eDemocracy

Australian Youth Affairs Coalition Chair Luke Bo’Sher oversaw discussion on how the emerging ubiquity of the internet is affecting our ability to participate in democratic decision making. We looked into emerging activist collectives, and a number of citizen journalism projects. Axel Brun contemplated the groupthink achievements (and failures) of collaboratively authored information, such as Wikipedia.

Dr Alan Rosenblatt, Associate Director of Online Advocacy at the Center for American Progress Action Fund recounted a telling anecdote from his own experience elucidating his own concept of the value of eParticipation: “A community organizer once admonished me and the other panellist on our dais saying that it is the height of arrogance to talk about empowering the people. The people already have the power. The best you can do is give them tools that enable them to use it more effectively. And then you can try to get them to use their power to help you achieve your goals.”

Research Associate at QUT Jason Wilson gave some insight into his own e-initiatives, youdecide2007 and Queensland Decides, two online citizen journalism projects run during the election. He also described why he thought politicians were reticent to join in or actively sponsor online political conversation – it’s potentially dangerous and uncontrollable nature. The internet can provide a forum free of censure and thus becomes a liability for those who wish to control the flow of information.

Kate Raynes-Goldie shared her own experiences of the Canadian Greens Party, which did exactly what Luke suggested politicians couldn’t – developed an entirely open-forum wiki for their own party. However, openness and transparency ultimately provided the seeds of the site’s undoing.

In the Transforming Relations forum, we considered Axel Brun’s thoughts on hyperempowerment, and whether e-participation could be useful as a group of collective individuals without tending toward institutionalisation. Organisational management expert, Martin Stewart-Weeks raised the following questions: “Is it possible to imagine, and then design, new forms of institutions that can (a) harness collective intelligence (b) provide a sustainability organisational base that doesn't come and go with passing enthusiasms or rely on the fickle energies of temporary or transient activists and (c) feed off at least some of the same instincts for knowledge sharing, open systems and more responsive interactions with the constituents on whose behalf they work?”

Jo Anne Tacorda from TakingITGlobal was less optimistic about the possibilities for effective participation through online mediums and reiterated the continued symbolic importance of physical demonstration. “We can’t live our lives completely online and I think by combining online and offline efforts engagement in politics and other social issues can become much more dynamic and sustainable,” she says.

In the e-inclusiveness forum, Mark Pesce, inventor of VRML, directed us to his excellent essay in engaging conversation, in which he likened online conversational skills to physical ones, and described the growing effectiveness of that online conversation through experience. Drawing attention once more to the potentially threatening nature of eParticipation, to embedded power structures, at least, Mark stated that, “Since the public has decided that it wants to have this conversation, and will have it regardless of whether the nominated political figures are involved in that conversation, politicians have every reason to be worried. This conversation is potent in a way the ballot box is not. It is continuous, and deepening, and leads to a network of social relationships which translate into the real world - particularly if the conversation is community-based.”

However, in the forum on the Diversity of e-participation, Jason Wilson again drew from his experiences in citizen journalism projects, and took something of a more measured approach on the true effectiveness of online initiatives. Discussing the availability of technology in regional areas, Jason commented that, “What we need to avoid at all costs are the temptations of technological determinism. Society doesn't change immediately because new technologies are in use. It depends upon the choices we make in implementing it. The fact that people are blogging doesn't, on its own, make the world, or politics, more democratic. It doesn't even mean that more people are meaningfully participating in politics.”

Are you being heard? Youth Voices in Local Government

Chaired by Gabriel Watts, an expert in youth community legal education who sat on the National Youth Roundtable in 2007, this panle was one of the festivals most popular.

There were many salient issues discussed at length, issues we can all relate to being young people who co-exist with local government. The panel began with ideas on what local governments would like young people to do. Our resident expert, Cr David Wilson, put forward a simple yet perhaps untried by many option – ring your local councilor and tell them your ideas/problems. Simple as that! Cr Wilson said that rather than feeling privately angered by an issue, getting in touch with a councilor who can create a dialogue with you is as easy as googling your local council – although the preconception may be that they don’t really care at all, Cr Wilson is impressed with youths that bring their grievances to him personally.

