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Issues Forum Pilot Project |
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| Pilot Cities Open Brighton & Hove -- Forum Messages Newham -- Forum Messages Project Products Local Issues Forum Guidebook - 50 page "How to" PDF, also in Word format GroupServer - Open source e-mail/web forum platform, including our new forums server E-Democracy Experience - Videos and animations LiftOff Online Group - Review our communication, join us. Minneapolis Issues Forum Article - An honest and inside account Press Release - The national UK version Start an Issues Forum - Newly updated, 10 steps article E-Democracy Factory - For draft documents and raw materials - our open working style In-Person Sign-up Form Template - Word
The UK
pilot forums are supported by the UK E-Democracy National Project. Each citizen-based forum is organized and led by local steering committee and volunteer Forum Manager(s). The
forums themselves are officially a part of
E-Democracy.Org, a not-for-profit community organization based in
Minnesota. UK
local authorities, local citizens, and/or community associations
interested in forming official E-Democracy.Org-based or independent
Issues Forums may do so for at least one year after the initial pilot
phase closes on March 15, 2005. Based
on the pilot experience we welcome any interest in expanding Issues
Forums across the UK and beyond. Contact us with your
ideas. |
Pilot Project Notes For continuing coverage of our UK efforts, see our UK section of our project blog.29 AUG 2005 - Awards and Nominations, Upcoming Visit to UK E-Democracy's
Issues Forums will receive an honourable mention in the Ars Prix Electronica
awards in Linz, Austria in early September. We are also among
the twenty
finalists for the "The Top 10 Who Are Changing the World of Internet
and Politics." You can vote for us if you like.
In the week of September 12, both Tim Erickson and Steven Clift of E-Democracy.Org will be in the UK. We will be meeting with local forum communities and presenting on Issues Forums to a couple communities. This will feed into a likely Phase 2 of the UK Local e-Democracy National Project in conjuntion with the E-Panel work of Bristol. 21 JUN 2005 - London Presentation, International Local E-Democracy Symposium The audio
from the Issues Forum event in London is available along
with the Issues Forum presentation slides. We recommend
that you use headphones. We recorded the event with one "border
mic" and used the Democaster.Org pilot to webcast
live and on-demand.
Issues Forums will be on display at the International Local E-Democracy Symposium in Minneapolis, Minnesota on July 26-27. This event is being sponsored by the UK Office of the Deputy Prime Minister and the UK Local E-Democracy National Project - the funders of the Issues Forum pilots in the UK. 2 MAY 2005 - Outcomes, Issues Forum Meeting June 6, London While the
pilot phase is complete, our non-profit, citizen-based efforts
continue. If any group of citizens or a local authority in the UK
would like to start a new Issues Forums, you have come to the right
place. First gather some information, join our
online group for forum builders and supports, and tell us about your
community and interests.
7 MAR 2005 - Brighton & Hove Opens, Final documents Brighton & Hove opened with a bang last
Friday. A number of citizens were ready to post the minute it
opened. The first councillor, Sue Paskins, posted on the
second day replying to a citizen query on garbage incineration. As a
citizen-to-citizen forum, elected officials aren't obligated to post,
but it is a great sign that they are engaging the community so early on
the forum. Catch up with the forum
posts here. In Newham, the important introductions which
humanize a forum are continuing. Tim Erickson summarized
a number of diverse issues members suggested they hope to discuss.
Work on the final versions of project documents continues. Today we released a new article by Minneapolis Forum Manager, David Brauer, titled, "The well-built online forum: How Minneapolis boosted civic involvement and social change." 1 MAR 2005 - Newham Open, GroupServer's Quiet Release Newham opened over the weekend. Introductions
are starting to bring life to the forum. This is a crucial stage
where members help set the tone for the forum and people begin to get a
sense of the reach of this many-to-many forum.
