Issues Forums - Online Town Halls from E-Democracy.Org

Your Voice. Your Community Online Steven Clift and Steve Kranz, E-Democracy.Org

1. Introductions 2. Citizen Media Examples 3. Online Engagement - Issues Forums Story 4. Short Break 5. Issues Forums – How to

Citizen Media Examples, Online Engagement “e-democracy” context

Citizen Media

Use of online tools by the public to express themselves, share news, etc.

As individuals, as hosted by “media,” or via new associations

“Rural voices” – Our interest is in local/geographic uses by local people for local people

Citizen Media Examples

Local “Placeblog” – Pelican Rapids , Cass Lake

Local Flickr Photos – Bemidji , Grand Marias

YouTube – Minnesota Minute Video Contest – Tree Climbing

Topix – PioneerPress Example

Local Wikipedia Pages – Bemidji , Leech Lake Indian Reservation

Local Facebook Group – Bemidji , Cass Lake , Save the Language

Dozens of rural Minnesota examples from:

http://e-democracy.org/rv

Defining e-democracy

E-democracy is:

the use information and communication technologies and strategies

by “democratic sectors”

within the political processes of local communities, states, nations and on the global stage.

What’s missing?

Political Groups Private Sector Government Media and Commercial Content

Defining e-democracy

E-democracy …

is now, what kind is it?

is accelerating “as is” politics

will promote active citizen participation only by taking the “e-citizen” perspective

E-Democracy.Org focuses on the that perspective, reaching across the political spectrum, embracing local geography

Political Groups Private Sector Government Media and Commercial Content E-Citizens

E-Democracy.Org Issues Forums Steven Clift, Founder and Board Chair E-Democracy.Org

The Problem

Lack of Participation in Local Democracy

Time

Trust and accountability

Loss of civility

Sense your voice won’t be heard

The Problem

Need to Make Participation More Effective

Timely access to information and opinions when it matters

Openness and inclusion

Building social capital

Need more deliberative opportunities

People need to experience lasting power and influence

We Are Building

Any time, anywhere democracy

Two-way online town hall meeting

NOT typical male-dominated political blogs (Hyde Park) or reactionary anonymous reader comments on news sites

Demand for local information and news in a democracy

Low-cost, volunteer-based, network of service club like local democracy committees – 10+ communities

World First – Democratic Roots

We created the world’s first election web site way back in 1994 …

After the election, people kept talking in our Minnesota Politics forum.

We realized that it was our job to be a trusted, neutral host of ongoing dialogue among those from diverse perspectives and backgrounds.

Talk is cheap. Actually, “Conversation is cost-effective.”

Blogs are not everything. Need to pick and choose among multiple tools based on your goals. Goal: Two-way local dialogue. Tool: E-mail list/web forum

Need Public Spaces – Online Versions of Town Halls, Capitols

Online public spaces, not just “public” commercial spaces

Need

Decorum and civility

Local relevance

Agenda-setting and impact on decision-makers

Real names and accountability

<- The Minnesota Capitol Rotunda

Local Issues Forums

The online town hall

City-wide, neighborhoods as well

Where is local power? – We place an online public space in the center

“ Government websites don’t have sidewalks.” (Or public hearings online.)

Need for independent online spaces for media accountability

Locally “owned” by civic-inspired citizen committee as part of E-Democracy.Org

Some Stories

Dairy Queen in the public parks

Park board members starts discussion

Daily paper absent from board meeting

Vigorous debate online gets in paper

Decision reversed at next meeting packed with the public

Dori from St. Paul

Active citizens and “average” citizens raise their voices

Ten minute “GSE” (Gopher State Ethanol) video at

http://e-democracy.org/experience

Dori Ullman raises her voice about the stench

Jamal from Minneapolis

Large Somali community in Minneapolis

Their “voice” was missing despite past outreach

Bus strike provided motivation and real world reason to join and post to forum

Contacted by Mayor, media after forum posts

Mayor Rybak from Minneapolis

In 2001, RT Rybak announced mayoral candidacy on forum before press conference

More video clips

The Seven O'clock Meeting

Budget Issues - Informing

Let’s Ski - Gathering Ideas

Two-way Won’t Kill You

More video:

