International ePaticipation and Local Democracy Symposium

I will be attending (and presenting) at the International eParticipation and Local Democracy Symposium on 28/29 February. I will be joining Diane Downey (Assistant Corporate Head of ICT - Delivery, Sunderland City Council), Richard Wilson (MD of Involve) and Matt Rhodes (Head of Research, FreshNetworks) in a joint session entitled "Citizen Empowerment: Where do we begin?"  Full agenda here. Download symposium_agenda.doc

I'm anticipating (nay - hoping) the session will stimulate some discussion on the apparent dichotomy between empowering citizens to engage with central and local government whilst at the same time disenfranchising citizens through lack of consultation prior to the introduction of bi-laws and regulations. The proposed increase to congestion charges in London is a typical example (and I have no hidden agenda here, since I neither live in or use a car to commute to London).

I will also touch on the success of the communities of practice in local government as an example of how staff working in local councils are empowering themselves to improve services - quite often without the knowledge or understanding of their respective Chief Executives!

It should be an interesting couple of days.

Comments

[Matthew]

This does sound like an interesting event and I hope that the multitude of speakers does not prevent serious discussion on this important topic.

I am a firm believer (and participant!) in local democracy but despite all the recent emphasis on government becoming more customer-centric, I have seen little change and most "communication" is still one-way, patronizing and self-congratulatory.

Technology, e.g. web 2.0, offers a real chance to broaden and deepen the dialog between government and citizens (and between citizens) but government needs to rise to the challenge.

[Steve Dale]

Matthew,

thank you for your comments. Absolutely agree on all your points! However, government is not an agile beast, and similar to turning an oil tanker, it will take a while before we see any visible evidence of it changing course. I'm hopeful though!