This page lists major updates and new site content. With my frequently updated DoWire blog and wiki, things that are "new" are now quite spread out.

Join the 2750+ members on my Democracies Online Newswire to always know "what's new" with e-democracy trends.

20 December 2006

I am now an Ashoka Fellow.  This is very big deal.  See my post on E-Democracy.Org's new project blog and this article in Federal Computer Week.

19 April 2006

• Democracy and Independence, Amherst, MA - June 29 - July 1, 2006
  
• IAP2 - International Association of Public Participation Conference, Montreal - ~ November 13, 2006
  

13 February 2006

Let's see. On November 7, 2005 I became a father with the birth of our son Liam.  Everything else is a bit of a blur. During my parental leave, I released the audio from my Everyday Citizens speech on my DoWire site.

Over the last few months I've been working on the second phase of Democaster - the open source-based platform for webcasting audio with images of government and community meetings in the UK.

I am also serving as the online facilitator for the Campaign Creator's Advisory Group, another UK-based project.  This is a unique project led by the Bristol City Council where a government is providing a platform for online citizen activism.  Meet me at their launch event on March 10.

At the end of March my current UK work (I am based in Minnesota) comes to a close and I am getting ready for the next phase in my professional life. Some upcoming items of note:

• Work on the new Democracies Online continues with heavy work on the new GroupServer platform for Democracies Online Groups. My goal is to recruit 5,000 members, up from 3,000 or so, into my Newswire and peer-to-peer online community of practice networks.
• On March 6-8, I'll be in Washington, DC to present on my Electoral Standards and the Internet paper commissioned by IFES.
• At the very end of April I'll be in Austria as jurist for the Ars Electronica Prix "Digital Communities" Award.  I've been a judge for the Webby Awards and the Politics Online Conference Golden Dot Awards in the past and look forward to reviewing the Prix submissions.
• E-Democracy.Org has been amazingly busy.  I donate between 10 to 20 hours a week to this non-profit each week as Board Chair.  We recently received a planning grant for neighborhood forums in Minneapolis, St. Paul is close to becoming our first official local chapter, Minneapolis made the move to GroupServer, and the UK forums continue full steam ahead.
  

29 September 2005

Holy smokes.  I've been busy.  

In June, I spoke on e-democracy trends in Madrid, the Basque Country, and in London (on Issues Forum).

In July, I organized the International Symposium on Local E-Democracy for the UK Office of the Deputy Prime Minister. This required 150% of my time from May through the beginning of August.

In August before a needed vacation, I prepared phase two plans for Democaster and Issues Forums for the UK Local e-Democracy National Project.

I also wrote a short article titled, Networking Neighbors Online which was passed all over the place and landed me in an interview on The Current, the new mustic sations of Minnesota Public Radio,

In September, I spoke in Amsterdam and at the eVoice conference in Groningen, The Netherlands. Tomorrow, I speake via the web to a conference in Nova Scotia.

Now I am focused on catching up on with E-Democracy.Org volunteer work with our new wiki, Minneapolis election links, GroupServer feature ideas, grant proposal drafting (help us), and inviting new members to our Board officially. 

I am also updating the technology on DoWire and preparing to move DoWire discussion groups to GroupServer from YahooGroups.

I am open to speaking requests starting in January and exploring longer-term project options for 2006 and 2007.
 

21 April 2005

As promised, here are a number of links related to my Everyday Citizens speech today. Back to practicing my speech ...

18 April 2005

I survived the busiest period of my consulting life. Check out the results of the global e-democracy best practices exploration, the webcasting project and Democaster, and weblogging.

I plan to spend the next couple of months finishing up the new DoWire blog, e-mail list, online groups, (moving to forums.dowire.org) and wiki as well as work to promote E-Democracy.Org's use of GroupServer and its use in more local Issues Forums.  Speaking of wiki's, I tossed up a page on UK election 2005 links that has come to life.

Later this week, I will be giving a new speech at the University of Minnesota, titled "Everyday Citizens: Community Life in the Information Age."

In mid-March, I also spoke at the Politics Online conference in DC as well as in front of top administrative staff from across the U.S. House of Represenatives.  An additional public event at NDI with Tim Erickson on Issues Forums was also a big smash.

Finally, E-Democracy.Org released a number of goodies from their work with the UK Local E-democracy National Project. Visit the E-Democracy Experience today for a flash and video-based exploration of local Issues Forums.  Read all the details about Issues Forums in our new guidebook and an article about the Minneapolis Issues Forum.  All the details are available from the 
 

25 January 2005

I'm working on four interesting projects for the UK Local E-democracy National Project (also see E-dem.info):

• Global E-democracy Best Practices - Jump right to the priority briefs and the case study list for access to the "intelligence from across the network." Most articles are being written by DoWire members.
• Public Sector Webcasting - Something new for me.  I am helping coordinate an effort to create an online community of practice and e-conference on webcasting, leading the drafting of an enhanced webcasting specification, and helping build a prototype Democaster.
• Issues Forums - We are building a global model for local citizen-based e-democracy forums.  It feels like we are making history. The other week we were in UK meeting with citizens ready to launch their forums. Check out our updates, our detailed guidebook, and get an inside view via our Liftoff development forum. If you've heard me rattle on about the need for tools that integrate e-mail and the web, I am putting my money where my mouth is with GroupServer. I discovered "GroupServer" in New Zealand during my July visit.
• Civic Weblogging - Griff Wigley is doing the heavy lifting and I get a cut for providing advice. :-)  Check out the ReadMyDay site for local officials who are blogging in the UK with a bit of coaching from Minnesota.

