e-democracy.org

Great Expectations

After the vote - citizens online, e-democracy in governance, and White

House 2.0

Steven Clift, Founder and Board Chair

E-Democracy.Org

e-democracy.org

Thanks

• Institute for Politics, Democracy, and the Internet, GWU

• Co-Sponsors– Sunlight Foundation (Refreshments)

– Ashoka– Deliberative Democracy Consortium– Center for Democracy and Technology

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Audio Recording

• We are recording the audio from this event.

• Always use a microphone to ask a question or add to the discussion.

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Agenda

• E-Democracy in Governance – 40 min• Citizens Online – E-Democracy.Org – 20 min

• Short Restocking Break – 5 min

• Discussion – 50 min– “How E-Government is Changing Society and

Strengthening Democracy” – Author introductions– Expectations - White House 2.0, Congress, Federal

Agencies, Government and Civil Society Generally

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Hello

•It all started in 1994 …

•Government by day, citizen by night …

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A new Athens for Democracy?

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Made for Internet Candidate in 98 – Jesse Ventura, former Governor of

Minnesota

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Mongolia 2004• Local news … flip … • Russian game show … flip• Joe Trippi at the Politics

Online Conference!

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Candidates and campaigns

1. Organize your supporters

2. Generate multimedia and spread it

3. Shake hands at the digital parades of online social networks and groups

• Seeking power and influence online

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Organize Supporters – Gather E-mail

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Communicate with supporters, introduce the candidate

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Activate Supporters

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Digital Parade – Social Networks

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November 5, 2008 – The Day After

• What next?

• Moving from a red-blue virtual civil war to …

• How do we use the Internet to better “govern” or “represent?”

• Engage or empower citizens? Or build trust and community capacity to solve problems?

Source:

The Political Blogosphere and the 2004 U.S. Election: Divided They Blog

By Lada Adamic and Natalie Glance

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Recent Articles

• Ten Practical Online Steps for Government Support of Democracy

– Part of new 47 page U.S. government publication about e-democracy titled, “How E-Government is Changing Society and Strengthening Democracy.”

• Also see - UK Local E-Democracy Project – See: www.icele.org

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Government Support for Democracy Online

1. Timely, personalized access to information that matters.

2. Help e-officials receive, sort and better understand and respond to e-mail.

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E-mail notices in St. Paul

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Democracy Portal with “e-democracy” policy, Queensland, Australia

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Personalization Ideas• Personalized

tracking, user generated “hot” links

– Tell me when something is new like Google Alerts

– Democratized navigation

LiveVideo

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Alberta Gov’s Web Feeds

• Those little orange icons

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Right to Petition Government

• What is the Magna Carta’s expression in 2007?

• U.S. petitioning mostly about e-mail acquisition for advocacy not listening or redress of grievences

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UK Prime Minister’s e-Petitions

7 percent of British population have signed an e-petition here

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Mobile Inbox

SMS (text messages) out number voice calls 8 to 1 in the Philippines

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Government Support for Democracy Online

3. Dedicate at least 10% of new e-government developments to democracy.

– Not “services first, democracy later.”

9. Fund open source sharing internationally across government.

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Deep Access and Accountability• Estonia’s Today I Decide, Document

Register, X-Road (below)

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Gov Voter Guides in Korea

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Mobile Photos to Enforce Anti-Corruption Election Laws

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Government Support for Democracy Online

4. Announce all government public meetings on the Internet in a uniform matter.

5. Allow all people to look-up all of their elected officials from the very local to national in one search.

6. Host online public hearings and dialogues

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Scottish Parliament – Best Look and Feel

• Common committee templates, testimony, etc.

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Live Rural Villages Town Meeting, India –

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Online Events and Consultations

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Videoconferencing to District Office

• Video connection to district– Formet Canadian MP

Reg Alcock had an ISDN video link with district office as part of a pilot initiative. Held mid-week constituent meetings in part to ease the pressure on the weekend schedule.

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Government Support for Democracy Online

7. Embrace the rule of law by mandating the most democratically empowering online services and rights across the whole of government.

– Open meeting laws, ethics information

8. Promote dissemination through access to raw data from decision-making information systems.

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Accountability• Deep Transparency – Yalova, Turkey

They provided access to:

•Council decisions

•Immediate flow of incomes

•Daily flow of expenditures

•Municipal Tenders

•Citizen applications and document follow-up

•Wealth Declaration - Increase/decrease of income and wealth of top officials (on left)

•US – FederalSpending.Gov

•Poland – FOI Laws Require Budget Information Online

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Reuse Government Data

– Make Useful

Crime Data in Chicago

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Scrape, Search and Notice• TheyWorkforYou.com – mySociety UK

– “Scrapes” the UK parliament website and adds notification and commenting features not offered on the official site.

