Bright Ideas in Newham

(For more video clips from the Bright Ideas conference in Newham, visit Designing for Civil Society, by David Wilcox)

Last week E-Democracy.Org Issues Forums came up as a subject of discussion at the Bright Ideas conference sponsored by the Newham Council. Dan Jellinek, co-chair of the Brighton & Hove Issues Forum steering committee and member of the E-Democracy.Org board, chaired a panel discussion on “E-democracy for Adults and Young People.” Joining him on the panel, was Gavin Sealey, the forum manager of the Newham Issues Forum.

Take a look at the short video interview of Dan (above), done by David Wilcox and posted to his blog. Also of interest in David Wilcox’s report of the meeting is a short interview of Richard Stubbs (chair of the Newham Issues Forum steering committee) in which he talks about the need to “bleeding edge” not in terms of technology, but in terms of application. While Richard is speaking in broader terms about the use of ICT to support local communities, his viewpoint here very much reflect the spirit of E-Democracy.Org. E-Democracy.Org has never been recognized for our technological innovations, we try to be about innovations in applying technologies that already exist, for the purpose of engaging members of a community in local decision making.

I’d like to commend David Wilcox for his inspired reporting on this event and great use of very simple multi-media tools to give his reporting extra depth. This is exactly the kind of thing that I keep promising to do myself, in this blog and in my E-Democracy work in general, but often find myself lacking the inspiration.

I’d encourage E-Democracy.Org volunteers and participants in our forums to think about how we might better use audio and video to enhance our communications about our work and within our forums.

Comments or ideas are welcome….

(Final note: If anyone who was at this event can say anything more about the discussion of Issues Forums at this event, it would be very much appreciated. I was listed on the program as a speaker at this event, but unfortunately was unable to extend my stay in the UK long enough to participate.)