[Advocacy Advisors] Connecting knowledge to power: the future of digital democracy in the UK

Thu May 29 16:30:17 UTC 2014

Hi Stevie,

This is a great initiative!

I think that it may be helpful for non-UK folks to learn about what
low-tech open government or "sunshine" laws the UK Parliament currently has
as a basis for the consultation on what technical measures can be put in
place.

Best,
Yana

On Thu, May 29, 2014 at 7:05 AM, Stevie Benton <
stevie.benton at 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.*
>
>
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>

-- 
Yana Welinder
Legal Counsel
Wikimedia Foundation
415.839.6885 ext. 6867
@yanatweets <https://twitter.com/yanatweets>

NOTICE: As an attorney for the Wikimedia Foundation, for legal/ethical
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on what this means, please see our legal disclaimer
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