– GovTrack.us and others scrape in U.S.

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Government Support for Democracy Online

10. Local up – Build a strategic approach to building local democracy online

– Absolute need for non-partisan, convening approaches

– Government, media, universities, non-profits, business all must contribute something

– Public interest use “of” the Internet not just “on” it

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Citizens Online

•With my E-Democracy.Org hat on…

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Top Five Citizen "to dos" for Democracy Online

1. Build our public lives online2. Get candidates to make public

promises3. Contribute time or money online4. Request information service and

new government vision5. Demand truly public spaces online,

build local up

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Private Spaces with “Public” Qualities – v. Online Public Spaces

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Like Minds Organize Easily

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For the Non-Dog Lover

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Need Public Spaces – Online Versions of Town Halls, Capitols

• Online public spaces, not just “public” commercial spaces

• Need for decorum, civility, agenda-setting, relevance, accountability

<- The Minnesota Capitol Rotunda

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Blogofest Destiny?

• Blogs democratize media, provide accountability• Compared to forums, most are highly individualistic often privately controlled spaces with some dialogue

• Need own blog to join the e-ristocracy

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Creating Public Space

- Issues Forums

City Hall

“SecondaryNetworks”

e-mail forwards Civil Society

PersonalNetworks

Local MediaCoverage

Librarian

Reporte

rArt

s G

roup

City Councilor

Candidate

Local Biz

Ctiz

en #

1

Advocacy Group

Neighborhood Leader

Mayor

Forum M

anager

Citizen

500

Polic

e

Citizens

Issues ForumGroupServer e-mails posts

web viewSubscribe onceCommitment securedPost via e-mail/web

New Resident

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Issues Forums – E-Democracy.OrgRecent Topics

• Local schools• Support for area war veterans• Neighborhood park changes• Water quality and shortage• Crime and policing• Candidates and elections• Feral cat problem• Racetrack noise pollution

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Issues Forums

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10 Communities and Growing

• Starting with service club-like local “democracy committee”

• Now in:– Minneapolis, St. Paul, Roseville, Winona, MN– Clean energy experiment in Pioneer Valley, MA– Brighton, Bristol, Newham, and Oxford– Canterbury (Christchurch), New Zealand

• Adding neighborhood forums, rural efforts

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Challenges

• Transition to participant donations• Technology/resources for new

communities and expansion• Social networking “sucking sound”

– Big difference between• “Pubicizing” private life and personal

networks• Making local “public life” accessible any

where, any time where people step up as “citizens”

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Building Democracy and Community Online

• I-35W Bridge Collapse over Mississippi River

• It could have been anyone.

• Community shared their stories, offered help via Internet.

• E-Democracy.Org forums provide vital space for discussion.

• Collaborative "wiki" created content commons.

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Wiki

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E-Debates

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Citizen Content• Voter Voices response

to e-debate and more – YouTube Video, Flickr

pictures, Del.icio.us links and blog posts tagged “mnpolitics”

– http://e-democracy.org/voices

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Project Blog

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Conclusion

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Frustration Today

• Failure of technological determinism

• People expect two-way, those in power still one-way

• Private lives dominate "public life" online

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Opportunity

• Realistic, incremental change -trial and error improvements

• Technology and tools advancing - Internet always on, everywhere, in everything

• Rule of law and funding priorities in government, media, and civil society

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Conclusion

• Build democracy with the new tools of today.

• Links, blog/e-newsletter, online groups, and more from http://stevenclift.com

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Links to Everything

• From:

–http://stevenclift.com

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FYI - Briefs and Case Studies• Case Studies

– Canadian International Policy eDiscussions

– Community Blogging - Northfield, Minnesota

– Community Forums and News in Subang Jaya - Malaysia

– Listening to the City - New York City

– Madrid Participa– NordPol - Northern

Denmark– Queensland's E-democracy

Leadership– Seoul's Online Policy Forum– Seattle's Online Civic

Engagement Initiative

• Briefs– Advanced Web Comment

Forms– Budget Proposals Online– Content Syndication– Community Portals– Democracy Portal– Democratized Navigation– Elected Official Videos– E-mail Response Policy– E-Newsletters– E-Notification– Geographic Personalisation– M-Democracy - Mobile

Content– SMS Citizen Input– Voter Education Online– Wireless Internet

http://dowire.org/wiki/UK_highlights

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Discussion Questions