*** Democracies Online Newswire - http://www.e-democracy.org/do ***
Here is a big one that came in last month while I was on the road. The Hansard Society's publication page keeps growing, check out their storehouse of e-democracy goodies from <http://www.hansard-society.org.uk/eDemocracy.htm>. Image all the useful content if every OECD country had a center or two that helped cross the academic-practitioner divide with useful and timely reports year around without a let up between election cycles. Tom Steinberg, a co-author of Voxpolitics' online campaigning primer <http://www.voxpolitics.com/primer.shtml>, wrote the Hansard Society's "A Strategic Guide for Online MPs and Stephen Coleman shares telephone survey results on what people expect from MPs online. Lots of great bullet points and "to do" items from Steinberg, and a great collection of numbers in Coleman's piece. Know of other scientific surveys or good numbers? I am gathering examples of telephone survey responses that help uncover citizen expectations for e-government, e-democracy, and use of the Internet in local communities, as well as other numbers that compare features or traffic among similar sets of sites. Be sure to send me anything useful and note whether it can be shared publicly on DO-WIRE or not: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Steven Clift Democracies Online http://www.e-democracy.org/do Two reports with clips: A Strategic Guide for Online MPs By Tom Steinberg http://www.hansard-society.org.uk/HansardStrategicGuide.pdf Contents Introduction 1 Chapter One Why have an internet presence? What will happen if I do? How can I afford it? 2 Chapter Two E-mail and mailing lists 5 Chapter Three Web sites 9 Chapter Four Other technologies: now and in the future 17 Appendix 20 - clip - 1 Introduction Haven’t we been here before? The Hansard Society has already published one guide for MPs with an interest in the internet: the e-guide for parliamentarians: how to be an online representative. The e-guide formed an introductory guide to the internet for MPs and their teams. It required no previous knowledge or experience of the internet and sought simply to explain the basics of what technology can offer politicians and their teams. A Strategic Guide for Online MPs has a different focus. It is geared to explaining how to use technology to become a new type of MP - more in touch with the views and feelings of constituents and better able to serve them. The aim of A Strategic Guide for Online MPs is not just to teach how to stick up a quickly forgotten web site, but how to excel at being an online representative.You will find plenty of advice, but also plenty of warnings. Many terrible crimes against good internet practice have been committed on MPs’ sites - in some cases mistakes which have turned what should have been a golden opportunity into a damaging embarrassment. A Strategic Guide for Online MPs attempts to forewarn and forearm by learning from the accumulated mistakes and successes of others. - end of clip - Democracy Online: What do we want from MPs' web sites? by Stephen Coleman Director, Hansard e-democracy programme Available at: http://www.hansard-society.org.uk/MPWEB.pdf Here is a clip: What people want from their MPs We offered the public a series of features that they might want their MPs to provide and asked them to say which would be most useful to them: An online surgery so that constituents can raise problems with him/her via the internet: 39% An e-mail address so that constituents can contact him/her: 32% A consultation forum where/he she can read constituents’ views: 22% E-mail updates sent to constituents by him/her on matters of importance: 15% A web site containing their daily diary: 10% None of the above: 15% So, 85% of respondents wanted MPs to provide one or more of the features listed. 96% of respondents with access to the internet favoured the introduction of one of the listed features, as opposed to 78% of those without access. Over half of respondents with internet access (54%) wanted online surgeries, compared to 30% of those currently without access. The younger the respondents were, the more enthusiastic they were for these features to be introduced. It is clear from the preferences expressed that the public is less interested in being recipients of politician-generated information (e- mail updates or the MPs’ daily diary) and more enthusiastic for interactive opportunities, so that they can drive the communication themselves, as in online surgeries, e-mail correspondence and online consultations. The next five years Which online services does the public most want to see in the next five years? Providing access to all Government services via the internet: 30% Voting via the internet 25% Public spaces being created on the web where people can debate policy issues: 18% All MPs using e-mail addresses: 14% All MPs having interactive web sites: 14% MPs to be accessible via digital TV: 9% None of the above: 15% Younger respondents had slightly different priorities. 44% of 18-24 year-olds said they wanted to vote via the internet, but only 27% wanted Government services delivered online. Those with internet access were almost twice as likely to want Government services delivered online as those without - and more than twice as likely to favour voting via the internet. Those without internet access were almost twice as likely as those with access to support the idea of accessing their MPs via digital TV. Public concerns The public is fairly enthusiastic about the prospects of using the internet to create a more effective democracy, but they are not without some concerns. We raised two of these concerns to see how important they are to people. Firstly, we asked people to agree or disagree with the statement that moving towards e-politics would be undemocratic because not everyone has access to the internet. Most respondents (65%) agreed with that, with 29% agreeing strongly. Older respondents were more likely to agree (67%) than 18-34 yearolds (60%.) Those without internet access were more likely to agree strongly (34%) than those with access (21%.) Secondly, respondents were asked to agree or disagree with the statement that moving towards e-politics would be futile because politicians will not listen to what the public says. Again, 65% of respondents agreed with this proposition, with 28% agreeing strongly. 18-34 year-olds were less pessimistic about this (61%) than their elders (67%.) - End of clip - ^ ^ ^ ^ Steven L. 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