Local e_Democracy National Project

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Local e_Democracy National Project

• Harnessing the power of new technology to
  encourage participation between election time
• Jane Ratford
• St Albans City and District Council
• Pete Thomson
• Wolverhampton City Council
• Barbican Expo, April 2005

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Local eDemocracy National Project

• 4m development programme
• Involving over 20 LAs
• - delivering112 products from 20 pilots for
• councillors, councils and communities
• 2005/06 - 500,000 marketing and dissemination
• Smaller package of products
• Product refinement
• Benefits analysis
• Inform policy development

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Democratic challenges..

• Decline in turn out in local and national
  elections
• - 39 of under 25s voted in general election
• - 59 of eligible electorate voted in general
  election
• Fall in trust and reputation of politicians
• But citizens are interested in issues and their
  communities
• - 67 want to have more of a say in the way
  country is run
• - 81 are interested in their local communities

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Need to change the way we do things..

• 11.7m citizens online in the UK
• - 50 of households connected increases to 70
  with children present
• 90 of under 25s use the internet
• 80 of under 25s use computer games
• Society is changing
• Less deferential
• More horizontal communication
• Government policy drivers
• - E-Government targets
• - Community leadership engagement

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Harnessing the power of new technology...

• Our aims
• Participation - between election times
• Strategies - for making a case
• Tools - develop and test
• Complementing and strengthening - democratic
  structures and processes
• Focal point - for democratic innovation
• Access - overcome barriers to participation
• Dissemination - of learning best practice

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Future edemocracy landscape

• For councillors and councils
• All councillors with a website/blog
• E-surgeries
• E-consultation offering email alerts
• For citizens and communities
• Contact representative by email
• E-petitioning
• Webcasting council and community meetings
• Citizen fora BBC iCan Issues Forums

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The benefits of the National Project

• Local e-government minister,
• Phil Hope
• I like the idea of being able to engage with
  young people. Im absolutely convinced that will
  improve turnout.
• This means improving the breadth, depth and
  quality of interactions between officers,
  councillors and members of the community
• This will lead to
• Better decision-making
• Increased participation
• Stronger bonds between the citizen, their council
  and their representatives

Democratic Renewal
Communities
Councils
Councillors
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How our projects support democratic renewal
Communities

• Issues forum
• E-Democracy Games

• Microdemocracy
• Citizen Panels
• E-moderation

• National Councillor Database
• Weblogging

• BBC iCan
• E-Dem icons

• Online Surgeries
• Webcasting

Councils
Councillors

E-demtoolkit

• Research into councillors website needs and legal
  guidance

• Baseline Survey
• Evaluation
• Funding Database
• Case Studies

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Products for young people...

• E-Dem Games computer games in the context of
  democracy
• - Money Manager budget prioritisation
• - Councillor Quest using avatars to identify
  with a councillor character
• - Captain Campaign run a democratic campaign
• Available on CD Rom mobile phones
• website www.demgames.org.uk

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Playtime benefits .

• Interactive
• -narrative
• -goals
• -rewards
• -problems solving
• -opportunity to win
• Used in the school environment basis for
  further discussion/other activities
• Councils can customise
• Entertaining

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Playtime benefits_the research

• 75 peer sessions - 196 young people
• Online survey 100 respondents
• 11-19 year olds
• Products Games Visible Voices Online Surgeries
  
• Q Would you take part in these activities?
• Interactive games 66
• Questionnaires 56
• Bulletin board 41
• Live chats (other young people) 37
• Live chats (politicians) 12

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Paths to participation

• Motivate
• Access to information
• Feeling strongly about issue
• Interested in issue, especially what happens next
• Wanting to have an impact
• Easy to participate
• Positive experience

• Barrier
• No information on issue
• No emotional involvement
• No interest
• Cynical about individual impact
• Negative past experiences
• Finding it difficult to get involved

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Products for councillors .

• For community leadership engagement.
• - LGA councillors database syndicated to all
  LAs
• - Research on councillors websites what works
  how officers can encourage and support
• - Legal guidance on websites and other
  e-democracy issues
• - Blogging authentic communication?

