Wednesday, November 29, 2023


Liz talks to Steven Clift from e-democracy.org at the Personal Democracy Forum Conference 09

I met Steven at the Participation Camp (#PCamp09) while I was in NYC but recorded this interview when we met again at the Personal Democracy Forum Conference (#pdf09).

By Liz Azyan , in Interviews , at August 3, 2009 Tags: , , , , , ,

I met Steven at the Participation Camp (#PCamp09) while I was in NYC but recorded this interview when we met again at the Personal Democracy Forum Conference (#pdf09). Steven did a great workshop on Neighbourhood E-Participation which you can find the livestream below. Click on “On Demand” then click Participation Camp then Day One and scroll down to “Neighbourhood E-Participation” to view Steven’s session. If you don’t want to view this, just press the power button and the player will stop.
I’m a long time e-democracy fan/groupie…. 😉
I personally have been following Steven’s work for a long long time. I know he was one of the first people out there to talk about online democracy. And he actually treated me to lunch! What an honour! Certainly helped being a poor student traveling in NYC… Thx Steven!
e-Democracy, @Democracy and the Twitter Queen…
Just look at his url – http://www.e-democracy.org/ (oh and ya, before I forget, Steven is the guy that coined the term e-democracy!) and even his twitter handle is impressive@democracy! You’re sure not to forget that one! So when he called me the “Twitter Queen” (@Liz_Azyan), I was extremely flattered… hi hi! – Trust me to overdo on the tweeting at a conference/barcamp!!! LOL

This interview covers the following issues and questions:

  1. Steven talks about his most recent project – Neighbourhood to neighbour engagement.
  2. Steven talks about how local authorities get involved within this online neighbourhood.
  3. Citizen to citizen engagement and value.
  4. Does the local authority make themselves known as an authority to the public within the online community?
  5. Mix of email and online forum.
  6. What are the main tools that you use? Groupserver.org
  7. People need to choose their own technology.
  8. What does it mean to you to have an open government?

Essay mentioned by Steven in this interview can be downloaded here : Sidewalks for Democracy.

A little bit about Steven Clift… http://www.stevenclift.com


Clift Highlights
* Helped create the world’s first election-oriented web site in 1994 and current host of active citizen-based online Issues Forums – E-Democracy.Org
* Inducted as an Ashoka Fellow, the premier international network of social entreprenuers, in November 2006.
* Public speaker with hundreds of presentations across 26 countries
* Editor of DoWire.Org – the Democracies Online Newswire e-mail announcement list.  Started in 1998, DoWire now reaches over 2750 e-democracy/e-government/e-politics practitioners and experts in over 80 countries
* Global media source on e-democracy with hundreds of appearances and interviews including a recent interview on BBC World television
* Produced extensive research on “E-Government and Democracy” for the United Nations 2003 World Public Sector Report
* Leading Global E-democracy Best Practices research effort through March 2005 for the UK Local E-democracy National Project
* OECD E-Government Project Advisory Group Member in 2002-2003
* Co-Editor, G8 Democracy and Government Online Services Publication
* Twice listed on the list of the “25 Who Are Changing the World of Internet and Politics” by PoliticsOnline.com
* Consultant on e-democracy for the Markle Foundation from 1998-2001. Included the creation of an online Presidential campaign debate in 2000
* While employed with the Office of Technology/Department of Administration in the State of Minnesota 1993-1997 he was the Government Online Project Coordinator (managed the first web portal) and staffed then served as the Executive Director of the Government Information Access Council
  • Helped create the world’s first election-oriented web site in 1994 and current host of active citizen-based online Issues Forums – E-Democracy.Org
  • Inducted as an Ashoka Fellow, the premier international network of social entreprenuers, in November 2006.
  • Public speaker with hundreds of presentations across 26 countries
  • Editor of DoWire.Org – the Democracies Online Newswire e-mail announcement list.  Started in 1998, DoWire now reaches over 2750 e-democracy/e-government/e-politics practitioners and experts in over 80 countries
  • Global media source on e-democracy with hundreds of appearances and interviews including a recent interview on BBC World television
  • Produced extensive research on “E-Government and Democracy” for the United Nations 2003 World Public Sector Report
  • Leading Global E-democracy Best Practices research effort through March 2005 for the UK Local E-democracy National Project
  • OECD E-Government Project Advisory Group Member in 2002-2003
  • Co-Editor, G8 Democracy and Government Online Services Publication
  • Twice listed on the list of the “25 Who Are Changing the World of Internet and Politics” by PoliticsOnline.com
  • Consultant on e-democracy for the Markle Foundation from 1998-2001. Included the creation of an online Presidential campaign debate in 2000
  • While employed with the Office of Technology/Department of Administration in the State of Minnesota 1993-1997 he was the Government Online Project Coordinator (managed the first web portal) and staffed then served as the Executive Director of the Government Information Access Council
View more presentations from netclift.

I found these slides which were posted not too long ago (10th July 2009) on Steven’s website for the “Free Social Media in Public Life Seminar in Minneapolis at the National Civic Summit”. Since my readers are mostly interested in the role of social media in public life, I thought I’d slip this in as a bonus.

So, hope you guys have found this useful!

🙂

Liz xxx…. Follow me on Twitter @Liz_Azyan

Comments