Other ways to reach local council effectively were also discussed – Elle Morgan Thomas, a brilliant youth herself who has been involved youth leadership and entrepreneurship for many years, suggested forming a group of vocal, like minded people via school/university/tafe or elsewhere who are able to brainstorm their views and take a unified front to your local council. Most importantly, everyone stressed that your council is there to listen, so make yourself heard.

The panel also addressed how to get young people more involved in local youth events, which often go unpublicised and largely ignored. Utilising rolling grants was a popular idea that was brought up. What was most important is the idea of “youth for youth” – that to appeal to young people, you have to actively engage yourself and interact with them. Rather than continuing to selectively involve students who have been involved before, random selection of young people to work with events was an idea that was well received, although it is important here that everyone gets a voice, including rural and Indigenous communities.

Effective media strategies should also be implemented, including hitting up your social networking sites and writing more accessible media releases. Michelle Blanchard, who currently works as a research officer for the Inspire Foundation (and is currently working on Bridging the Digital Divide), also stated that a higher level of participation by local council may be needed – that instead of running one off events, it’s important to examine how they have worked and how they can be improved with the help of people that have participated in them. Amy Coetzee, a member of the Melville (WA) Youth Advisory Council and representative for Australia at the 2008 Global Young Leaders Conference, made some good points about how to appeal to young people on somewhat dry matters: “Music generally tends to be a great way to reach youth -however you automatically have to aim for a wide variety because as we all know, music tastes differ enormously (especially in the age range we're talking about!). I think that not just entertaining youth, but giving them some way to be active, involved, inspired - 'that' will be a successful event! Great guest speakers (and by great, I mean interesting/informative as well as FUNNY!) are always a great way to engage your audience.”

Matt Barker, from the International Centre for Excellence in Local e-Democracy, UK, brought up an innovative idea that may be useful if brought to Australia: “I work for the UK government that supplies a blogging tool called readmyday- www.readmyday.co.uk...local councillors have been using this to interact with all people in their area. They can upload videos to the blog, report what they have been doing etc which makes good reading. People can also comment on the issue in hand so conversations build up. Are the youth sector more likely to log on to a councillors blog and interact?”

A big sticking point was the use of the internet to appeal to the younger generations. It was discussed that while online avenues such as social networking sites could be beneficial for local government trying to engage with young people, it should not be the be all, end all of communication. Plenty of offline work should take place. Local government has the advantage of being able to physically speak to the people it represents, and it should take full advantage of that. Roger Holdsworth, Senior Research Associate at the Australian Youth Research Centre, made an interesting point with his analysis: “Here's increasing evidence that we are all (young and old) now seeing participation primarily as something that I do along - ie I participate in tackling climate change by taking a shorter shower; I participate in local government by answering a consultation survey and so on.

So where has collective action and participation and engagement gone? Where has coming to a common view and acting together gone? Where has organising to have a structural impact gone?...Where does on-line participation etc fit within this? If it makes the trends to individualisation even greater, then perhaps e-participation etc etc is simply a smokescreen to make people FEEL as if they're engaged, but actually a way to buy them off and alienate them even more.”

Reynato Reodica, Executive Officer of the Youth Action and Policy Association, put forward perhaps the most important question of the panel - why do we care? Why is engagement with local government so important? It’s a very hard question to answer succinctly, however there were many attempts. A large part of the discussion centred around the fact that local government is perceived to disregard the views of young people. The main point taken out of this is that if we think they won’t listen – be pushy. Be a pest, make them listen. Ryan Foster, coordinator of Visible Ink Brisbane, which supports young people to grow their own creative, cultural, environmental, social and business ideas, made a great point when he said: “There are plenty of reasons to work with young people - most importantly perhaps is that they are the residents, the businesses, the cultural entertainment and the life blood of tomorrows city. Get them connected, engaged and excited now and you'll have an innovative, inclusive and vibrant city tomorrow.”

So – as you can see we’ve had a pretty diverse and varied play of ideas over the course of the eFestival. Don’t take our word for it though – read the posts yourself and keep them live. The festival might be over for this year, but that’s not going to stop you blogging all over the shop. Get amongst it, and make a difference.