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Seattle Democracy Portal Puerta de Entrada a la Democracia en la Ciudad de Seattle. A Vision for Electronic Communication between the City and its Citizens Visión para Establecer Comunicación Electrónica Entre el Gobierno Local de la Ciudad y sus Ciudadanos. Jim Compton Seattle City Council
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Seattle Democracy PortalPuerta de Entrada a la Democracia en la Ciudad de Seattle A Vision for Electronic Communication between the City and its Citizens Visión para Establecer Comunicación Electrónica Entre el Gobierno Local de la Ciudad y sus Ciudadanos Jim Compton Seattle City Council Consejo de la Ciudad de Seattle
seattle.gov • Award winning website • 80,000 pages of information • Model for others But we wanted to do more
www.seattle.gov/scec • 2001 Citizen Commission • Commission work led to the Democracy Portal initiative.
Democracy Portal Mission To inform and engage citizens about government, civic, and cultural affairs through compelling use of television and Internet.
Seattle Channel • US Cities can have cable channels • Most cities have TV operations, broadcasting City Council meetings and some other local programming
Seattle is the Right Place • Known for our civic activism. • High Internet (over 80%) and broadband access (over 30%). • Award winning website (500,000 user sessions and 3 million page views a month). • Award winning TV channel run by City government • Elected officials really want to hear from citizens.
This is an example of how the City Council uses the website to encourage citizen participation. This site seeks citizen opinions on the performance of a City department.
Comments can be submitted anonymously or with a name. • Can require address to establish local residence
City departments also use the website to get citizen comments. • This site seeks input on the qualifications for a department head.
Core component is new website www.seattlechannel.org Focused on • Issues • Video Streaming • Interactivity
Issues • Site takes topics of interest and explores them as issues. • City Inside/Out TV program explores issues weekly.
Videostreaming • One of our central features is videostreaming. • We have 24 hour-a-day live video of our City Council and TV signal
Video On-Demand • About 500 videos available • 160 are Council meetings • Includes news programs, features, press conferences, etc.
Interactivity • The site encourages interaction between City government and citizens.
Polling • Polling is not scientific, but a way to involve users and gauge opinion.
Other interactivity • E-mail access to all City officials and staff • Join one of 100+ e-mail lists • Volunteer Opportunities • Call-in/e-mail in hearings and TV programs • Chat is coming
Are People Using It? • 26,000 page views in December • Two months last summer • 1151 viewers of City Council live stream • 915 viewers of channel live stream • 1200 e-mails to City Council about budget
Conclusion • Many cities, including Barcelona, include some of these features on their websites • We package video and web features together, emphasizing two-way communication • We want to listen and respond • Many new applications appearing