I've often said that the problem with participation in local democracy is that it just isn't convenient enough. Meetings? Pah! I'm too busy trying to earn a living, quite frankly.

So mobile offers a really interesting opportunity. After all, the smartphones that sit in the pockets of an ever-growing number of people have a level of ubiquity that could make it work. You could also bring in some other recent developments (don't say buzzwords) like gamification to further boost engagement levels.