See link to podcast interview at bottom of post.
After an early start today, I was off to Bristol. In Bristol, I spend time catching up with a friend and colleague, Carol Hayward. About noon, Carol and I spoke to a small group of council staff and partners about the concepts of Issues Forums and E-Democracy, and how they make make use of these tools. It was a brief presentation, but several folks seemed to leave the room, excited about the possibilities.
Later this afternoon, we presented the concept of Neighbourhood Forums to a local community organizer, with the purpose of gauging his interest in potentially supporting one in his community. I can’t be sure, but I think we hit a “home run” (now, what would that be in Cricket). He was very enthused – the kind of enthusiasm that is infectious. I feel pretty confident that a second online Neighbourhood Forum will be launching in Bristol, in the near future.
The OTHER Neighbourhood Forum in Bristol, is in the Greater Bedminster neighbourhood. Tonight, they took advantage of my visit to gather together in a local pub (the Tabacco Factory) and discuss the progress that they are making in their forum.
One of my goals for this trip, was to practice the “citizen media” skills that we’ve been teaching to folks in the Rondo Community Outreach Library. On Saturday, I posted a short YouTube video to my blog entry. Yesterday I posted a simple photograph. Today, I went all the way, and recorded a podcast.
Listen to interview: Greater Bedminster Podcast (6 min)
Added: A new topic has been started in the Greater Bedminster Forum about the evenings events (Click here).