, web 2.0 and other buzzwords

So you may have noticed that we were running this debate last night, 'the internet: the saviour or corruptor of democracy?', (with the help of the Henry Jackson Society, sponsored by MessageSpace and very graciously hosted in Parliament by Danny Alexander MP). Our pretty prestigious panel comprised Paul Staines (Guido Fawkes blog), Peter Kellner (YouGov), Michael White (Associate Editor, the Guardian), Grant Shapps MP (Shadow Minister for Housing)… read more

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Government responds on Open Source

Posted by Gez Smith on Jul 01 2009 | Democracy and government

This is interesting, a while back I signed a Number 10 e-petition that said; We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to ask the Communities Secretary to require that all software produced by councils under the Timely Information to Citizens project be released under an open source licence. It went on to say in the further information section; ...as citizens we cannot and do not support this substantial sum of public… read more

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