10 November 2004

Can you say busy? I've been swamped with various research projects.  Later in July I received some visitors from the UK that have since decided to fund pilot E-Democracy.Org Issues Forums in the UK. This is huge.  Or as my wife normally follows up, "What is it?" It's hugenamous.  I will actually be spending more of my time on global e-democracy best practices case studies for the UK Local E-democracy National Project through March 1, 2005.  Watch DoWire.Org for a new participatory wiki and blog in December.

Did I mention that I'll be in Australia next week?  If you are in Brisbane on Friday, November 19, be sure to join us.
 

22 July 2004

New Zealand was great.  The three full-day seminars organized by the Futures Trust and TUANZ in Christchurch, Wellington and Auckland were well attended. This was the first time I packaged much of what I have to share into one day. One local government attendee sent me a nice note that said, "it left me feeling inspired and equipped to make a difference." Wow. That's great to hear.  I also spent a very interesting day with the State Services Commission.  They run the e-government efforts for the national government in New Zealand. They issued a press release and took the photo.  They also converted a version of my Global E-Democracy Trends speech into HTML.

Speaking of down under.  There is a good chance I'll be in Australia in November. Anyone interested in hosting a seminar or presentation?

Up next is a visit this week to Minnesota by some UK local government e-democracy leaders. Next week I'll be catching up on my e-mail and the forum rules updating for E-Democracy.Org. This is a hugely important undertaking for the future of many-to-many citizen-based local forums on the Internet.  Who knows ... a citizen group that I met with in Christchurch might even use these rules or build from the E-Democracy.Org model.
 

20 April 2004

In the last month I've been to Japan, Mongolia and South Korea and back.  Whew.

In Mongolia, I spent six solid days 9 a..m. to 9 p.m. giving presentations, sharing meals, and participating in meetings on e-democracy.  The Mongolian Foundation for the Open Society (soon Forum) was a most excellent host. I presented separately to staff from the Parliament, Prime Minister's Cabinet Office, and the Presidency.  About two hundred people showed up at the public presentation including many students

While zipping through Japan I met with some DoWire members and had breakfast with "emergent democracy" thinker Joi Ito. In South Korea I visited with the National Election Commission and the Seoul city government staff who work on the OPEN System anti-corruption project. I shared dozens of links and commentary about the April 2004 Korean elections and the Internet on DoWire.

Saving Democracy from the Information Age is the short article I wrote for the Australian CIO magazine.  It was also published in Italian.

Since its official release, my E-Government and Democracy report has been downloaded over 1000 times and brought in over 250 new DoWire members.

I am currently researching the Internet and Election Administration for the International Foundation for Election Systems.
 

23 February 2004

I'm back from Brussels. For the next month or so I'll be doing research on election administration and the Internet for IFES - International Foundation for Election Systems. Think everything governments should do online to promote free and fair elections short of e-voting.

I've leaked the full PDF/Word versions of my E-Government and Democracy report on my web site.  I am experimenting to see if I can gather more DoWire subscribers with a special invitation. In a few weeks I plan to announce it widely.

Other pages I've recently updated - Speaking Schedule, Media
 

21 January 2004

I'm bound for Brussels February 10-13. I'll have the honor of keynoting the closing session of a major eDemocracy Seminar organized by the European Commission's  E-Government Unit of DG INFOSOC.  I am arranging a special gathering of DoWire members the evening of Feb. 11. Join my DO-EU e-list to receive the details.

Have you ever been lost in my long list of articles?  Fear not, here is a new page with my greatest hits of all time and in 2003 -  my Top Ten Articles and Resources on Publicus.Net.
 

6 January 2004

Today, I released the text from my provactive Democratic Evolution or Virtual Civil War? speech to the World Summit on Information Society's side-event on the Promise of E-Democracy.  I was joined on the panel with everday folks like the Foreign Minister of Greece, George Papandreou, Nicholas Negroponte, and Stephen Coleman from Oxford. :-)

The video, from what many called the best side-event at the WSIS, is making it online at the UNITAR site. After many many panels, this was the first time a fellow panelist said they disagreed with me. I must be saying something right. In my comments during the discussion, I emphatically made a call for action on e-democracy. I said that we know most of what we need to know to get to work. We need the confidence to implement what works and not wait another ten years for those new to the issue to get comfortable.
 

