Useful Links: www.tomw.net.au/links

IT issues on 666 ABC Canberra Drive with Keri Phillips each Monday at 5:50pm

With Tom Worthington FACS, Visiting Fellow, Department of Computer Science, Australian National University

E-Democracy After the Election, 26 November 2001

A previous program looked at Electronic Voting in the ACT, (22 October 2001). But there is more to democracy than a vote every few years. Steven Clift, Online Strategist, at Publicus.Net in Minnesota will be in Canberra Nov 27-28 and at drinks at the National press Club 5:30pm Tuesday night to discuss the potential for on-line discussion forums for Australian issues from the local level on up:

Building Civic Life Online ... As the sectors of democracy and the Internet as a whole develop and deepen their contributions to democracy online, we need to ask, What is missing? What is next? I want to help build the online public commons. I want to help others build them in their own communities and democracies around the world. I also want public and community information and services to be widely available.From The E-Democracy E-Book, Draft 3.1

Some examples of e-democracy in Canberra:

• ACT Legislative Assembly Web Site includes Members Members, Assembly Documents, Daily Program, Minutes of Proceedings, Standing Orders, Hansard and Committees.
• The Newsgroup aus.politics is used to discuss issues.

Steven Clift was last in Canbeera, 3 November 1997 on a previous visit to Australia and would like to meet people interested in local community networking with a focus on local politics.

Steven Clift is an online strategist focused on the use of the Internet in democracy, governance, and community. He seeks to fundamentally improve democracy and citizen participation through the use of the Internet. From his local community up through global networks he is changing the world one e-mail at a time. He is an adviser to the Markle Foundation for their Web White & Blue 2000 online election information partnership and served as Project Coordinator in 1998. He is also Board Chair of Minnesota E-Democracy, a non-profit organization which created the world's first election-oriented web site in 1994 and hosts ongoing citizen discussions on state and community affairs. From: Publicus.Net

Further Information:

• More IT Links
• 666 ABC Canberra Drive with Keri Phillips
• Author's home page

Comments and corrections to: webmaster@tomw.net.au

Copyright © Tom Worthington 2001.