Fascinating #sibsyd barcamp tweets on Social Innovation & E-Democracy - great to see Gen X's & Y's thought leaders acting on Gov 2.0. So it's interesting to see how the internet has evolved as an E-Democracy Tool over the last 15 years - it seems we are still on the journey from the Swedish experience of 2001 to #sibsyd today ....
Steven Clift of Democracies Online was my favourite E-Democracy thought leader in late 1990's and into the early 21st Century years - a period covered much of my 12.5 years as a local government councillor in a large regional city in NSW Australia. And now nearly 15 years on, he still maintains an excellent E-Democracy resource page.
Steven reviewed the 2001 landmark paper E-Democracy in Practice: Swedish experiences of a new political tool by Tommy Rosén Project Manager Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Swedish Federation of County Councils and Regions Department of Democracy and Self-government - with the main themes as follows
- The internet as an aid to democracy
- The internet in the political debate.
- Influencing political drafting using the internet
- Presenting motions on web sites
- The internet increases the transparency of political decisions
- Lack of consultation in connection with implementation
- Political quality work
- Democratic keyquestions
[DW] E-Democracy in Practice - Swedish experiences of a new political tool (in English)
Steven Clift Mon, 29 Oct 2001 05:32:58 -0800
If the recent UK national government e-democracy policy moves represent top level policy momentum, this review of local e-democracy happenings in Sweden presents the reality emerging at the level of democracy closest to the people. The report gives examples that in my opinion help demonstrate why e-democracy will have its greatest positive impact on the lives and involvement of citizens at the local level first.... ...This paper will be presented at the Council of European Municipalities and Regions and Union of Belgian Cities and Municipalities' conference on "E-governance at local and regional level: New forms of citizen participation and democratic decision-making" November 28, 2001
Steven Clift
Democracies Online
*** Democracies Online Newswire - http://www.e-democracy.org/do ***
These themes still resonate today - nearly 10 years on and clearly we are still on the journey.
