Seems pretty damn relevant and important to the
people logging on from
the UK, if you ask me!
*Edward Saperia*
Creative Director Original Content London
<http://www.originalcontentlondon.com>
email <ed(a)originalcontentlondon.com> • facebook
<http://www.facebook.com/edsaperia> • twitter
<http://www.twitter.com/edsaperia> • 07796955572
133-135 Bethnal Green Road, E2 7DG
On 29 May 2014 15:18, Stevie Benton <stevie.benton(a)wikimedia.org.uk>
wrote:
Thanks Ed. I'm not sure if we could, but it
might be worth a try. Does
anyone know who the best contact for that would be?
On 29 May 2014 15:15, Edward Saperia <ed(a)wikimanialondon.org> wrote:
> This is brilliant, I'll share it with all my might. Do you think we
> could get it up as a UK geolocated Centralnotice?
>
> *Edward Saperia*
> Chief Coordinator Wikimania London <http://www.wikimanialondon.org>
> email <ed(a)wikimanialondon.org> • facebook
> <http://www.facebook.com/edsaperia> • twitter
> <http://www.twitter.com/edsaperia> • 07796955572
> 133-135 Bethnal Green Road, E2 7DG
>
>
> On 29 May 2014 15:06, Stevie Benton <stevie.benton(a)wikimedia.org.uk>
> wrote:
>
>> Hello everyone,
>>
>> tl:dr -* Wikimedia UK
>> <https://wikimedia.org.uk/wiki/Main_Page> and Demos
>> <http://www.demos.co.uk/> are encouraging Wikimedians to participate in an
>> attempt to crowdsource a submission to a call for evidence on digital
>> democracy from the Speaker of the House of Commons. You can find the
>> consultation page here
>>
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Connecting_knowledge_to_power:_the_future_of_digital_democracy_in_the_UK>
and
>> we look forward to hearing from you.*
>>
>> The Speaker of the House of Commons, John Bercow, has established a Commission
>> on Digital Democracy
>>
<http://www.parliament.uk/business/commons/the-speaker/speakers-commission-on-digital-democracy/>.
>> It will report to Parliament in early 2015 with recommendations on how
>> Parliament can use technology to better represent and engage with the
>> electorate, make laws and hold the powerful to account. As part of their
>> work, the Commission have issued a series of calls for evidence. These are
>> open invitations for members of the public, either as individuals or
>> groups, to submit responses to a series of questions. They have attracted
>> responses from unions, academics, non-governmental institutions and private
>> individuals. The first theme was ‘making laws in a digital age’, and the
>> second on ‘digital scrutiny’. The Commission plans to shortly publish the
>> final three themes.
>>
>> There is a growing sense that the growth of the Internet has not paid
>> the democratic dividends that it could. Turnout in formal political
>> elections is steadily decreasing, and trust and support in the institutions
>> and offices of mainstream political life are low and falling. Despite many
>> innovative attempts from both within and outside of Government, the daily
>> reality of democratic engagement for most people in the UK would be
>> familiar to generations of British citizens who predate Facebook or email.
>> The rise of the Internet has, broadly, done little to challenge
>> concentrations of power or structures of unequal representation
>>
>> Demos <http://www.demos.co.uk/> is one of Britain’s leading
>> cross-party think tank and it has an overarching mission to bring politics
>> closer to people. They contacted Wikimedia UK to propose an experiment: can
>> an online community be used to source a response to this call? Can the
>> ethos, community and technology like that of Wikipedia be used to engage
>> Wikipedians to come together and collaborate to create a reply? In
>> particular, Carl Miller, Research Director of the Demos Centre for the
>> Analysis of Social Media, wrote this piece for Wired
>> <http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-05/22/digital-democracy> in
>> which he describes Wikipedia as a masterclass in digital democracy.