http://e-democracy.org/experience

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

Local Issues Forums Today

Minneapolis, MN – 969 members

Seward NHood – 165 members

Standish-Ericsson NHood – 238 members

Powderhorn – Opening Soon

St. Paul, MN – 590 members

Roseville, MN – 191 members

Winona, MN – 85 members (relaunch in progress)

Las Vegas, NM Start-up – 107 members

Central Ohio Region – 118 members

Brighton and Hove, UK – 275 members

Newham, UK – 174 members

Bristol 3 NHoods, UK – 153 members

Oxford 3 NHoods, UK – 318 members

Canterbury (Christchurch), NZ – 227 members

Local Issues Forums Next

3+ New rural Minnesota communities

With interest, in this community with KAXE/MN Northern Community Internet connection

2 Minneapolis and St. Paul neighborhoods with high immigrant/low income/ communities of color populations – Cedar Riverside in Mpls, Frogtown in St. Paul, plus other neighborhoods

1 with KAXE in Grand Rapids, MN

Birmingham, Michigan

Interest in Bloomington + Mahtomedi, MN

More “neighbourhoods” in Bristol and Oxford, England

How Issues Forum Work, Starting One Steve Kranz

How Issues Forums Work C i t i z e n s Starting with “private” citizens moving toward public e-citizens Extensive personal online networks exist – friends, family, co-workers Personal Networks

How Issues Forums Work Local E-Democracy group creates the public “space”, defines charter (scope) C i t i z e n s Issues Forum GroupServer e-mails posts web view Personal Networks

How Issues Forums Work C i t i z e n s Issues Forum GroupServer e-mails posts web view Subscribe once Commitment secured Recruit citizens, elected officials, media, etc. with “sticky” opt-in Personal Networks

How Issues Forums Work

Participants agree to rules

Sign real name

Post no more than twice a day

Stay within scope of local charter

Understand they can be suspended for violations

Forum is facilitated, NOT pre-moderated, those posting content are 100% responsible for what they post

How Issues Forums Work Position forum in center of real power Political Activist Reporter Citizen #1 Mayor Citizen #2 Candidate Researcher City Council Neighborhood Leader Student Forum Manager Citizen #500 Gadfly C i t i z e n s Issues Forum GroupServer e-mails posts web view Post via e-mail/web e-publish, many-to-many Personal Networks

Issues Forums Agenda-setting discussions, “e-mail leaks,” facilitation and rule enforcement key Political Activist Reporter Citizen #1 Mayor Citizen #2 Candidate Researcher City Council Neighborhood Leader Student Forum Manager Citizen #500 Gadfly C i t i z e n s Issues Forum GroupServer e-mails posts web view Online discussions in the heart of local power Subscribe once Commitment secured Post via e-mail/web Leader’s Office “ Secondary Networks ” e-mail forwards media agenda-setting Council Department Personal Networks Local Media Coverage

GroupServer – E-mail/web

Easy to find

By geography

E-mail or web - your choice

Technology enhancements

Share through open source

Leveraging blogging standards, web feeds

More: http://e-democracy.org/groupserver

Sample Forum – Web View Entering reply here

Sample Forum – E-mail View

Winona Story

Starting Point

City of 25,000

Existing channels of civic engagement (newspaper, public meetings, speaking events, etc.)

Reasonably accessible elected officials.

Content

Winona Story

Goal

To give everyone a greater voice in decisions that affect the community, increase civic participation, and help encourage more input into solutions to local problems.

Winona Story

Held and event like this.

Contact information was collected.

Invitation to follow up meeting to discuss implementation in Winona.

Eight people attended & agreed to form a steering committee.

Email list created for organizing.

