empowerment symposium – Part I

I went to barcamp and the online noise about it was deafening.  I went to the Social Media CoP Big Day out and the blogging about it was swift and detailed.  I went the 2006 International e-Participation & Local Democracy Symposium and the blogging was in depth, immediate, and analytical.  I went to the 2008 International e-participation symposium last week and the silence is eerie.  So perhaps I can make up for it a little.

I missed the first plenary session.  Sorry Ms Blears, but I figured your speech would be online and that little opportunity for discussion would take place.

Next stop was online campaigning: Mary Reid, James Crabtree, David Speirs and Steve Webb all had things to say.  James Crabtree had some very useful insights into the current US cutting edge and Steve Webb proved he is one of the more engaging politicians both online and in front of an audience.  If only more could ditch the pre-prepared speech with amusing anecdotes from yesteryear.

The afternoon saw blogging being discussed by Matthew Ellis, Iain Dale, Andrew Brown, Stephen Tall and finally Luke Akehurst.  All fine but I felt sorry for Luke as the others had covered the points long before.  As usual too little time for discussion.

Preparation for the session I was involved in (more later) meant missing most of the afternoon plenary apart from Michael Cross posing one of the few challenges for the conference:  Where should the line between Govt providing services that the private sector can supply be drawn and who should draw the line?  Michael’s uncertain answer to the first (let private sector provide waht it can but perhaps not in e-participation…) reflected that the required discussion has not taken place, but he proposed the answer to his second should be the Advisory Panel on Public Sector Information.

The day finished with the results of the ICELE awards.