>>
>> This conversation has led to what is an experimental attempt to do
>> just that. In theory there are many lessons that any attempt to increase
>> engagement with digital democracy can learn from Wikimedia projects,
>> especially Wikipedia. These include the participatory nature of content
>> development and the nature of content (and policy) being arrived at by
>> consensus. Wikipedians are from a wide array of backgrounds and represent a
>> broad spectrum of views. This could lend itself to effective drafting of
>> the kind of evidence that the Speaker is looking for. Wikimedia UK and
>> Demos would like to establish whether this is indeed the case. In
>> particular, we are seeking answers to the following questions:
>>
>> -
>>
>> How can technology help Parliament and other agencies to
>> scrutinise the work of government?
>> -
>>
>> How can technology help citizens scrutinise the Government and
>> the work of Parliament?
>> -
>>
>> What kinds of data should Parliament and Government release to
>> the public to make itself more open to outside scrutiny?
>>
>> Everyone is encouraged to try to answer these questions
>> collaboratively, in much the same way Wikipedia articles are approached -
>> using the space below for content and talk page for discussion. Stevie
>> Benton from Wikimedia UK
>> <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Stevie_Benton_(WMUK)> and Carl
>> Miller from Demos will happily answer any questions on the talk page but
>> are equally happy to let the process take its course.
>>
>> At this point there is no fixed deadline for evidence on the theme of
>> digital scrutiny. However, the Speaker’s Commission will be publishing
>> publishing a single call for evidence covering our last three themes (yet
>> to be announced). The conversation and crowdsourced evidence will be
>> reviewed at the end of June with a view to either continuing the process or
>> submitting as is. If there is appetite among the community, and if the
>> first attempt is successful, there may be further attempts to develop
>> submissions to the later three themes.
>>
>> At the end of the process Demos and Wikimedia UK will prepare a
>> report on the process and the effectiveness of this kind of approach to
>> crowdsourcing policy and evidence. This paper will be released under an
>> open licence. It is a real opportunity for Wikimedians to influence the
>> debate about digital democracy and both Wikimedia UK and Demos thank you
>> for engaging with this idea.
>>
>> You can find the consultation page here
>>
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Connecting_knowledge_to_power:_the_future_of_digital_democracy_in_the_UK>
and
>> we look forward to hearing from you.
>> Thanks and regards,
>>
>> Stevie
>>
>> --
>>
>> Stevie Benton
>> Head of External Relations
>> Wikimedia UK+44 (0) 20 7065 0993 / +44 (0) 7803 505 173
>> @StevieBenton
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Wikimedia UK is a Company Limited by Guarantee registered in England and Wales,
Registered No. 6741827. Registered Charity No.1144513. Registered Office 4th Floor,
Development House, 56-64 Leonard Street, London EC2A 4LT. United Kingdom. Wikimedia UK is
the UK chapter of a global Wikimedia movement. The Wikimedia projects are run by the
Wikimedia Foundation (who operate Wikipedia, amongst other projects).
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> *Wikimedia UK is an independent non-profit charity with no legal control over
Wikipedia nor responsibility for its contents.*
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Wikimedia UK mailing list
>> wikimediauk-l(a)wikimedia.org
>>
http://mail.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediauk-l
>> WMUK:
https://wikimedia.org.uk
>>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Wikimedia UK mailing list
> wikimediauk-l(a)wikimedia.org
>
http://mail.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediauk-l
> WMUK:
https://wikimedia.org.uk
>
--
Stevie Benton
Head of External Relations
Wikimedia UK+44 (0) 20 7065 0993 / +44 (0) 7803 505 173
@StevieBenton
Wikimedia UK is a Company Limited by Guarantee registered in England and Wales,
Registered No. 6741827. Registered Charity No.1144513. Registered Office 4th Floor,
Development House, 56-64 Leonard Street, London EC2A 4LT. United Kingdom. Wikimedia UK is
the UK chapter of a global Wikimedia movement. The Wikimedia projects are run by the
Wikimedia Foundation (who operate Wikipedia, amongst other projects).
*Wikimedia UK is an independent non-profit charity with no legal control over Wikipedia
nor responsibility for its contents.*
_______________________________________________
Wikimedia UK mailing list
wikimediauk-l(a)wikimedia.org
http://mail.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediauk-l
WMUK:
https://wikimedia.org.uk
_______________________________________________
Wikimedia UK mailing list
wikimediauk-l(a)wikimedia.org