I saw this press release yesterday and it’s had a bit of take-up from the press. Sadly, none of the coverage that I’ve seen has addressed what seems to me to be a serious and interesting – though problematic – proposal. I’ll be writing something myself over the next few days, but in the meantime, [...]
Posts under ‘Democratic renewal’
Democratic, decentralised and difficult
I attended an interesting seminar yesterday afternoon, hosted by the 2020 Public Services Trust. The topic was the future of citizen-centred public services. The two principal speakers both brought innovative ideas and a real vision, which is more than can be said for a lot of these public policy seminars. Ben Jupp, from the Cabinet [...]
Usability, council websites and the obligation to promote democracy
It seems that The Electoral Commission have decided that it is a basic human right for us to have ballot papers that make sense to us. Usability – not just regulatory box-ticking is, it seems the key here (I posted on ballot design here a while ago) Measuring usability may also be the key to [...]
Designing your environment
Just a short observation, in the light of Matthew Taylor’s post about the RSA’s work in Chelmsford that is being launched today. “….a vision for the town centre must be based on a rich understanding of how people see and use the area and how they might be willing to change that view if the [...]
Don’t worry about the middle classes
Much of the comment about the new Pew Internet and Civic Engagement Survey has been around its finding that wealthy and well-networked people are the most likely to participate in civic activities online. The already-engaged, in other words, are the beneficiaries of much engagement work. I don’t think we should worry too much about that. [...]
Reconfiguring journalism and political discourse
Sometimes, a book review provokes a response that is worth reading even if you can’t afford the time / cash to read the book itself. Here’s an example from Charlie Becket’s verygood Polis blog reviewing ‘The Myth of Digital Democracy’ by Matthew Hindman: “…the US obsession with the political blogosphere distracted people from the much [...]
Strengthening local democracy, kinda
I’ve just read through the new Strengthening Local Democracy Green Paper, and I can’t sum it up better than Talking Heads did in their 1977 hit, Psycho Killer. Not the refrain “better run, run, run, run away”, but the verse: You start a conversation you can’t even finish. You’re talking a lot, but you’re not [...]
Twitter – love it / hate it???
Yes – I’m new here – I think Paul asked me as we have been having a falling out about Petitions over on my blog and he likes an argument. You can find out more about me there obviously but probably the most relevant fact is that I am currently researching for a PHD around [...]
To the barricades!
The #rebootbritain hashtag on Twitter went haywire on Monday as over 700 people attended the event – I spent over an hour on Tuesday night searching through it and the earliest session I could get to in that time was a 4pm one – it actually challenged #michaeljackson for prominence on Twitter’s trending indicator. Because [...]
Transparency – sticking plaster or panacea?
MySociety‘s Tom Steinberg has, for some years, been urging government to adapt some of the lessons that successful websites have learned. Here he is, writing one of the Reboot Britain essays serialised in The Independent. “….most people are …familiar with Amazon’s ability to tell you that “people who bought this also bought that”, and increasingly [...]
