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E-Democracy

E-Democracy. Tony Fleming IM and E-Government London Borough of Lewisham. Teaching points. Don’t know your PeDiL from your iCan? Did you think that ‘Brain’ only meant the thing between your ears? Do you think that ‘Iediss’ was an ancient Egyptian god? If so, read on…

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E-Democracy

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  1. E-Democracy Tony Fleming IM and E-Government London Borough of Lewisham tony.fleming@lewisham.gov.uk 020 8314 6615

  2. Teaching points • Don’t know your PeDiL from your iCan? • Did you think that ‘Brain’ only meant the thing between your ears? • Do you think that ‘Iediss’ was an ancient Egyptian god? If so, read on… Every major election includes a comment on low electorate turnout and the weak link between the British people and politicians. As a result, we now have a multitude of mainly web based projects to make it easier to engage in debate, find out what our political masters are up to and campaign on local issues. But with these ‘solutions’ there are a host of questions: Are we focussing on the symptom or the cause? What exactly *is* being done? What can we point to as a working example and the most important question ‘Will people even be interested?’ This is a whistlestop tour through the current e-democracy projects around the country and an examination of some of the issues that have sprung up around the concept of e-democracy. If you want to find out more and (more importantly) the answers to the first three questions, come along!! tony.fleming@lewisham.gov.uk 020 8314 6615

  3. Overview • Background to Lewisham’s IM and E-Gov department • Current situation • A definition of e-democracy • Current projects (not-exhaustive!) • Problems with e-democracy • Any questions • But first… tony.fleming@lewisham.gov.uk 020 8314 6615

  4. A disclaimer • Views expressed during this presentation are my own and are not necessarily the views of the London Borough of Lewisham. tony.fleming@lewisham.gov.uk 020 8314 6615

  5. Background to the IM and E-Gov Team tony.fleming@lewisham.gov.uk 020 8314 6615

  6. Current situation tony.fleming@lewisham.gov.uk 020 8314 6615

  7. Where we are • Remote bureaucracies • Opaque decision-making structures • Fragmented local services and accountability • Declining participation in traditional institutions • Rise of single issue politics tony.fleming@lewisham.gov.uk 020 8314 6615

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  10. Where we want to be “‘Strong democracy’ requires strong and interactive links between state and civil society, between government and the governed ….. We have the prospect of national and local governments interacting with citizens via web sites, e-mail addresses and public information kiosks. We also have experiments with electronic voting, electronic voter guides, citizen juries and the like.” Source: Hague and Loader, Digital Democracy tony.fleming@lewisham.gov.uk 020 8314 6615

  11. Drivers • Need to re-establish link between people and government. • Reclaim legitimacy of representative democracy • But these aren’t the only drivers… tony.fleming@lewisham.gov.uk 020 8314 6615

  12. Priority Service Outcomes A list of 14 key areas that the ODPM has marked for special attention e.g. Transport, Community Information, Environment etc. Each with its own objectives and deadlines Central government funding depends on results Key areas with an e-democracy slant are Community Information, Democratic Renewal and Accessibility tony.fleming@lewisham.gov.uk 020 8314 6615

  13. Priority Service Outcomes • Priority Outcome 2 - Community Information • Enable local organisations to create & maintain online content • Priority Outcome 3 - Democratic Renewal • Councillors own web pages • Online citizen participation in consultations • Online access to past council meeting papers and a diary of future meetings • Priority Outcome 12 - Accessibility • Conforms to W3C AA standards • Conforms to Dublin Core & e-GMS and metadata standards tony.fleming@lewisham.gov.uk 020 8314 6615

  14. A definition of e-democracy tony.fleming@lewisham.gov.uk 020 8314 6615

  15. E-democracy • Facilitate participation e.g. voting and discussion fora • Broaden participation for people felt to be excluded from the process • Deepen participation – make dealing with government more than a ‘tick in the box’ every 5 years Source: ‘in the service of democracy’ - HMG (2002) Application of information and communication technologies (ICT) to the do the following: tony.fleming@lewisham.gov.uk 020 8314 6615

  16. E-voting – pilots so far • 2000 – 3 e-voting/counting pilots • 2002 – 9 e-voting pilots, individual ward based • 2003 – 17 e-voting pilots, whole LA areas, 25% votes cast were cast electronically • 2004 – no e-voting, postal voting in the North and E Midlands. tony.fleming@lewisham.gov.uk 020 8314 6615

  17. Projects tony.fleming@lewisham.gov.uk 020 8314 6615

  18. Some of the current e-democracy projects • BRAIN – from the London Borough of Brent • DirectGov – ‘son of UK Online’ • PeDil – Practical eDemocracy in London • IEDISS – NE London Consortium • Councillor.Info – Councillor webpages • BBC iCan – fully interactive - encourages publishing campaigns with online voting to support or oppose, comment on articles etc • Local e-Democracy National Project – ODPM funded tony.fleming@lewisham.gov.uk 020 8314 6615

