Aviva Total Politics 2010 Election Map

Total Politics - because knowledge is power

 The hunt for new ways of engaging people involves politicians at all levels, Dan Jellinek reports from the frontline

 

 

 

Last year it was Facebook, this year it was Twitter. Increasingly it seems that the political silly season isn't complete without a volley of news articles and opinion pieces about the latest piece of technology that promises to completely revolutionise the way we do politics. Such coverage though is only a dim reflection of the interest shown by politicians in all things web 2.0 - from councillors to cabinet ministers it seems that everyone and their Spad is hunting for the holy grail of political engagement in the digital age.

 

The hunt isn't unique to British politics, and in early September Vienna's University of Economics and Business hosted EDEM2009, a conference designed for one purpose, to explore the latest and greatest innovations in the field of 'e-participation'. Unsurprisingly, the conference provided much food for thought for anyone interested in improving political engagement by harnessing the power of the internet.

 

Egita Aizsilniece, from Dutch social networking specialists Dijksman, described one such innovation being utilised by the Netherlands town of Breda: the "dream factory". Forgetting the kitsch name for a moment, the project is quite simple. Provide an online forum (called 'Breda Morgen' or Breda Tomorrow) where residents can propose a policy or project, let other members of the community vote on the proposal, and if the proposal gains enough support it becomes a formal initiative before ultimately being brought to life.

 

The initiative aims to create a facility where negative complaints about public services can be turned into citizen-led action for positive change. "It's about people proposing their own way of solving things," said Aizsilniece. Impressively, since its launch in October 2008, the website has attracted 44 'dreams', with some already becoming a reality. One such example is a local baker who wanted to open on Sundays but was forbidden by Dutch law. After using the website to propose that he be allowed to open, the owner of a local park who wanted to run special weekend events got in touch to point out that the law allowed baking on Sundays, provided it was for such outdoor events. Aizsilniece explains: "They merged their dreams and it came true." Most importantly though, the 'dreams' project is one that she believes any public body could launch: "It's not about technology - the technology is there. It is about commitment."

 

One groundbreaking international project under discussion at the conference was CitizenScape, which aims to create a space in which political debate amongst citizens on the implementation of EU environmental legislation can be brought together into one place and fed into the formal democratic process. With the aid of EU funding the project is currently being tested by Bristol City Council, Genova in Italy, Donegal in Ireland and Zilina in Slovakia, who are all working together to determine the most effective ways of enabling and embracing engagement with citizens through new technology.

 

One of the key aspects of CitizenScape is the way it devolves the power of participation down to the grassroots in order to spread debate. From November, for example, interaction will be further improved through 'travelling widgets' which will allow people to drive traffic to the CitizenScape website by creating a link on their own website to an electronic petition. Once someone signs a petition, they will be encouraged to use the tool themselves, creating a viral effect. As Catherine Howe of local government web experts Public-i explains: "We could spend a huge amount of money marketing the site - but people already have their own spaces on the web, so why not go and find them there?" Ultimately the goal of CitizenScape is to enable everyday people to feed into the formal democratic policy-making process, enabling co-creation of policy between citizens and politicians. "History has shown co-created services are more successful, and in Web 2.0 now we have the best environment to make them" says Howe.

 

And then there's the virtual sheep. The quirkiest project discussed at the conference was Shepherding Change, a UK-based trial involving a number of local councils who have disguised a consultation tool aimed at young people as a Tamagotchi-style pet sheep. The sheep has been designed to run as an application within existing social networking sites, and once installed the young person has to keep the sheep healthy and happy by 'feeding it' answers to consultation questions. To further encourage young people to answer the questions, they are rewarded with 'coins' to spend on must-have accessories for the sheep such as a top hat. What's more, if they get their friends to install the application they receive even more coins to spend on their pet sheep. "It's an entertaining way to take part in an activity that can often be a dull experience," said Tom Gaskin of Norfolk Council. "The aim is to improve services for youth and increase interest in local democracy."

 

Well-fed virtual sheep spell highly-engaged citizens - you heard it here first.