connecting neighbours online to join us on Saturday, Nov 30.
The full invite is *below* - or jump to:
http://ukneighbours.eventbrite.com AND/OR
http://uknewvoices.eventbrite.com
Over the last five years as your forums have essentially run
themselves (with some far more active than others) based on local
volunteer capacity, E-Democracy's limited funding has been focused on
going deep with "inclusion" in Minnesota. Here is a current update:
http://bit.ly/edemknight - We even received some exciting White House
recognition this summer as well.
Our independent, open source, not for profit technology works great
with in-person field outreach, but if one doesn't have outreach
resources, Facebook Groups have been easier to use to connect the
*already most social connected* based on place. Of course most people
use Facebook in their private lives, most civil servants/charity
workers loathe using Facebook for work, and many people in general are
burning out with the volume of social media. Politicians love Facebook
because people get to "Like" them and community activists and
politicians become "friends" as the most connected communicate mostly
privately online cementing insider and outsider lines in our
communities.
Further, while Newham and Brighton and Hove have council-wide "Issues
Forums" we've concluded that an all-politics frame will only attract
1% of households while a neighbourhood based "community life" frame
can attract 30% or more (by neighbourhood we mean areas with 5,000 to
15,000 residents with a "name") AND deliver far more engagement on
local public issues. Oxford's Headington and Marston forum is our most
active UK forum - http://e-democracy.org/hm - and Norbiton in Kingston
Upon Thames is a new start-up forum - http://e-democracy.org/norbiton
- covering an area of 10,000 residents with a very diverse population.
This is my neighborhood in Minneapolis with 1200+ members:
http://e-democracy.org/se
After the council-wide pilots, Oxford and Bristol expressed interest
in neighbourhood level spaces and they work far better in terms of
local agenda-setting and sustained posting. We took that lesson five
years ago back to Minnesota and added in more "community life
exchange" (lost pets, free stuff, business service recommendations)
and deployed the model in 30+ neighborhoods. It really works.
It is notable that the academic review - http://bit.ly/ukedemeval - of
our UK pilots years ago criticized us for having "no real planning or
provision for intensive outreach work to socially excluded groups."
While that was then not part of the funding mix provided by the UK
government back then, we took that message to heart and for five years
have focused nearly ALL of our U.S. funding on experiments on how to
connect neighbours across income, race, native-born and immigrant for
community engagement online (in an integrationist way).
We used grant resources to target outreach in the heavily Somali Cedar
Riverside neighborhood in Minneapolis and across the majority minority
areas of St. Paul. Project info - http://e-democracy.org/inclusion
We signed up thousands, mostly in-person at community festivals and
door to door. Our part-time summer outreach team members spoke ten
different languages and we hired deeply across our ethnically diverse
local communities. Inclusive community engagement online works. In
2014 we will focus on "on forum" engagement strategies as getting
people in the virtual room is only the first step.
So fast forward to this trip ...
It is our view that "neighbour connecting" is on the move. It is
extremely popular. We see commercial "gated community" .com start-up
promising pseudo-privacy in exchange for control over how your
communities can communicate with a design that seems to attract the
upper crust of residents most attractive to advertisers. On the other
hand they are investing and community organisations and governments
are not. We also see tremendous interest in Facebook Groups where
those who start the group have more control and choose whether to
create public, private, or secret spaces. Spaces covering areas under
say 2,000 residents should be private or secret, but those covering
large areas should be public in our view. We believe strongly in real
names for trust, civility, and accountability which is a cornerstone
of Facebook. (If you know of active Facebook Groups in your area, let
me know - <email obscured> clift (at) e-democracy.org )
We want everyone and anyone, no matter the platform they use to start
connecting more neighbours online AND do so as inclusively as
possible. Join us Nov. 30: http://ukneighbours.eventbrite.com
Also, IF you believe in community ownership of your local online
spaces and would rather keep local advertising money in your local
community AND you have the resources or capacity to do real in-person
outreach, then creating a Neighbours Forum with E-Democracy is the way
to go. The key again is a willingness to do in-person outreach and
work with and in lower income often more ethnically diverse areas is
key. We souped up our behind-the-scenes tech to support the submission
of paper sign-up sheets and we still feed our forums into dedicated
Facebook Pages and Twitter accounts to reach more people. This is what
makes the Norbiton collaboration - http://e-democracy.org/norbiton -
so exciting - the One Norbiton project is all about creating an
inclusive, connected community in-person and we slot right is as
gravy. And they have experience with community organizing and going
door to door.
