E-Democracy.org invented the “online townhall” model for local community issue discussions online starting in 1994 (after we launched the world’s first election information website).
We used real-names with civility a decade before Facebook existed. It built trust, public agenda-setting power, and more participatory and deliberative civic engagement.
As a volunteer-driven non-profit we planted seeds for what you now see all over the world with local online groups on Facebook, Reddit, NextDoor and other advertising-based platforms.
We have some bad news to share.
Our forum host was wiped out in June of 2024, including full back-ups of our forums.e-democracy.org site.
- Forums Archive – A partial archive covering 2014-2024
- Where to land?
- Mpls-Issues – We recommend /minneapolis on Reddit
- StPaul-Issues – We recommend /stpaul on Reddit
- MN-Politics – We recommend /minnesota on Reddit
- Mpls-Seward
- Framingham
- Other neighborhoods – Facebook groups
- Background – For background on our history from 1994-2024 see:
- About
- Our Lessons
- Election Info:
- 1994 (world’s first) – Some additional history from Scott Aikens
- 1996
- 1998 we inspired Web White & Blue (that our founder led) which introduced Americans to the brand new idea that the Internet could be a useful resource for informed voting.
- Candidate E-Debates
- Global Knowledge Exchange
- Civic Technology and Open Government Facebook Group – Remains open
- Democracies Online
- Newswire Archives: 2006-2021 – 2003-2006 – 2000-2003 – 1998-2000
- Global Case Studies – Commissioned by the UK government
- Also see articles from our founder Steven Clift