I’m off next Wednesday to Budapest for the eDemocracy Symposium. Apparently there is a good turnout expected with over 300 delegates booked. I doubt they will all turn up to hear me speak about using new technology to reach out to new young people but as I’m sharing the platform Read more
LifeSwap has achieved some form of national recognition with an article in today’s SocietyGuardian covering the event. The article is extremely positive and sums up the advantages of the event far better than I can, but essentially it says that it changes attitudes by bringing councillors and young people closer Read more
It put a huge smile on my face when Cumbria County Council phoned us up today to say that they want to participate in I’m a Councillor, Get me out of here, and that they’ve had 66 schools interested in taking part, out of which they had to choose 20.
Today sees the launch of BeaconLifeSwap. This is a spin off from LifeSwap where 21 young people from seven Beacon councils were invited to tell us about "my life: my community" through photos and captions using mobile phone cameras kindly supplied by O2. The eight Beacon Councils are expected to Read more
The sharp-eyed amongst you will have noticed a little extra eye-candy today. This site now sports a bright yellow button that links through to the page showing how people can get involved in the Local Democracy Campaign. The aim is to get as many people displaying the button as possible. Read more
It is a big couple of weeks for the LifeSwap project. What started as a small project to help Councillors understand a little more about the lives of the more vulnerable young people in their care is about to get a lot bigger. Yesterday we saw copies of an excellent Read more
The Edge, "the newspaper on youth work and youth affairs for local authority elected members from The National Youth Agency", have published a very nice article (page 7) about LifeSwap. One correction is needed from the article – the next LifeSwap won’t be Mids-Beds at the end of June. It Read more
The Russell Commission is moving on. Yesterday, the vwell funded charity recommended by Russell was launched. It is called v and their website is at www.wearev.com. It is a vnice website and vwell branded. At the moment the site is about providing information about the organisation and I’m sure over 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