E-Democracy.Org - The Public Issues Forum By Steven Clift (Board Chair, E-Democracy, Copyright 2003

Building the Commons Copyright 2003, Steven Clift, Publicus.Net Minnesota E-Democracy Minnesota E-Democracy World’s first election-oriented web site in 1994 … sites … so what?

Building the Commons Copyright 2003, Steven Clift, Publicus.Net E-Democracy.Org 1994 – Election information, online candidate debates, political discussion Election Over … People kept talking.

Building the Commons Copyright 2003, Steven Clift, Publicus.Net E-Democracy.Org today … Hosting “Public Issues Forums” – the online public commons State-wide Discussions – Information Exchange –MN-Politics-Discuss – 450 Members –MN-Politics-Announce – 600 Members –MN-Politics-National – 150 Members –E-Democracy Legislative Study Group Election Content Promotion, Online Candidate Debates

Building the Commons Copyright 2003, Steven Clift, Publicus.Net E-Democracy.Org Today Local Forums – Model went local in 1998 –Minneapolis – 900 Members –St. Paul – 375 Members –Winona – 250 Members –Twin Cities Metropolitan Issues – 200 Members –Chicago chapter organizing Facilitation, Board role, governance

Understanding the Public Issues Forum

Building the Commons Copyright 2003, Steven Clift, Publicus.Net Building Public Issues Forums Build the Public Issues Forum –Related terms: Agora, Demos, The Forum, Town Square, Town Hall Meeting, Public Sphere, Public Space, Online Commons Goals –Create an online center of real community life online where views on local issues can be publicly exchanged. –Create the ability for new ideas and information to enrich local life and decision-making. –Connect the Public Issues Forum to online consultations, communities of practice techniques, social software, etc…

Building the Commons Copyright 2003, Steven Clift, Publicus.Net Building Public Issues Forums How? –Succeed with active citizens first. Open to all, but most citizens will remain skeptical until results are demonstrated –Build on the two-way nature of the Internet –Convenience - use -based group “publishing” at its core Why? –Informs, educates, and activates –Expand diversity of dialogue, counter media fragmentation –Create opportunities for public agenda-setting

Building the Commons Copyright 2003, Steven Clift, Publicus.Net Finding Models to Extend Where do vibrant local e-forums exist today? –Neighborhoods everywhere, under the radar Adams-Morgan, Washington, DC Cleveland Park, Washington, DC –Cities, city-wide e-lists are rare, very special Minneapolis, St. Paul, Winona - Minnesota Arlington, Massachusetts Knoxville, Tennessee Tripoli, Lebanon –National, Global? e-thepeople.org – News talk, events (web)e-thepeople.org UK OpenDemocracy.Net – Articles and discussion (web)OpenDemocracy.Net Regional media sites, but many have closed – no profit Many partisan, ideological forums exist, news groups too –We need a global directory of _local_ online forums

Building the Commons Copyright 2003, Steven Clift, Publicus.Net Not One to Few No, not like Hyde Park –Not one to few (or few to many) –The local Issues Forum seeks to connect many-to-many in dialogue not ranting and flaming –Other online places, such as newsgroups, majority of weblogs provide an online Hyde Park –Even the pigeons look disengaged

Building the Commons Copyright 2003, Steven Clift, Publicus.Net Public Issues Forum - Mpls Example forums Since 1994, must be doing something right! Mayor links to forum, launched campaign on forum in 2001, media covers power of forum

Building the Commons Copyright 2003, Steven Clift, Publicus.Net Public Issues Forum – St. Paul, Winona Links from community TV, city council in St. Paul Winona shows model in small city ~30,000 population

Building the Commons Copyright 2003, Steven Clift, Publicus.Net Creating “Public” in Private e-Life Online Civic Communication Model Forum Group communication remains highly private via without commons Issues Forum serves as public group communication organizer, multiplier, and amplifier; “leaks” back into private communication vs.