Winona Story

Created website with more detailed information, so that interested people could find out more.

Virtual Door Knocking.

Recruited local organizations to do virtual door knocking. (LWV, teachers’ union, city government, local universities) – 850 email addresses.

Winona Story

Endorsing Organizations & Founding Members to build credibility.

Offline recruitment: brochure, newspaper coverage, cable-access television, table events.

Launched with 106 members.

First topic: What are the three most important issues in the community?

Winona Story

Snapshot of First Eight Weeks

238 posts by 53 different authors. (4.5/day)

Participation included elected officials and government administrators.

Variety of Discussions, including:

Winona Story

Example Discussion Topics

Identifying dangerous intersections. (mayor)

Improving digital divide. (county human services)

Shortfalls in education funding, rebuilding historic courthouse, plans to increase railroad traffic.

Winona Story

Expanded to 230 people

Hosted mixed live/online events

National/International attention.

Our Approach

Leverage democratic information from government, media, political sectors

Open sharing of lessons, how-to

Open source software

Local up – do not colonize

Low cost – volunteer driven, shared infrastructure and org. identity

Start Up Overview

5-10 Person Steering Committee

Volunteer Forum Manager

Other participant roles

Recruit 100 initial participants

Open forum and facilitate

Enforce civility/scope rules

Form Steering Committee

A local “democracy committee”

based on the service club model – Lions, Rotary

Can form in association with related efforts

e.g. KAXE’s online community media initiative

Needs convening spirit

Key to community trust is a mix of public members not all part of one political faction

Drafting Your Charter

Two-three sentence description will determine scope, set tone for years

Longer charter is your local detailed description that guides the forum

Supported by universal E-Democracy.Org rules (terms of participation)

Use charter drafting to involve the community in a “what do we really want” conversation to ensure broad sense of ownership

Mapping Local Power

Recruitment to make the forum “matter” politically is essential, best upfront

Elected officials, community leaders, local journalists, active citizens

“ Average” citizens will not waste time in a forum that does not matter

Work from the “center” and avoid marginalization

Gives the deliberations reach and local agenda-setting power

Recruiting 100+ Members

Build it and they will NEVER come

Most similar efforts fail on recruitment not technology

One at a time – In-person recruitment, community events

Outreach - local media, “virtual door knocking”

Forum Facilitation

Forum manager guides the forum, enforces the rules

Selected and held accountable by local steering committee

Peer training/support with E-Democracy.Org’s network of forum managers

Issues Forum guidebook chapter, Minneapolis lessons:

http://e-democracy.org/if

Participant Roles

Readers – Active “listeners” are crucial to forum’s value

Opinionators – Everyday talkers, often have views on everything

Starters – Discussion starters, look for topics in the news, etc., ask questions

Seekers – Seek out and share community announcements, links to government agendas, documents, etc.

Goal – A mix, with 15-20% posting participation rate of registered users each month

Open the Forum

Introductions – Humanize forum with round of introductions

Seed Discussion Topics – If/as needed

Special Events in Forum – Guest speakers (Canterbury), State of the City Text/Video (St. Paul)

Build “e-citizen” skills of community overtime

Think long term, encourage sense of community ownership, value based on what people contribute not how they are served

Conclusion

What Makes Us Different

Many to many with real names and civility

Strength in people-based model and processes that allow us to adapt technologically

Agenda-setting – Real world pragmatic approach versus empowering citizens isolated from influence

Recruitment process leads to far deeper geographic participation that pure blogs or social networks

Technology choice – e-mail, web, blog feeds, future social network application

One final story …

Steven Clift posted humorously about the “public health risks of a large squirrel population” in the Minneapolis forum’s early days.

From Southwest Journal newspaper

by Martiga Lohn

Most days, mpls-issues is a substantive discussion of important public policy issues…

However … here are a few excerpts from this burning issue …

> Go to hardware store…buy trap…set track…kill squirrel. End of public policy question.

