Great Expectations: After the vote - citizens online, e-democracy in governance, and White House 2.0

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

Thanks
Institute for Politics, Democracy, and the Internet, GWU
Co-Sponsors
Sunlight Foundation (Refreshments)
Ashoka
Deliberative Democracy Consortium
Center for Democracy and Technology

Audio Recording
We are recording the audio from this event.
Always use a microphone to ask a question or add to the discussion.

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

Hello
It all started in 1994 …
Government by day, citizen by night …

A new Athens for Democracy?

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

Mongolia 2004
Local news … flip …
Russian game show … flip
Joe Trippi at the Politics Online Conference!

Candidates and campaigns
Organize your supporters
Generate multimedia and spread it
Shake hands at the digital parades of online social networks and groups
Seeking power and influence online

Organize Supporters – Gather E-mail

Communicate with supporters, introduce the candidate

Activate Supporters

Digital Parade – Social Networks

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

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

Government Support for Democracy Online
Timely, personalized access to information that matters.
Help e-officials receive, sort and better understand and respond to e-mail.

E-mail notices in St. Paul

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

Personalization Ideas
Personalized tracking, user generated “hot” links
Tell me when something is new like Google Alerts
Democratized navigation
Live Video

Alberta Gov’s Web Feeds
Those little orange icons

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

UK Prime Minister’s e-Petitions 7 percent of British population have signed an e-petition here

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

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.

Deep Access and Accountability
Estonia’s Today I Decide, Document Register, X-Road (below)

Gov Voter Guides in Korea

Mobile Photos to Enforce Anti-Corruption Election Laws

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

Scottish Parliament – Best Look and Feel
Common committee templates, testimony, etc.

Live Rural Villages Town Meeting, India –

Online Events and Consultations

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.

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.

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

Reuse Government Data – Make Useful Crime Data in Chicago

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.

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

Citizens Online
With my E-Democracy.Org hat on…

Top Five Citizen "to dos" for Democracy Online
1. Build our public lives online
2. Get candidates to make public promises
3. Contribute time or money online
4. Request information service and new government vision
5. Demand truly public spaces online, build local up

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

Like Minds Organize Easily

For the Non-Dog Lover

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

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

Creating Public Space - Issues Forums Librarian Reporter Arts Group City Councilor Candidate Local Biz Ctizen #1 Advocacy Group Neighborhood Leader Mayor Forum Manager Citizen 500 Police Citizens Issues Forum GroupServer e-mails posts web view Subscribe once Commitment secured Post via e-mail/web New Resident City Hall “ Secondary Networks ” e-mail forwards Civil Society Personal Networks Local Media Coverage

Issues Forums – E-Democracy.Org Recent 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

Issues Forums

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

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”

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.

E-Debates

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

Project Blog

Conclusion

Frustration Today
Failure of technological determinism
People expect two-way, those in power still one-way
Private lives dominate "public life" online

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

Conclusion
Build democracy with the new tools of today.
Links, blog/e-newsletter, online groups, and more from http:// stevenclift.com

Links to Everything
From:
http://stevenclift.com

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

Discussion Questions

http://stevenclift.com	473
http://blog.e-democracy.org	49
http://www.dowire.org	39
http://www.publicus.net	15
http://publicus.net	14
http://davidfletcher.blogspot.com	12
http://dowire.org	4
http://saintpaulitics.org	3
http://translate.googleusercontent.com	2
http://web.archive.org	1
http://www.stevenclift.com	1

Great Expectations: After the vote - citizens online, e-democracy in governance, and White House 2.0

by Steven Clift on Jan 14, 2008

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Great Expectations: After the vote - citizens online, e-democracy in governance, and White House 2.0 Presentation Transcript