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Weblogs for civic leadership engagement

• Online diary - to inform, educate and start a
  conversation
• Group of officers and councillors - coaching and
  encouragement
• Communicates to citizens that people at their
  local authority may be more open to ideas,
  suggestions and feedback than they assumed. It
  brings a voice of authenticity, with a dash of
  personality, to typically stagnant, impersonal
  websites, Griff Wigley, blogging coach from
  Minnesota.
• Open to all interested in civic leadership
• Sponsored by Hansard Society
• www.readmyday.co.uk

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Civic blogging

• Aims
• Educate on public policy
• Promote community organisations
• Enhance citizens understanding of local
  government
• Praise employees, elected representatives,
  citizens
• Personalise put a face on the faceless
  bureaucrat
• Unique features
• Authoring commitment to update
• Linking network potential
• Commenting dialogue potential
• Advantages over websites
• Easy to get started
• Many products in the market

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Evaluation

• Bloggers verdict
• I do want to present a human face to the
  residents of
• my ward over local issues. I also want to give
  some
• background beyond the headlines. I hope it will
  also
• encourage debate.
• Issues frequency feedback/comments
  communicating
• Fifteen online jurors recruited to
  monitor/evaluate
• Six respondents would return
• He highlighted some issues that modern society
  faces, which is something Im interested in.
• Nine less positive
• I dont see the relevance for me.

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Single view of the benefits
Communities

• Better informed
• Willing to initiate public engagement, campaigns
• Recognises value of engagement as citizens

• More responsive to public involvement

• Better casework

• Better access (24/7)

• Better at community leadership

• Increased engagement

• Better understandingof role

• More inclusive

• Better ward representation

• Increased trust

• Increased trust

• Higher Profile

• Higher turnout

Councils
Councillors

• More responsive to Councillor input

• Better understood and easier to manage democratic
  processes
• More transparent, accountable and auditable
• More responsive and welcoming of democratic input

• More effective councillors as managers of the
  council and representatives of wards

• Better governance of council business
• Better scrutiny function

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Micro Democracy

• Developing Citizen Engagement in Swindon Borough
  Council

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The problem

• Consultation exercises often achieve a response
  of 3 - 5
• Many citizens are not engaged with local
  democracy and feel it has little relevance to
  them
• Turnout continues to decline in purely local
  elections
• Swindon Central ward by-election in January 2004
  19

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The objective of Micro Democracy

• Making engagement and consultation personal,
  relevant and timely so that citizens feel their
  opinions are both valued and valuable

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Components of Micro Democracy

• Co-ordination of consultation
• Built around communities
• Focused and personal questionnaires
• Feedback to participants

Engage
Identify
Consult
Feedback
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Personalisation
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Information and demonstration site

• www.microdemocracy.co.uk

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Expected benefits

• Value for money
• Cost per response
• Control of overheads
• Avoid repetition of questions
• More timely engagement
• Extra channel for communication
• Developing democratic engagement
• Encouraging community cohesion

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Actual benefits so far

• Software operational
• Response rate to first consultation gt70
• Strong demand for further consultations from both
  officers and Members
• Interest from other councils

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Project outputs

• Licence free software
• Case study
• How to guidance

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How the outputs will be presented
Strategy Development
Process
Implementation
Evaluation
The strategy guide
The e-democracy toolkit
The self assessment toolkit
Product

• The tools and information a LA needs to design a
  sustainable e-democracy strategy

• The menu of tools and products an LA needs to
  implement the key components of its e-democracy
  strategy

• A toolkit and national baseline so a council can
  evaluate progress

Description
Knowledge Pool The website (e-democracy.gov.uk)
will provide access to a range of information and
research to support the key products
All outputs accredited by a team of evaluation
experts
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Where to find the outputswww.e_democracy.gov.uk
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Group work

• Youve heard about the products
• What are the issues?
• - Cost?
• - Access?
• - Support?

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Local edemocracy National Project

• Thank you for listening
• Your questions?

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Contact me

• Jane Ratford,
• Public Relations
• St Albans City and District Council
• tel [phone]
• j.ratford_at_stalbans.gov.uk
• mob [phone]