> Grab a trap and KILL the squirrel????????? Why must we destroy a living thing as a solution?

> Rocky and his friends are out of control. … If you want evidence, try to eat a sandwich on a bench in Loring Park.

> Quit telling people to move their nasty attack squirrels to wooded areas (i.e., Minneapolis parks) — we already have our fair share.

> I ran on an anti-squirrel platform for Student Legislature at Syracuse University in my freshman year in college. I promised to eradicate the nuisance squirrel population. It was my first election loss.

Squirrel Story

Conclusion

If this inspires you …

Let’s form a steering committee

Find a local forum manager

Draft a charter

Recruit 100 people

Open to dynamic and useful local public issue discussions online – any where, anytime participation

Change local democracy forever

Extra Slides

What Makes Us Different

Some comparisons

Blogs – Hyper-individualistic and more male, democratize national punditry more than empower locally – Our model equitable two-way conversation with greater female participation

Citizen media/online news – Vastly more expensive starting point per community – Our model create demand for better local news, brings stories to the surface

Social networks – Publicize private life – Our model make real geographic public life accessible anywhere, any time

Independent efforts – Often fail due to lack of knowledge or use of inappropriate technology – Our model is tried and tested over a decade with a shared network for support and proven technology that reduces volunteer burn-out and help local democracy online efforts launch successfully – That said we hope that for every community that joins our network, 10 other projects will learn from or be inspired by us including citizen media projects

Small Groups

Come up with a rule and a technology feature that would:

1. Increase the diversity of opinions

2. Increase participation by women/youth/older citizens – diversity of participants

3. Make posting by elected officials more likely

4. Increase respect for those with differing opinions, increase trust or civility among members

5. Help readers/posters find value more quickly

6. Move participants toward consensus or allow group to agree on what they disagree about

7. Avoid alienating political minorities while allowing majority positions to become known

8. Hold forum managers/hosts more accountable to their responsibilities

9. Troll group – List strategies for destroying an online community, technologies you prefer

Your Questions/Challenges

What do you need to know?

What are you concerned about?

Have you had a different experience you’d like to share?

There are 5 right ways and 95 wrong paths. How do you choose which is better?

Report Back

Small groups – Write down:

One rule

Best tech idea

Questions:

Top question

Best advice/example

Who makes a good Forum Manager?

Sincere belief in value of dialogue

Respect for diverse ideologies

Patience

Thick skin, can handle public criticism

People skills – easier to teach tech skills

Not intimidated by technology

Common sense approach to facilitation, ability to ask questions, guide diplomatically, act quickly when required

Time available, committed

Forum Management Tasks - 1

Keeping the space “safe” or civil for all participants

Encouraging/enforcing compliance with forum rules

Keeping discussions on topic (within scope or purpose of forum)

Rules

Rules summary - http://e-democracy.org/rules

1. Sign Posts - Use your real name.

2. Limits on Posting - Two per member per day in most forum charters.

3. Keep Topics within Forum Purpose - Local issues on a local forum, for example.

4. Be Civil - This is a public forum with real people. Respect among citizens with differing views is our cornerstone.

5. No Attacks or Threats - This keeps the forums safe. If content is illegal it will be forwarded to the proper legal authorities.

6. Private Stays Private - Don't forward private replies without permission.

7. Avoid False Rumors - Asking for clarification of what you've heard in the community can be appropriate if issues-based. You alone are responsible for what you post.

8. Right to Post and Reply - Sharing your knowledge and opinions with your fellow citizens is a democratic right.

9. Items Not Allowed in Forums - No attachments, etc.

10. Public Content and Use - You are sharing your content, but you retain your copyright.

11. Warnings - You may receive informal or official warnings from the Forum Manager.

12. Suspension - With your second official warning in one year, you are suspended for two weeks. It goes up from there.

13. Appeals Process - You can appeal a warning(s) once you receive a third warning and six-month removal. About one in 1,500 forum members each year have appealed a six-month removal in past years.