Bristol 2010 visit

Stay tuned and help fill in the details on the uncoming E-Democracy.org visit to Bristol.

Below are some proposed time slots.

Tuesday June 29

11:00 - Arrival BRS

12:15 - Lunch with:

14:00 - Meeting with:

15:30 - Meeting with:

17:00 - Lodging Check-in, Break

18:30 - Issues Forum Members Pub/Dinner Gathering

Wednesday, June 30

10:00 - Gathering Organised by Stephen Hilton

12:30 - Site Visit, Informal Lunch

14:30 - Last Meeting - Train Station

Off to London by train.

Note Sent to Bristol Contacts

I look forward to connecting with many of you for the first time when I visit your great city the afternoon of Tuesday, June 29, through the early afternoon of Wednesday, June 30.

...

How can I help your community the most with local e-democracy and inclusion? Please don't be shy. Write to me directly or the group.

Things I'd like to explore:

1. Check-in with the two Issues Forums leaders/partners one on one or in a group - key topic adding "community life" exchange to increase participation and posting to the forums (has worked amazing well in my neighbourhood). I'd like to meet with interested Council staff to compare notes as well. Before Carol Hayward left she established a basic ongoing relationship covering basic hosting that we need to strengthen.

2. Plot event(s) that bring together interested forum participants - we had a great pub gathering with about 15 forum participants in Oxford for example. Which Nhood wants to jump out first or is there a good central location?

3. Plan or actually participate in an effort to use paper sign-up sheets at an existing community event or public location to sign people up to an existing or new forum - my biggest failure is not being convincing enough that this really IS the number one path to inclusion and forum breakthrough

4. Meet with other Neighborhood Partnership participants interested in furthering two-way interactivity either via an Issues Forum on E-Democracy.org or in leveraging our lessons for their own thing. (Note the new Locals Online community of practice: http://e-democracy.org/locals ) In current UK terms, an Issues Forum could be part of a bigger "community site" effort or be the heart of a simple site that is actually sustainable at a low low resource cost (be it volunteer or funded).

5. Digital Inclusion and Neighbourhood Empowerment Conversation - I've spoken with Stephen Hilton with http://connectingbristol.org about this in concept - but it would be great to have a high level conversation on how we can all use ICT to raise _all_ listeners and voices not just the "usual suspects"/loudest voices. We've managed to scare up some Ford Foundation grant funding for two neighbourhoods - http://e-democracy.org/inclusion - that are among the lowest income, highest immigrant/diverse areas in Minneapolis and St. Paul. I'd like to both learn about efforts/ideas from Bristol and offer to share some of our recent lessons.

6. Connecting with Councillors, etc. - I have new slides on the neighbourhoods online movement (a 90 minute webinar) - http://blog.e-democracy.org/posts/845 - and often meet with the more "wired" elected officials to swap tips on using ICTs to connect with constituents in my visits. The key lesson from our Minneapolis neighborhood Issues Forums (most are new and have learned from your efforts) is that at this level, councillors can do effective constituent services a kin to interacting at community meetings - sharing information, taking a question to Council offices and coming back later with an update, etc.

To keep us updated on the emerging schedule, see: http://pages.e-democracy.org/Bristol

Cheers, Steven Clift Executive Director E-Democracy.org