I’m back at home after eleven days on the road. That’s eleven days of eating, speaking, and (yes) drinking E-Democracy.Org (I didn’t mention sleep, because I did very little of that on this trip). One of the most important aspects of a trip like this one, is that it really allows me to focus on E-Democracy.Org in a way that I can never do at home. I get time to think about the “big picture” issues and put our day to day work into perspective. Of course, the other important aspect of a trip like this one, is that I’m meeting new folks and old friends on a daily basis – all of whom are challenging me with difficult questions and pushing me in new directions. A trip like this is a real work-out for the mind.
One of the really critical questions that get’s thrown at me with some frequency on trips like this one, is the question of why a local Issues Forum in a community in the UK might want to continue a relationship with E-Democracy.Org, now that the funding from central government has dried up – and if anything, we’re looking to them for help is sustaining our larger network. My good friend, Mark Walker, from SCIP in Bringhton and Hove likes to remind me that he and his collegues are quite capable of maintaining the technical infrastructure for an Issues Forum and the local steering committee can manage its operation. His question, boils down to – “Just what good is E-Democracy.Org to them?”
In all fairness to Mark, I think that his question is really more of a friendly challenge for us do a better job of explaining what E-Democracy.Org is as an organization and why we are important – if we are going to expect support from local folks like himself, who have enought to do as it is. He knows that we’re struggling to articulate an answer and is prodding us to “spit it out.”