Building the Commons Copyright 2003, Steven Clift, Publicus.Net Public Issues Forum Close-up The Forum as multiplier, best content forwarded Mayor’s Office “Secondary Networks” City Department Personal Networks Local Media Political Activist Reporter Citizen #1 City Staff Citizen #2 Candidate Researcher Council Member Neighborhood Leader Student List Manager Citizen #500 Crazy Person Cit ize ns Issues Forum group server sends posts direct to people and web archive Send- Receive Public Sphere You subscribe once Commitment made May post via Everyone is a citizen!

Building the Commons Copyright 2003, Steven Clift, Publicus.Net One-way versus Forum Dynamic Online Civic Communication Model Issues Forum One-way content, semi-public online advocacy without the issues forum Forum diffusion, viable two-way options tied to online advocacy and one-way content vs.

What’s Next

Building the Commons Copyright 2003, Steven Clift, Publicus.Net What’s Next Local chapters next … organized by active citizens anywhere. Want to start one in your city/area? Updating mission, goals, and objective for our second decade Significant “eWeb” technology upgrade to match sophisticated facilitation/governance model – must allow full participation with better web access and contextual online services – Building FROM the essential local forums to support online events/consultations, a global democracy directory, and topical local/global information exchange and citizen participation

Public Issues Forum Online Consultation Online Civic Events Housing Parks Recycling Graffiti Childcare Communities of Practice for Policy Implementation “Public Net-Work” Etc. The big picture someday? …

Building the Commons Copyright 2003, Steven Clift, Publicus.Net Related Resources E-Democracy Research Links – Includes great academic articles and more. Start an Online Commons (9 tips) – A Wired Agora (the Minneapolis story) – E-Democracy Thrives in Winona – E-Democracy Training –

Building the Commons Copyright 2003, Steven Clift, Publicus.Net Further Information Democracies Online Newswire Over 2500 people around the world exchanging announcements, news, and articles related to e-democracy, e-government, and e-politics. E-Democracy Resources Flyer Links to the top e-democracy starting points on a two page flyer available in HTML, Word, and PDF. Publicus.Net More articles and presentations by Steven Clift

Building the Commons Copyright 2003, Steven Clift, Publicus.Net Bonus Slides Ten lessons from E-Democracy.Org’s first decade

Building the Commons Copyright 2003, Steven Clift, Publicus.Net E-Democracy.Org Lessons 1. Declare victory. Set reasonable expectations. Building momentum is more important than immediate success. Answer why question every step of the way. Goal: To improve the outcome of the public policy process with effective and meaningful citizen participation. 2. Many-to-many discussions represent the unique strength of this new medium. One-way content is a carry over from old media and political communication. Geography matters. The more local, the more relevant to a broader cross-section of the population. 3. Facilitation is essential. Moderation is not (meaning prior review of messages before they are distributed – moderation is huge bottleneck, time commitment). Focus conversations on issues to overcome personal and ideological conflict.

Building the Commons Copyright 2003, Steven Clift, Publicus.Net E-Democracy.Org Lessons 4. Building civic space is a public good. Non-partisan, advocacy neutral online public spaces for information exchange will not exist without public interest efforts. 5. is king. Participants and readers are key to value. Value of and convenience is supreme, often underestimated. Web- only systems tend to work with larger audience sites, highly motivated users, or for special online events and consultations. 6. Sustainability. Promoting self-governance and volunteer spirit key to sustainability. 7. Scalability limited by current all-volunteer foundation. However, complete professionalization of facilitation would make expansion unaffordable while professional training and outreach required.

Building the Commons Copyright 2003, Steven Clift, Publicus.Net E-Democracy.Org Lessons 8. Expansion requires resources for coordination, training, promotion, distributed management/facilitation and adjudication. 9. Technical barriers exist. Use of proprietary software tools and lack of access to technical expertise to adapt open source options limits our advancement as well as the long-term potential of our model to expand in a cost-effective way within and beyond Minnesota. 10. Conversation has value. Think agenda-setting among opinion leaders and media. Build respect among participants and foster public opinion formation. Worry about the direct influence on government decision-making process later.