E-democracy
Introduction
Bristol City Council's Corporate Consultation Team has long been involved in using new technology to find innovative ways of consulting and engaging local people. Since 2004, the team's work has been brought together to form a major e-democracy programme, which is aimed at increasing representation from all sections of the community, including those groups who have traditionally been seen as hard to reach as well as those who have difficulty engaging because they are time poor.This e-democracy work has been brought together under the Ask Bristol brand and comprises the following core elements:
- E-petitioning
- Webcasting of council and committee meetings plus events
- Viewfinder - e-panel with multimedia discussion forums
- Consultation finder - an online database of future, current and past consultations
Over the last few years, Bristol has produced a number of reports into e-democracy including evaluation of the Local eDemocracy National Project during 2005 which are available below.
Key lessons that Bristol has learnt and is trying to improve on include a need to integrate the tools and techniques more; a need to improve partnership working - particularly with other public services within Bristol; and a need to embed support and training into the community. These lessons are starting to be addressed and some initial success has been gained by the EU eParticipation funded project, Legese which explores the issue of climate change by integrating webcasting with Viewfinder discussions and related e-petitions.
Webcast of e-democracy day
On 31st October 2007, the consultation team held an e-democracy day in partnership with ICELE. The e-democracy day had a particular focus on e-petitions but also provided an opportunity to launch the work Bristol is carrying out on one of our European projects, Legese. The event was webcast and will be available on our site for the next few months.
See the webcast of the E-Democracy day
Contact us
For further information about any of the initiatives mentioned above or to get involved, please contact:
Corporate Consultation Team
Room U05
Bristol City Council
Council House
College Green
Bristol BS1 5TR
Tel: 0117 922 2848
Fax: 0117 922 2948
Email: consultation@bristol.gov.uk
related links
- More people choose to watch council meetings online - News release about webcasting audience figures
- Consultation Portal Page - Bristol's e-democracy work forms part of its wider consultation activities
- Ask Bristol/Viewfinder - More about Bristol's e-panel
-
E-petitions - Bristol's e-petitioning site - including guidance material
![[external link]](/ccm-ldn-theme/__ccm__/themes-prod/bristol/images/extlink.jpg)
-
New e-petitions guide - Bristol City Council with ICELE -published in 2007
-
International Teledemocracy Centre - ITC provided Bristol City Council with initial software and support to start e-petitioning
-
More about Bristol's epetitions - ITC information on Bristol's epetitioning experience
-
e-Participate - eTen funded European project on webcasting
-
Legese - eParticipation funded European project on trying to improve citizen understanding of and involvement with the local implementation of European legislation
-
ICELE - Further details, guidance and information about national and international e-democracy initiatives
- Local issues forums - Online neighbourhood forums in Bristol
related documents
- An update on Bristol's edemocracy work including details of our European projects. Published Oct 2007 (pdf, 2041 Kb)
- E-participation handbook - published 2007 (pdf, 5651 Kb)
- E Democracy Survey 2005 (pdf, 374 Kb)
- E Democracy - What Works 2005 (pdf, 285 Kb)
- E-methods for public engagement - Published in 2005 (pdf, 617 Kb)
- Top down e-democracy - this 2005 evaluation report looks at the ways in which councils can most effectively use new technologies to engage with their citizens and includes e-petition and e-panels. (pdf, 1132 Kb)
- Ground up e-democracy - this 2005 report concerns the role that authorities must also play in facilitating ground-up, community and citizen-led approaches to democracy, if they are to be truly effective leaders. (pdf, 655 Kb)
- Young people embrace technology yet are becoming increasingly disenfranchised from local democracy in the UK. What prospects are there for using e-participation techniques to encourage young people to take part. Published 2005 (pdf, 1214 Kb)
- E-petitioning - the internet way - guidance (pdf, 1417 Kb)
Accessibility |
Contact us |
Complaints |
Copyright |
Disclaimer / privacy statement
Feedback |
News |
Translations |
Website statistics
Advice and benefits | Business | Community and living | Council and democracy | Education and learning | Environment and planning | Health and social care | Housing | Jobs and careers | Leisure and culture | Transport and streets Libraries