PACE Report Notes Role of Technology in Local Govt

A new report from PACE discusses deliberation and democratic governance at the local level, and it notes how technology is being used to facilitate these efforts.

The PACE report, “Funding and Fostering Local Democracy: What Philanthropy Should Know about the Emerging Field of Deliberation and Democratic Governance” can be downloaded for free www.pacefunders.org.

PACE is also sponsoring a webinar about the report on Wednesday, May 27, 2009. To learn more or register, visit their website (listed above.)

P2 Software

Thanks for visiting this blog. If you are looking for our list of P2 software tools, the list that previously was available here has been removed so it can be updated.

We'll be issuing an update electronic report, available for free to members of the PublicDecisions Circle Club, in June 2009.

See our website to learn more about the Circle Club, or to sign up (membership is free), click here.

Global E-Governance Survey 2007

If you are interested in the global aspects of e-governance and you're fluent in a language other than English, this is a great opportunity for you to contribute to the 2007 E-Governance Survey. Details for how to become involved are below:

Dear All,

The E-Governance Institute at Rutgers University-Newark is conducting its Third Global E-Governance Survey 2007 in collaboration with the SungKyunKwan University, South Korea. The Survey evaluates websites of municipalities worldwide and compares their rankings on a global e-governance scale. We are seeking to recruit volunteers who read the following languages and who would be willing to evaluate one or more city websites worldwide.

Spanish, French, Arabic, Japanese, Hebrew, Portuguese, Croatian, Greek, Indonesian, Malay, Vietnamese, Hungarian, Latvian, Moldovan, Norwegian, Polish, Serbian, Slovakian, Swedish, Danish, Finnish.

Surveyors will have the opportunity to learn about e-governance and related issues such as e-democracy, e-voting, e-bulletin boards, website usability and online citizen participation. Each evaluation can be done within two to three hours and surveyors will be credited in the published results.

If you are interested in volunteering for the survey, please email Aroon Manoharan at amano@rutgers.edu and he will send you further details. Please forward this message to your friends and colleagues.

Sincerely,
Dr. Marc Holzer Dean, School of Public Affairs and Administration
Director, E-Governance Institute
Rutgers University - Newark 360 Martin Luther King Blvd. Newark, NJ 07102

Technology Tools for P2

Earlier this year, the Lincoln Institute for Land Policy published a report entitled "Visual Tools for Planners: Representing Possibilities of Change for Places, People, Economies, and Ecosystems: A Handbook to Accompany the Visual Tools for Planners Website." The report complements the listing of visual tools that the institute has compiled on their website.

According to the report, this work focuses on the use of technology to illustrate or organize "four general ideas: the geography of physical place, the relationships and movements of individual persons and their relationships to each other in prior and newly emerging communities, the economy from individual firms to regional transformations to global disruptions, and the ecosystems (including in particular the hydrologic systems of river and coast, terrestrial and aquatic ecological communities, agricultural production landscapes, and global warming). The intent is to display relationships and change in ways that help people think systemically and creatively and to communicate across diverse perspectives of varying knowledge.

Scaling Up As Grand Challenge for P2 Use of GIS

A recent article by Dr. Timothy Nyerges in Directions Magazine focuses on the challenge of scaling-up for P2-related uses of GIS technology. Read the article here.

Web Accessibility Initiative for People with Disabilities

Check out the website and associated resources of the Web Accessibility Resources. The organization "works with organizations around the world to develop strategies, guidelines, and resources to help make the Web accessible to people with disabilities."

A Learning Guide to Public Involvement in Canada

A Learning Guide to Public Involvement in Canada, published by the Canadian Policy Research Networks and the Parliamentary Centre, provides a self-pace primer for public involvement. It includes resources separated into sections that include a glossary, public involvement and deliberative democracy theory, public involvement trends and most notably, a brief section on on-line public involvement, among others.