Monthly Archives: September 2009

A more social civil service is needed for a true open governance

Sadly I missed the Civil Service Live event in June when Will Perrin presented his thoughts around how the civil service should start to wise up about social media.  Reading his presentation, I liked the way they nicely summed up … Continue reading

Posted in Democracy and government, Engagement | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Government and the market

e-Participation is still a new and growing area, moving forward in various directions and various speeds in various places. The audit of local authority e-consultation we’re about to publish has captured some really interested findings, and more on that soon, … Continue reading

Posted in Advice, Democracy and government | Leave a comment

Six Pieces about Sentiment Analysis

I’ve been researching sentiment analysis, and I think I’ve found pieces to suit a range of tastes and interests. Tasters First the notes from a 2008 talk given by Lillan Lee from Cornell University. Lee’s topic is “…the flood of … Continue reading

Posted in Advice, Opinion research, Social media, web 2.0 and other buzzwords | 1 Comment

ePB – a discussion paper

In April we arranged a gathering of Participatory Budgeting aficionados to talk about the potential of online Participatory Budgeting (ePB). This meeting has helped form a discussion paper on the subject written by the PB Unit which can be found … Continue reading

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Q: How do you get young people talking to MP’s?

A: A Robot. Simple.  Not my first thought either, and that’s why it’s great.  Here’s a smart way from V-The National Young Volunteers Service to do just that.  It’s a website where young people can take control of a robotic … Continue reading

Posted in Delib news and events, Opinion Suite, Participation, Projects and client work | Leave a comment

Brum vs Utah

OK, so the whole of the digital government Twitterati has come out of the woodwork to ‘have their say’ on what a bad job Capita have done of the new Birmingham Council website, how it’s outrageous that it cost £2.8m, … Continue reading

Posted in Good examples, Social media, web 2.0 and other buzzwords | 2 Comments

Obama’s democracy 2.0

In the context of Senator Obama’s radical and successful use of the internet to win the Presidency, commentators wildly speculated about how President Obama would then use the internet to govern.  Having amassed 1 million+ followers, would he run the … Continue reading

Posted in Delib news and events, Democracy and government, Good examples, Social media, web 2.0 and other buzzwords | 4 Comments

A US perspective on e-democracy – views from across the pond

Back in November last year we worked on a project with the National Academy of Administration (NAPA) aimed at creating a debate and gathering ideas around the issue of “Health IT” – called the National Dialogue on Health IT.  The project itself was relatively low-key given it was run in the final weeks of the Presidential elections and most people in government had bigger things on their minds.

Having… Continue reading

Posted in Consultation, Engagement, Good examples | 3 Comments

Seven August things to help you convert the skeptics

Chances are, if you’re reading this, you’re already somewhat sold on the whole idea of the internet and the opportunities it presents for better involving people in decision-making/governance – and that means you almost certainly know and are frustrated by … Continue reading

Posted in Democracy and government, Engagement, Participation, Social media, web 2.0 and other buzzwords | 2 Comments

COI launch new Digital Policy blog

The Central Office of Information has just launched a new, public, departmental blog.
Following the COI’s internal blogging efforts on CivilBlogs, and the results of a review on the topic of ‘Improving Government Online,’ the Digital Policy team decided to throw open their discussion to the public, and set up Digigov to talk about digital policy online with “other departments, agencies, web developers, bloggers and academics.” Adam Bailin is running the… Continue reading

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