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

[Steven Clift]

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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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