Julian Bowrey, Divisional and Programme Manager, Local e-Government Division, was challenged by young people from London schools to play the e-Democracy Games, which offer young people a fun way to learn about campaigning, being a councillor and managing a council budget. The new products are aimed at communities, councillors and councils to encourage local participation. A website aimed at the over-50s, e-panels, e-petitioning and a partnership with the BBC’s iCAN website are enabling people to use the internet to ask questions, lobby their local council and give their views through consultation.
Phil Hope MP, minister for e-Government said: "The local e-Democracy National Project has developed many and varied ways of using technology to engage people in community issues. I am looking forward to seeing the pilot products being rolled-out over the next twelve months and councils incorporating them into every-day communication with their citizens."
Aims for the Local e-Democracy National Project The Local e-Democracy National Project aims to deliver to local authorities an e-democracy toolkit - a range of new and enhanced tools and techniques to implement e-democracy encourage participation including:
- better ways ensure the inclusion of particular groups
- a strategy guide - e-democracy with information on funding, tactics and strategies for implementing e-democracy in different types of authority
- a self assessment toolkit - enabling councils to measure their progress against a national baseline public opinion research
- a knowledge pool - to enable easy access to all products, learn from case studies and the offer the opportunity to join an online community of practice.
The key benefits of the project are: better decision-making; increased participation and stronger bonds between the citizen, their council and their representative.
Local e-Democracy projects include:
- Online surgeries for young people with councillors/MPs
- National councillors database
- E-enabled citizens' panels
- E-petitioning
- Websites for 50+
- SMS broadcasting about local government activities
- Mobile phone e-democracy games for young people
- E-Democracy icons to make e-democracy websites more accessible for those with disabilities
Quelle: Publictechnology, 10.03.2005
