Firstly - congratulations to those who organised this summit. I have been thinking about this for years and am delighted it took place.
In my view a number of the technical issues/ timing etc that Darron raised had the effect of limiting participation, or at best, restricting it to what you would normally see at a public event like this, i.e. only a low percentage of those present actually participated in discussion. Open Government is not a tradition and it is not going to be supported by a traditional approach to a public meeting – speakers lined up out front, "lecture" style presentations with a reliance on powerpoint, and very low interaction.
The point was well made during the summit, and again here by Darron, that internet access/ usage in Shoalhaven is below state/ national average. This led to a conclusion that it would be flawed to rely on web 2.0 technologies, which I support. My prediction is that we will see very limited use of this wiki site. There is however, another major problem with reliance on internet and that is the very quality of interactions that arise. In general, internet participation/ engagement supports opinion where as properly managed personal interactions lead to well considered judgements. Every one has an opinion, few have a well considered judgement. What do you value most? What do you want policy makers to base their policies on?
I attended a public forum on deliberative democracy in Sydney in February this year, with a number of international contributors. The strong feeling of these leading practitioners was that the internet has much to offer but a limited track record in supporting engagement beyond the superficial level. Deliberative democracy was a main theme in my presentation at the summit - please read and comment on my contribution here on this site at Graeme Gibson presentation.
As I said at the start I have been thinking about this for years and am delighted it took place. It will be a disappointment if it stops there. The point was made that the timing of the summit (weekday morning) limited attendance.
My suggestion is that another summit be held in Nowra in the evening, soon, and maybe also in Ulladulla. This should be organised to utilise the strengths of this weeks day time summit and deal with some of the weaknesses. It needs a working group to manage this. Who's up for it?
MatrixIP, 28 May 2011 22:53