On Saturday I was (almost) gobsmacked when I saw "WebCameron". Not the site itself, just the fact that the Guardian decided to run with the story as it’s front page lead. Then tonight we saw the launch and electoral success of the Purple Alliance led by The Amazing Mrs. Pritchard Read more…
Last week I flew to Budapest to take part in the International e-Participation and Local Democracy Symposium. 3 days of hotel air-conditioning and PowerPoint presentations. Joy. Griff Wigley and a few others kept a blog through the event and I hope to be able to contribute to it soon. It Read more…
Congratulations to Stephen Hilton from Bristol City Council consultation team who won BT Innovator of the Year in the Government Computing Awards. A Gallomanor project, CampaignCreator, seemed to feature as part of the reason for winning, but overall I imagine it’s Stephen’s attitude of "Do it until someone tells you Read more…
Last week I was invited to speak to a Citizenship Co-ordinators Network event in Bristol. It was held at a City Learning Centre at Brislington College and the facilities were superb and, judging by the number of students who tried to get into the computer room where we were meeting, Read more…
The Audit Commission announced last week a new toolkit designed to help councils benchmark their success in engaging their community. The press release is a little short on the detail of what the toolkit consists of but the aims are clear and worthy.
A cracking idea from the Conservative Party. Supporters (or not) can send in their 30 sec clip about how they would improve their local environment and the best will feature in one of the Conservative Party election broadcasts. Excellent way of involving people. For it to truly work though they Read more…
As part of the launch of The Electoral Commission and Hansard Society’s Audit of Political Engagement 3 there was an event at Portcullis House last night. A full house got to hear the offerings from: Sam Younger (Chair) – Chairman of the Electoral Commission Dr. Philip Parvin – Hansard Society Read more…
Tomorrow, Friday 10th March see the launch of a project that we initiated 15 months ago by inviting Bristol City Council to jointly pitch for funding from the ODPM e-Innovations fund. CampaignCreator was conceived as a way of levelling the playing field of community voices. Many grassroot campaigning groups were Read more…
Cllr Bob Piper, the author of one of the more entertaining councillor blogs, wrote a very interesting post about loyalty to the "party" a couple of days ago. I think it must be weighing on his mind because today he follows up with another post on the relevance of political Read more…
The Local Democracy Campaign kicks is being officially launched on Monday 27th February in the Terrace Pavilion at the House of Commons. We’ll have the pleasure of hearing three MP: Ed Miliband, Charles Hendry and Sarah Teather and hopefully the Solent People’s Theatre singing one of their ditties from "Who Read more…