Hello everyone,
tl:dr - Wikimedia UK and Demos are looking to community-source a submission
to the Speaker's Commission on Digital Democracy and we need your help! Get
involved here
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Connecting_knowledge_to_power:_the_future_of_digital_democracy_in_the_UK/>
Recently the Speaker of the House of Commons established a commission
<http://www.parliament.uk/business/commons/the-speaker/speakers-commission-on-digital-democracy/>
to
investigate the opportunities digital technology can bring for
parliamentary democracy in the UK. This consultation is a public exercise
which attempts to explore various themes relating to digital democracy.
Wikimedia UK <https://wikimedia.org.uk/wiki/Main_Page> and Demos
<http://www.demos.co.uk/>, working with Wikimedians, have been exploring
whether the norms and values of the Wikimedia community can be applied to
this kind of consultation, especially the consensus-based approach to
writing and enacting Wikipedia policy.
The experiment has been going well and led to a community-sourced
submission to the first theme which was looking at how technology can
facilitate better scrutiny of the work of Parliament. You can view this
submission here
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Connecting_knowledge_to_power:_the_future_of_digital_democracy_in_the_UK_(Archive_1).>.
The talk page is also worth a look as the discussion offered some really
useful insights into how the content was reached.
However, we need your help. The second theme of the consultation has now
been published and it is about digital representation. We would love for as
many people to take part in this exercise as possible. The Commission was
really appreciative of the efforts of the community first time around and
it would be great to come up with another excellent community-driven
submission. You can view the questions that are being asked, and
participate in creating the submission, here
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Connecting_knowledge_to_power:_the_future_of_digital_democracy_in_the_UK/>
.
A third theme will follow in the next couple of months and a similar
approach will be taken then. Finally, once the Commission closes for
submissions, Demos and Wikimedia UK will write up a comprehensive report on
the process and what we have learned which we will, of course, make
available to the community.
Thank you for any and all help, it is very much appreciated.
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.*