New Voices and Civic Technology: Open Government for All? London Dialogue

See also an in-depth "how to"

workshop on Nov. 30 in Kingston

New Voices and Civic Technology: A Micro-Unconference

Join global civic technology leader Steven Clift for a dynamic evening exploration of challenges and solutions to reach new and more representative voices through open government and civic technology.

The stakes are high - will open government and civic technology ironically lead to greater concentration of power among fewer, often similar voices engaged in off-putting ideological conflict or will more accessible and inclusive democracy and community engagement online lead to better government decisions, stronger communities and more problem-solving in society? Find out what the numbers say.

Clift will highlight myth-busting research from the Pew Internet and American Life project and share unique highlights from E-Democracy's Knight Foundation-funded BeNeighbors.org initiative to foster local neighbourhood engagement online that builds bridges across income, race, and native-born and immigrant communities.

We will break into small group discussions and reporting back with ideas and action steps.

Hosted by E-Democracy.org in collaboration with Lobbi in Seamen's Hall at Somerset House.

The event will leverage content from roundtable discussions hosted in Washington DC at the Sunlight Foundation and San Francisco at Code for America on the Pew Internet and American Life Project’s report on Civic Engagement in the Digital Age and Clift’s inclusion analysis.

Those with Pew-like UK numbers on the mass and socio-economic use of digital tools for civic engagement are encouraged to share their research so it may be highlighted.

About Steven Clift and E-Democracy

Steven Clift passing out giant roll of bubble wrap at CityCampMN in Nov. 2013. You have to attend the New Voices event for the scoop.

Steven Clift, @democracy on Twitter, is the founder and Executive Director of E-Democracy.org. E-Democracy is based in Minneapolis, Minnesota and created the world’s first election information website in 1994. Steven was recently named a White House Champion of Change for Open Government.

Before focusing on “going deep” with inclusive online community engagement over the last five years, Clift frequently stopped in the UK for speaking visits tied to his Democracies Online network. He has spoken across 30 countries.

In 1996, UK Citizens Online Democracy credited Minnesota E-Democracy as its inspiration and years later became the holding charity for mySociety. Steven was a global best practices consultant for the UK Local E-Democracy National Project in 2004-2005 which also led to pilot local Issues Forums in England and a still active effort in Oxford and a new start-up project with highly inclusive outreach in Norbiton area of Kingston upon Thames. The Board Chair for E-Democracy is former Kingston local councillor Mary Reid. Edward Andersson with Involve is also a member of the Board and Dan Jellinek with Headstar served previously.

E-Democracy.org is the global fiscal agent for CityCamp and host of the CityCamp Exchange.

Word cloud from recent CityCampMN introductions