  19. BRAIN – LB Brent tony.fleming@lewisham.gov.uk 020 8314 6615

  20. What is BRAIN? • BRAIN (Brent Resource and Information Network) is a community website for people who live and work in Brent. • Launched in 1998. Redeveloped in 2004. • Separate from Council website. • Information on local services. • www.brentbrain.org.uk tony.fleming@lewisham.gov.uk 020 8314 6615

  21. BRAIN’s support for e-democracy • Online Polls – updated every month and used to assess public opinion on local issues • Chat forums – participation from a diverse community – councillors have already started joining in… tony.fleming@lewisham.gov.uk 020 8314 6615

  22. BRAIN Homepage Quick Poll – monthly polls on local issues Open Chat forums for anyone to chat online tony.fleming@lewisham.gov.uk 020 8314 6615

  23. BRAIN - Quick Online Polls 77% of people don’t know any of their own councillors! tony.fleming@lewisham.gov.uk 020 8314 6615

  24. BRAIN – Chat Forums tony.fleming@lewisham.gov.uk 020 8314 6615

  25. DirectGov • The successor to “uk online” • Still part of the national core infrastructure for egovernment • Accessible via Sky’s digital service/DigiTV tony.fleming@lewisham.gov.uk 020 8314 6615

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  29. PeDiL (Practical e-Democracy in London) • ODPM project based in Camden but managed by London Connects. • Hosts web sites for community groups, citizens' panels, and online tools to help councillors interact more effectively with the public. • See live version at www.camdennet.org.uk tony.fleming@lewisham.gov.uk 020 8314 6615

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  33. IEDISS • Integrated Electronic Democracy Information and Support Service. • Project run for the NE London Consortium (Barking & Dagenham, Newham, Redbridge, Tower Hamlets, Havering and Waltham Forest), • Programme managed by RSe Consulting. • LB Lewisham asked to assist. • Deliverables included an A-Z of local government and category list. • http://moderngov.newham.gov.uk tony.fleming@lewisham.gov.uk 020 8314 6615

  34. A-Z of local government tony.fleming@lewisham.gov.uk 020 8314 6615

  35. Category List tony.fleming@lewisham.gov.uk 020 8314 6615

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  38. Usability testing • Needed validation from members of the public • Testing done by Usability Works Ltd. • Demo website of a fictitious borough “London Borough of Spitalfields” • www.usabilityworks.co.uk tony.fleming@lewisham.gov.uk 020 8314 6615

  39. And now, a film… tony.fleming@lewisham.gov.uk 020 8314 6615

  40. Councillor.info • Developed by Poptel Technologies • Allows councillors to develop their own web presence • Governed by an “acceptable use policy” • Provides online web statistics and discussion forum with other users tony.fleming@lewisham.gov.uk 020 8314 6615

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  42. BBC’s iCAN • Created following the 2001 General Election • Act as a guide and a focus point for personal campaigning • Three broad categories • Find information – category list covering major areas. Details on relevant campaigns and organisations • Find people - get help with campaigning – MPs, councillors and pressure groups. • Take action – publicise events, ask for/offer help, advice on campaigning • http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/ican/ tony.fleming@lewisham.gov.uk 020 8314 6615

  43. BBC Ican tony.fleming@lewisham.gov.uk 020 8314 6615

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  45. Local e-Democracy National Project • £4m budget • Timescale - deliver by December 2004 • Participants (Surrey, Wolverhampton, Leicester, St. Albans, Sheffield, N Lincolnshire, Kingston, Lewisham, Leeds, Kirklees, Southwark and Bristol) tony.fleming@lewisham.gov.uk 020 8314 6615

  46. Workstreams • Developing the e-democracy environment (De Montfort University) • Strengthening existing democratic practices (Wolverhampton, Surrey) • Addressing the democratic deficit (Lewisham) • Public opinion and e-democracy (Bristol) • Database of best practice; marketing campaign - dissemination and roll-out (St Albans) tony.fleming@lewisham.gov.uk 020 8314 6615

  47. Deliverables • High level map of e-democracy cases and examples by theme • Online searchable database • Market research with users and stakeholders • Online community of practitioners tony.fleming@lewisham.gov.uk 020 8314 6615

  48. Problems with e-Democracy tony.fleming@lewisham.gov.uk 020 8314 6615

  49. Problems with e-democracy • Symptoms or causes? • Public and political acceptance • Lack of resources: time, money and new priorities • Fraud and identification • How will the transition be managed? • Reliability of the technology tony.fleming@lewisham.gov.uk 020 8314 6615

  50. Problems with e-democracy • “People will not participate unless they have good reason to believe that in doing so they might affect the outcome…will the powers that be actually follow through?” • “I distrust electronic voting because it lacks transparency – there is no ballot box and the votes can be easily ‘lost’” • “There are elderly and uneducated people who either cannot use the net or cannot easily acquire access to a computer…the result would be to disenfranchise some portion of the electorate and leave the business in the hands of the computer competent.” • “One simple and compelling argument against e-voting is that it re-introduces the possibility of coercion.” tony.fleming@lewisham.gov.uk 020 8314 6615

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