On the British "Headstar e-Government Blog", Stephen Hilton, Programme lead of Connecting Bristol write: "we need to understand why many in local government see "Web 2.0" as a threat." Noting that many British Councils regularly cite the same old excuses to justify their non-use of Web 2.0 (not enough bandwidth, security risks of information systems, lack of interest of the citizens, need to focus on the real work), he concludes that "the public sector's greatest fear of Web 2.0 is really loss of control".
Continue reading "Are they ready to lose control?" »
Some politicians are plotting an attempt to seize back dominance of the petitioning system in Britain - and hope the internet will prove the means to achieve their goal. At the heart of the issue is a struggle for parliament's ongoing
relevance. At present it is Downing Street which has the bragging
rights when it comes to petitions; it's no coincidence today's protest
by hauliers, angry at the government's 2p fuel duty hike, will be
delivering their petition to the prime minister rather than parliament.
MPs would much rather they head to the Commons – and steps are in
motion to do something about it.
Continue reading "Rise of the e-petition in UK" »
The Governance of Britain Green Paper
(July 2007), said that petitions can provide an important way for
communities to express their views and generate local debate, boosting
the relationship between residents and councils. It also announced the
government's intention to consult on people's right to 'call for
action' and the strengthened role of councillors in that process.
Continue reading "ICELE makes nine recommendations for local petitioning" »
Bristol City Council and Public-i Group Ltd, with support from Napier
University, have launched a new open source e-Petitioning tool
specifically designed for Local Government.
The new service, which went live in January 2008, has already had over
8000 signatures and 5 new petitions.
Continue reading "The e-Petition system in Bristol City" »
In London, a Procedure Committee’s eConsultation on e-petitions has been asked by the House of Commons to propose an e-petitions system
with the following key elements: Members should be engaged with
e-petitions as they are with written petitions; e-petitions should be
open for the addition of e-signatures for a certain period before
formal presentation; once presented they should have the same status as
written petitions.
Continue reading "eConsultation on ePetition in UK" »
More than three million people have now signed e-petitions, one year after its launch on the Downing Street's website. But specialists are not convinced by its infuence on political decisions.
Continue reading "7% of the British population have signed e-petitions" »
The e-petition service of the 10 Downing Street passed two millions of signatures. Created in November 2006, in partnership with the association “My Society”, the system allows any citizen to address, to sign and to send a petition directly to the Prime Minister. But the system is getting discussed.
Continue reading "Discussion around the British e-Petition" »
Participative Democracy is one the main topics in the French Presidential campaign. The French website NetPolitique publish an interesting interview of Ann Macintosh, who has created the e-Petition system for the Scottish Parliament and the German Bundestag.
Continue reading "e-Petition, a good example of participative democracy" »
André SANTINI had announced it in his closing speech of the last e-Democracy Worldwide Forum: he suggests, with several other members of parliament, an amendment of French National Assembly’s rules to open electronic proceedings of petition.
Continue reading "e-Petitions authorized in French National Assembly?" »
Internet gives a lot of transparency to the democracy : every citizen can do it, who wishs to reach every legal text and every parlementary debate. And even sometimes citizens can directly take part in the debates...
Continue reading "The German Bundestag adopts the scottish e-Petition" »