Open source project boosts democracy online

06 May 2005 15:06

A pilot e-democracy service cannot tackle low voter turnout, but it is beginning to engage the public, says a new report

An e-democracy project, which aims to set up online forums for members of the public, is "ready for expansion across the UK" according to an evaluation of its initial pilots.

The Issues Forum local e-democracy project, which aims engage the public in the political process as well as to provide an early-warning system flagging up controversial issues to council officials, is said to have exceeded its targets.

According to the report, in its initial stage, the project had better usage than expected with 30% of subscribers posting comments on a range of local issues. However, it says it was too early to judge the full impact of the project and recommends further evaluations.

Almost half (46 percent) of users say they found the service "more interesting or useful" than they expected while 42 percent report that they would recommend the online forums to others, according to the evaluation.

A total of 260 participants were involved across two local authorities, Brighton and Hove City Council and LB Newham. In the first few weeks of operation, 27 citizens posted to the Newham Issues Forum (26 percent of total subscribers), while 56 people posted to the Brighton & Hove Issues Forum (34 percent of total subscribers).

On the costs and benefits of the project, the report says: "These forums directly complement attempts at more representative citizen juries or deliberative polls which are a much more labour and cost intensive. The value in the ability to reach citizens 'anywhere, any time' compared to the effort required to physically gather citizens must not be underestimated."

The scheme was launched in February 2005 and follows work done in the US allowing officials and the public to communicate, and in many cases set agendas, on a wide range of issues for their localities. The model used was developed by a Minnesota based non-profit organisation E-Democracy.org. The organisation has used open source technology known as GroupServer to host the platforms in the UK.

Story URL: http://news.zdnet.co.uk/internet/0,1000000097,39197495,00.htm