GroupServer's first code release is now available for the technically inclined. We will be promoting GroupServer more widely later in March. E-Democracy's GroupServer notes page provides further details. 23 Feb 2005 - Opening for posting any day Newham and Brighton & Hove met our requirement
for 100 charter participants - they are still recruiting toward their
own goals of 200. These aren't just web site visitors, we are
talking registered forum users.
From this
base, the forums will only grow when the open for postings any
day. Tim Erickson is posting daily "Recruit-O-Meter" updates in
our Liftoff
forum. We expect posting to open any day!
Press alert - we received coverage on BBC Online - Why democracy begins with "e." this week ... very exciting. We've popped up elsewhere as well. 15 Feb 2005 - Generating national press attention Our national press release was approved by the
national project and ODPM press office, so please help spread our national press release
far and wide. Local versions will also be circulating. We encourage
media outlets to contact the local pilots for the authentic grassroots
story of e-democracy in action. The press release also highlights our use of the new open source
GroupServer tool, one of our project deliverables that will bring
down the cost of hosting online forums that actually work for people.
6 Feb 2005 - Brighton & Hove and Newham Launch this Week We
are putting the final touches on our press release and Tim Erickson is
busy tweaking the details with our GroupServer forums.e-democracy.org
installation. The launch of the forums will start with wide media and
one-by-one recruitment to bring in initial members. Citizens will
now be able to directly subscribe to the forums.
The forums will open for postings once they reach their essential recruitment goals. We've designed new Brighton & Hove and Newham start pages. Let us know if we missed any important community links or other local online forums that we can help promote. As work on the multimedia experience continues, we've taken a bit of the why join text out of the guidebook and put it on the website. 24 Jan 2005 - UK pilots progressing, big splash during pilot launch week Visits to Brighton, Newham, and Blackburn generated a real buzz. We met and/or shared presentations with citizens, government officials, and local civic groups. Check our LiftOff forum for details. Forums in Brighton and Newham are entering their recruitment phase. They both decided to double our required 100 participants for a forum opening and shoot for 200 initial members. 3 Jan 2005 - Issues Forum Resource Guide Offer your
input on the E-Democracy.Org
Local Issues Forum Guidebook.
The forums for Brighton & Hove and Newham will
likely open first with Blackburn and Melksham following along later in
the pilot phase. Work on the charters is progressing in each
community. The forums have been technically established and recruitment
will start soon. At this point Steven Clift and Tim Erickson with
E-Democracy.Org will be visiting Brighton and Newham together early in
the week. Tim Erickson will then head up to Blackburn.
Anyone interested in our efforts are encouraged to create an account (use your firstlastname lower case and for now ignore the optional user name line) and join the LiftOff group. We
now have five pilot communities starting our
development process. Our goal was one or two. We will be
busy. The steering committees are being formed and the charters
established.
You can watch in on the Local Issues Forum Team and Other Friends and Folks or LiftOff group via our new GroupServer technology. It smartly combines e-mail lists and web forums in a usable and equitable manner. If you would like to promote the development of Issues Forums anywhere, you can join the LiftOff group. Simply send us a note via our web form. We've also gathered a boat load of background material in the E-Democracy Factory, the place where we build e-democracy together. Now
that our Project Initiation Document has been approved
by the UK Local E-democracy
National Project, E-Democracy.Org is now reaching out to potential
pilot communities. In short, we need to identify the two or three
top candidate communities for pilot Issues Forums within a few
weeks.
We are distributing an e-mail to our many contacts in the UK to see what emerges from the grassroots. Our model works where there is authentic citizen interest and where we can identify a Forum Manager and a small citizen steering committee. Communities that cannot organize themselves quickly enough will need to wait until after March 2005 to join our efforts post-pilot phase. We encourage interested citizens and Local Authorities to read the short Start an Issues Forum article and to send us their contact information. An e-mail list for interested parties will soon be created for project involvement. You may also contact Pilot Outreach lead Steven Clift directly. |
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