19 December 2003

Wow, I managed to be interviewed on BBCWorld's Click Online show while attending the World Summit on the Information Society in Geneva.  Read the BBCWorld story on e-democracy and play the high bandwidth version in Windows Media. Did you know that BBCWorld television reaches 273 million homes in 200 countries (not the U.S.).

I am now back in Minneapolis after three weeks of speaking/conferences in Iceland, Denmark, France, and Switzerland.  With Iceland I have now spoken in 24 countries.

I've updated my speaking page with a new version of my Global E-Democracy Trends slides as well as new slides on my concept of Public Network.
 

17 November 2003

E-Government and Democracy - I've opened a new section for those interested in the democratic responsibilities of e-government. Included in this section is information on my new 40 page article about this topic and a new DO-EGOV e-mail list for e-government practitioners and experts interested in democracy applications.

E-Democracy.Org and the associated Winona Online Democracy group was featured in U.S. public radio's series Whose Democracy is It?  Be sure to listen to both audio files on the right.
 

17 October 2003

TheWorld, a national radio program in the U.S. with an international perspective included my comments on e-consultation trends outside the U.S.. Listen in Windows Media Format.

My European speaking tour is taking shape.  I'll be in Iceland and Copenhagen the last week in November, in Aalborg, Denmark on Dec. 1-2. I am scouting stops on a train tour from Amsterdam down to Geneva Dec. 3 through Dec 9. Along with the Promise of E-Democracy event, I'll also be participating in an event with world parlimentarians hosted by the Inter-Parliamentary Union.

Last week E-Democracy.Org open our new Presidential Launch Pad.  Politics Online declared it the Hot Site of the Week.
 

26 September 2003 

I've been listed among the 25 Who Are Changing the World of Internet and Politics by Politics Online and World Forum on E-democracy.  Thanks.

I've also been asked by the Greek Foreign Ministry and UNITAR to speak at a conference on the Promise of E-Democracy in Geneva on 11 December 2003. This event is connected to the World Summit on the Information Society.  This week I also opened an information exchange e-mail list on democracy and the WSIS.
 

3 September 2003

With great anticipation I released two major articles on "public net-work" today. The first is an easy to read introduction to e-democracy, online consultation and the new concept of "public net-work."  The second is a slightly edited version of the article I wrote for the OECD detailing the concept of "public net-work" (Word/RTF). To help promote the "evolution" of online efforts designed to meet public challenges, I am also planning a special public net-work e-conference later in September.
 

2 September 2003

Rome was great.  Along side my work for FAO, I participated in a radio debate on e-democracy and visited with Mattia Manni, an author on e-democracy, in Bologna.  In London, I spoke at a well covered event on political blogging in the House of Commons.

I spent some of August experiementing with weblogs.  I decided to create a non-political blog to see what this is all about ... check out TravelScoops. While blogs are a great "political" tool, I see their democratizing potential as something much more limited (compared to the power of e-mail lists, web forums, and other explicitly two-way, non-individualistic tools). To me, political blogs are like Hyde Park with an illusionary goal of eventual recognition as a membert of a mini-pundit elite that might some day make it on television.
 

1 July 2003

I am heading to Rome in a few days.  I'll be working with the UN's FAO agency on what I call "public net-work.  After Rome, and perhaps a public presentation, I'll be stopping in London for a couple of days.

Work on DoWire and and E-Democracy efforts will continue later in July.
 

19 May 2003

I am now focused on some volunteer work for E-Democracy's strategic planning efforts.  I am also upgrading my DoWire public service effort.

I finished my research on e-government and democracy for the UN. Watch for the next World Public Sector report in late 2003/early 2004.
 

18 March 2003

I am currently working on a research project for the United Nation's Division for Public Administration and Development Management.
 

17 March 2003

I released the webcasts and related articles from the Net & Elections and Online Advocacy panel sessions today.  These highly engaging and successful panels were organized while I was a Visiting Fellow at the University of Minnesota.
 

3 February 2003

I will be a Visiting Fellow at the Institute for New Media Studies, University of Minnesota through the end of February. My new Visiting Fellow page explains all and allows you to set up an office visit. Would like an e-democracy visiting fellow on your campus? Contact me for details.
 

10 January 2003

A request for proposals on the technical requirements for the new DoWire.org site were placed on Rentacoder.com.
 

30 December 2002

I significantly updated and added links to my past conference and other speaking events listing.  This is a great resource for anyone interested in comparing past conference agendas on e-democracy related topics.
 

19 December 2002

I added a Media Coverage page with links to dozens of mentions have received in the press and online media over the years. I am about 2/3 the way done.  The older stuff is difficult to find online.
 

12 December 2002

I extensively updated my Publicus.Net web site.  The main new feature is a new section highlighting my speaking.  This includes a link to my new Global E-Democracy Trends (7MB PowerPoint File) speech. It provides an excellent overview of leading e-democracy applications developed by innovative governments and others around the world.