What I’ve been reading

I find this stuff so that you don’t have to. Google’s Chromebook set to transform how we think about computers | Technology | The Observer – “On 15 June, Google will officially take the next step on its road to…

Micro-participation at ShropCamp

Continuing my current obsession with micro-participation, I ran a session on the subject at yesterday’s excellent ShropCamp. Basically I chatted through what micro-participation is and what it tries to achieve, where it came from etc. Then I gave some examples…

More on micro-participation

There was an interesting response to my post on micro-participation, in a number of spaces – which goes to show the value in seeding your content on sites other than your own! The most active conversation was on GovLoop where…

The need for micro-participation

A theme I’ve been returning to on a regular basis in the talks I’ve been giving lately has been about the need for government to make participation easier. I’ve blogged in my usual half-assed manner about the participation deficit before,…

More on e-petitions

Excellent stuff from Fraser Henderson who has published a summary of some research done into the use of e-petition facilities in councils. I’ve embedded the presentation below: Panos & chris overview of e petitioning in english local authorities View more…

Council e-petitions

Just after Christmas I wrote a quick post about the prospect of e-petitions for Parliament. Of course, local councils are also supposed to have their own e-petitions systems and processes. My own local council, South Holland, has a system in…

Participation, and participating

Recently I’ve been thinking a fair bit about the ‘participation deficit’ – the fact that too few people are contributing too much to society. It’s what informed my post about my view that we need more councillors. No even half…

The net delusion

The Net Delusion by Evgeny Morozov looks like it will be useful and interesting reading for those interested in the internet and its effects on politics and democracy, providing something of an alternative (thanks to Dom for the wording advice)…

Parliamentary online petitions

So, online petitions for Parliament? In an attempt to reduce what is seen as a disconnection between the public and parliament, ministers will ensure that the most popular petition on the government website Direct.gov.uk will be drafted as a bill.…