[spectre] Local Democracy Symposium - Budapest July 26-28, AND Baltimore August 3, 2006

Thu Jun 8 21:38:42 CEST 2006

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Post: Conference - International e-Participation and Local Democracy 
Symposium - Budapest July 26-28, AND Baltimore August 3, 2006

Come one. Come all.

As a follow up to the first symposium in Minneapolis last year 
(on-demand webcast now available - http://dowire.org/localedem ), this 
year a two part event in Budapest, Hungary (July 26-28, 499 Euros) and 
Baltimore, Maryland (August 3, $99) will take place.

These will be great events for information-age democracy builders to 
connect and network. This year I am chairing the "E-Citizen" panel in 
Baltimore which will feature real stories from the front lines of 
e-democracy.  The draft Budapest agenda is available and I know in 
Baltimore, the Deliberative Democracy Consortium is helping organize a 
few of the panel sessions. I'll post any updates that come across my 
desk to the new Local E-Democracy Exchange online group mentioned just 
below.

The full details on the symposium see (see below for more text):

      http://www.edemocracysymposium.org

If you are interested in local e-democracy, join the proposed Local 
E-Democracy Exchange (LEX) right now:

      http://groups.dowire.org/groups/local

Initially, I'll use it to share further public updates I am forwarded 
from this year's symposium organizers.

I'd like to see the LEX online community of practice get launch at the 
symposiums. With periodic guest presentations via 
teleconferences/webinars, we'd connect at least 500 local government 
and civil society e-democracy/e-participation practitioners around the 
world real knowledge sharing. This knowledge sharing will be supported 
by e-mail/web online discussions, document sharing, and the 
increasingly popular "who's who" function built into DoWire Groups.

While I am a big fan of in-person conferences, if we are to be serious 
about helping the civil servants and citizen groups implementing 
e-democracy locally around the world, the organizations building 
e-democracy with resources will need to join us and support this idea.  
In my opinion, well promoted and facilitated two-way online information 
exchange will lead to bigger and bigger traditional e-democracy 
networking events and conferences in countries around the world. If you 
know of groups with funding that should chip in to make make the LEX 
happen, drop them a note about the Local E-Democracy Exchange proposal 
or share your advice and contacts with me so we can make this happen: 
clift at publicus.net

Below are more details on the Budapest and Baltimore symposiums from 
their website.

Sincerely,
Steven Clift
http://dowire.org

P.S. If you can't quite decide about whether to attend the conferences, 
watch the just released webcasts from last year to help convince you. 
See: http://dowire.org/localedem

From:
http://www.edemocracysymposium.org

e-Participation, Social Inclusion, Democratic Engagement:

The Next Big e-Agenda has Arrived

Citizen Centric e-Government:  The UN is talking about it.  The EU and 
Council of Europe are talking about it.  Governments around the world 
are grappling with it.

But what is it – simply allowing citizens to conduct their business 
with government online?  Or, using the power of IT to radically 
reengineer the relationship between citizens and government?

What´s really happening – merely hosting a few online consultations to 
talk to the usual suspects?  Or, deploying technology in new and 
innovative ways to ensure that even the hardest to reach groups are 
included?

What´s really coming next – a few isolated initiatives?  Or, a new 
global policy agenda that will radically redefine the way we have all 
come to think about ?eGovernment.´

This summer, senior government officials from central and local 
government, NGO´s from around the world and leading eGovernment experts 
will come together to discuss the evolving relationship between 
eGovernment and eParticipation and to critically re-examine the way in 
which ?readiness´ in these areas is defined and measured globally.

To ensure genuine international input from every level of government 
and all key sectors, participants will have the opportunity to attend 
the Symposium in either Budapest or Baltimore.

The Budapest Symposium will set the stage for discussion and debate 
around the critical challenges stakeholders face as they struggle to 
deliver the full potential of e-Government.

The Baltimore Symposium will be a 1 day event on the 3 August, which 
will take the findings of Budapest and explore them at greater depth in 
the country that has pioneered the art of online campaigning but now 
faces the challenge of translating e-advocacy tools into more inclusive 
governing.

Help shape the debate by participating in these highly timely and 
dynamic events.  Topics will break outside the conventional conference 
agenda to critically re-examine the impact of technology on 
citizen-centric government as we know it. Plenary panels and small 
group sessions will highlight key democracy activities from all levels 
of government and society.

If you are interested in exploring new approaches to governance and 
citizen participation in the new information age then this conference 
is for you.

KEY PARTNERS:

·      UK Department for Communities and Local Government
·      United Nations – Department of Economic and Social Affairs
·      Council of Europe
·      National Association of Secretaries of State, USA
·      International Centre of Excellence for Local eDemocracy 
(www.edemocracy.gov.uk)

PARTNERS: (in alphabetical order)

·	American Association of People with Disabilities
·       AmericaSpeaks
·	Association of Central and Eastern European Election Officials
·       Association of Electoral Administrators
·       De Montfort University
·       National Association of State Election Directors, USA
·       North Lincolnshire Council
·       Politech Institute
·       Public Forum Institute
·       Swindon Borough Council
·       University of Maryland, Baltimore County

Budapest Agenda

Engaging and Encouraging the Participation of All Citizens - Budapest

DAY ONE
Welcome Plenary - Setting the scene and Launching the International 
Centre of Excellence for Democracy
Coffee
Research Presentation Findings Plenary – The Results and Findings of a 
Comparative Study into e-Democracy at Municipal Level in Europe and 
North America
Cocktail Reception

DAY TWO
Morning Plenary – Best Practice and Learning

Seminar 1
e-Voting in Legally Binding Elections: Can it be Trusted? 	

Seminar 2
UNDESA: New Ways to Measure e-Participation on a Global Basis 	

Masterclass 1
Voice Toolkit

Coffee

Seminar 3
Challenges in the Developing World? 	

Seminar 4
Devolving Power: Making Democracy Work 	

Masterclass 2
Be a Blogger, Vlogger, Podcaster!

Lunch

Seminar 5
Social Inclusion in the 21st Century 	

Debate 1
Should we be Voting in our Pyjamas? 	

Masterclass 3
Voice Toolkit

Seminar 6
Current Technology, What´s Hot and What´s Not? 	

Debate 2
Hard to Reach Groups: Why Bother? 	

Masterclass 4
Be a Blogger, Vlogger, Podcaster!

Coffee

Seminar 7
Policing the Net: Authentication 	

Debate 3
Online Communities: Are They Just For Dating? 	

Masterclass 5
Access to Accessibility

Evening Dinner

DAY THREE
Morning Plenary – The Future

Seminar 7
e-Government Connections and Challenges 	

Seminar 8
> From e-Voting to e-Participation: Connecting Governments, Parliaments 
> and Civil Society 	

Masterclass 5 TBA

Closing Plenary

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