Shaping our digital future


Research. Policy. Action.

spacer

Supporting citizens, governments and parliaments to strengthen democracy and transform engagement in a networked world

spacer

Finding better ways to engage, build trust and lead change. Research and ideas led but always people focussed.

spacer

About imperfect markets

On March 25, 2013, in Campaigning, Digital democracy, Digital inclusion, eParticipation, New Zealand, Open Government, Policy, Politics, UK, by Andy Williamson
0

Economists think of an imperfect market as one where there isn’t full knowledge of what’s going on. Sellers don’t share everything, buyers don’t have the tools or opportunities to find out. That means that it’s difficult for the buyer to make a fully rational decision. It can work the other way around too, sellers don’t [...]

more »

Opportunities and challanges for citizen engagement… some thoughts

On March 19, 2013, in Campaigning, Digital democracy, Digital inclusion, eParticipation, Policy, Transparency, by Andy Williamson
1

The World Bank’s Striking Poverty project is currently hosting an online conversation on the benefits and challenges of citizen engagement. The discussion is being led by the excellent Tiago Piexoto and the contributions are well worth reading for a deep and thoughtful insight into the powerful transformation potential of involving citizens in the decision that [...]

more »

Social Media Guidelines for Parliaments

On March 18, 2013, in Asia, Campaigning, Open data, Parliament, Social media, by Andy Williamson
1

I’ve just finished writing a guide for Parliaments on good practice in Social Media for the Inter-Parliamentary Union with support from the Association of Secretaries General of Parliament (ASGP), the IFLA Section on Libraries and Research Services for Parliaments and the Global Centre for ICT in Parliament. The guide defines the scope, purpose and value [...]

more »

Outsourcing opacity is not a good idea

On March 14, 2013, in Open data, Open Government, Policy, Politics, UK, by Andy Williamson
1

Our education, health and even policy making is being outsourced to the private sector. This is being done with undue haste and with far too few checks and balances put in place beforehand. There is a clear failure to consider the consequences in both the short and the long term. Plenty has been written by [...]

more »

Engaging through a mist of distrust

On February 22, 2013, in Civil society, Digital inclusion, eParticipation, ePetitions, Europe, Open Government, Policy, Transparency, UK, by Andy Williamson
0

History can cause us problems in the present. My recent trip to the Ukraine was, like much of my work, about strengthening democracy. In this instance, working with civil society organisations to explore new ways that citizens can feel part of a democratic process that is, largely, lost to them. Easier said than done when [...]

more »

Some key factors for effective open policy

On December 7, 2012, in Digital democracy, eParticipation, Open data, Open Government, Policy, Transparency, UK, by Andy Williamson
0

There’s a good summary of the recent Open Government Project’s meeting about open policy and participation up on the OGP-UK site and Tim Davies has summarised his thoughts rather well too. So, since I’m in agreement with what’s been said, I thought I’d summarise what, for me, are the key big issues that we’ve got [...]

more »

Because news (and data) is not neutral

On November 7, 2012, in Campaigning, Mainstream media, Social media, by Andy Williamson
0

It’s interesting to watch how the mainstream media here in the UK subtely twist the facts to make the event seem more exciting, more newsworthy, than perhaps it really is. This serves, of course, to drive up viewers and traffic too, no doubt! I’m not talking about being misleading, just about being selective. Let’s take [...]

more »

Opening up the policy process (just a little)

On July 5, 2012, in Australia, Digital democracy, Europe, New Zealand, Open Government, Policy, UK, by Andy Williamson
0

Although the new Institute for Government report is titled ‘Opening up Policy Making’ it looks at this largely in the context of a narrow extension to what are seen as ‘expert’ groups, with only limited reference to broader models of engagement. The report argues that “more open policy making is counter-cultural”. Well, yes, we know [...]

more »

Designing new digital public spaces to engage a disconnected public

On July 2, 2012, in Community informatics, Digital cities, Digital inclusion, Open data, by Andy Williamson
0

Government policy is written by those who show up. Unfortunately, most of us don’t. Most don’t see the point: we don’t trust government. Or politicians. And we don’t believe that there’s anything we can do to influence them. I’ve been arguing that digital can help change this. Not set democracy on fire, suddenly re-igniting our [...]

more »

Why I want to know who’s funding our think tanks

On June 29, 2012, in Campaigning, Policy, Politics, Research, Transparency, UK, by Andy Williamson
0

Last week we launched a new transparency project, Who Funds You? approached 20 think tanks and asked them to disclose their funding. So, why is this important? The reaction to ‘Who funds you?’ has been hugely positive and encouraging. We created the project because we believe that think tanks should be transparent. Quite simply: if [...]

more »
« Previous Entries
gipoco.com is neither affiliated with the authors of this page nor responsible for its contents. This is a safe-cache copy of the original web site.