There’s still several months to go before Local Democracy Week and the final deadline for signing up for I’m a Councillor, Get me out of Here!, but we’ve got a record-breaking 24 councils signed up so far – a lot of them returners from last year, who we’re glad to Read more…
Sam Smith of Disruptive Proactivity, mySociety and other projects has launched a new site this week that provides a comparison of what the UN, the WhiteHouse and No. 10 say on any particular subject. A fine example of how official information is being chopped up and re-presented in ways that Read more…
Richard Pope has released a Beta version of a site I’ve wanted to produce for a while. www.planningalerts.com uses planning application data published by local councils to alert people to planning application within a specified radius of their home (or other postcode they specify). The radius can be checked on Read more…
I often tell people, when I’m talking about I’m a Councillor, that it’s definitely a two way thing. It’s not just about young people learning more about local democracy (as if they are empty vessels that just need filling up by clever grown-up). It’s also about local democracy (in the Read more…
I’ve been given the chance to post on the ICELE blog about the Budapest Conference. This is what I wrote: I’ve now caught up on my sleep from Budapest, but not my thoughts. I have two over-riding themes left over from the event. Firstly was listening to Etienne Chouard speak Read more…
One of the discussions that should have occurred at the event is now happening on the blog of the lovely Antonia Bance. I met Antonia at the event. She is a Councillor in Oxford, new to the job and comes across as really passionate about what she believes in. She’s 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…
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…