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Can Activists and Authorities work Togeher?

Margret Mead urged us never to doubt that ‘a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world’ - but what if some of the group  work for the local authority or worse, for ODPM?!?
 

Can authorities and activists work together effectively?  This is the question that speakers from Government and from Community Organisations will be attempting to address on 10th March at our delliberative conference at @Bristol.
 
Kevin and I will be launching CampaignCreator and will be attempting to present a broadly positive view. Not everyone will be in agreement and the audience will be encouraged to discuss the issues with the speakers and with each other, before using interactive voting to share their final views.
 
This is a free event, paid for as part of the ODPM einnovations programme. About 90 people have signed up so far – book your place here

Connecting Bristol - meeting the digital challenge

When you work for a LOCAL authority you don’t take for granted national or international recognition. 

 I was hugely flattered when Politech awarded Bristol the award of European City for eDemocracy 2005/6.  I am equally excited that Ministers David (double devolution) Milliband and Jim Fitzpatrick have been citing Bristol’s eDemocracy work as best practice during national UK conferences this week. 
 
However, we couldn’t claim that Bristol was any sort of centre of excellence unless there were clear and tangible benefits to local people. 
 
More than 12,000 people have participated in Bristol’s eDemocracy work so far and I have a very strong sense of positive momentum building across Bristol, which will take forward eDemocracy in even more exciting ways.  The council's budget-setting meeting in February will be webcast and I am hopeful that we  will soon be able to announce an important blogging first!
 
Most excitingly, we are currently working with more than 150 partners to build on all of the city’s digital successes.  It is amazing just how strongly local partners feel that Bristol should win the Digital Challenge!
 
You can join the Connecting Bristol discussion and sign-up to support Bristol’s bid here