We'd love to see some pilot neighbors forums within Newham or Brighton
and Hove leverage past work and we'd like to see new Bristol and
Oxford forum members step up to help existing volunteers do a fresh
round of in-person outreach. Signing up just 30 new people in-person
would greatly refresh an existing forum.
Finally, we have a new forum design coming out for all our communities
(funded for Minnesota, but benefiting all), so watch for that! If you
believe in open source and are handy with Python, see:
http://e-democracy.org/groupserver And join the GroupServer
Development group. If you want to advise our re-design, sign-up here:
http://e-democracy.org/design
OK, more information on the two events is below.
Thank you for being a part of E-Democracy.
Steven Clift
E-Democracy.,org
Please pass this along ...
* Neighbours Online: Connecting All, Building Community - In-depth Workshop
In Kingston Upon Thames on Sat Nov 30, I will lead an in-depth
workshop on inclusively connecting neighbours online:
http://ukneighbours.eventbrite.com
This free/free will donation workshop goes from 2-4 p.m. and is open
to all. See the link for info on the pub if want to join us
post-event.
* New Voices and Civic Technology: Open Government for All? London Dialogue
Join us for a discussion on whether and how open government and civic
tech can raise new voices and generate more representative
participation. Details/RSVP:
http://uknewvoices.eventbrite.com
This Monday, Dec. 2 evening event is hosted with Lobbi at Somerset
House and an extension of gatherings in Washington DC at the Sunlight
Foundation and in San Francisco at Code for America. Input will be fed
into a possible proposal for a civic tech/open gov community "new
voices" initiative: http://e-democracy.org/newvoices
Please pass this along to those interested in seeing open government
reach mass participation by going *beyond* informing and engaging
those already most likely to participate. If you have access to
similar UK numbers (like the Pew report - http://bit.ly/pewcivic - I
reference for the US), please pass them along: <email obscured>
* Estonia, Finland, World Forum for Democracy
Events and opportunities to connect prior to London:
http://bit.ly/clifteu13
It has been awhile since I've come through the UK. I really look
forward to connecting with old friends as well as making new
connections. Below is my UK-centric "who is this guy" introduction
from eventbrite.
Thanks,
Steven Clift
E-Democracy.org
Steven Clift - http://stevenclift.com
Executive Director - http://E-Democracy.org
Twitter: http://twitter.com/democracy
Tel/Text: +1.612.234.7072
From:
http://uknewvoices.eventbrite.com
Steven Clift, @democracy on Twitter, is the founder and Executive
Director of E-Democracy.org. E-Democracy is based in Minneapolis,
Minnesota and created the world’s first election information website
in 1994. Steven was recently named a White House Champion of Change
for Open Government.
Before focusing on “going deep” with inclusive online community
engagement over the last five years, Clift frequently stopped in the
UK for speaking visits tied to his Democracies Online network. He has
spoken across 30 countries.
In 1996, UK Citizens Online Democracy credited Minnesota E-Democracy
as its inspiration and years later became the holding charity for
mySociety. Steven was a global best practices consultant for the UK
Local E-Democracy National Project in 2004-2005 which also led to
pilot local Issues Forums in England and a still active effort in
Oxford and a new start-up project with highly inclusive outreach in
Norbiton area of Kingston upon Thames. The Board Chair for E-Democracy
is former Kingston local councillor Mary Reid. Edward Andersson with
Involve is also a member of the Board and Dan Jellinek with Headstar
served previously.