Improving citizen involvement through e-participation in Bristol

Anna McDermottPhilip Higgins

Consultation & Research

www.askbristol.com

Overview

• Tools used in the ASK Bristol e-participation programme

• Crowdsourcing ideas – Budgeting and urban development planning

• Integration with social media

Live bloggingCrowd sourcing

Social media (2010)E-bulletin

ASK Bristol (wordpress)You tube

Webcasting (2007)Neighbourhood e-forums

E-petitions (2004)Online surveys

Consultation FinderInteractive voting

Developing a range of

tools

2000

2011

Webcasting local democracy

Webcasting democracy

• Since 2007• Webcast live and recorded• Meetings of high public interest• Improves accessibility and understanding of local

issues and democracy at work• 70,713 total unique visitors• Watch and comment

Webcasting election results

• Highest live audience of any UK council webcast – 5947 views

• With archive – 8382 views• Simultaneous tweeting• Not provided by local media • Chance for people to see and

hear their new local councillor

Influencing decisions at the city level

Crowd sourcing

• Source ideas and solutions from the crowd• Develop understanding of issues• Facilitate discussion between citizens • Bring new people and fresh thinking to problems• Early engagement• Communicate issues in an engaging way - video

• Challenge: Save 20% of budget over 4 years

• Council Leader – raise understanding / get suggestions from public

• Council members got involved

• 4385 views / 600 suggestions grouped in to 70 themes

Bristol’s Budget Conversation

Cllr Rogers on his participation in the Budget Conversation

Neighbourhood level Participatory budgeting

• £15,000 of well-being money in a neighbourhood

• Live, work, study or just interested

• First e-participatory budgeting pilot

• 537 users / 397 comments / 60 ideas

• Will continue to pilot this approach

Decision makers need to join in

• Councillors need to take part – identify members who are already using social media

• Senior officers need to engage

• Better outcomes for whole process

Short break for questions

Urban development planning:Cherish or Change?

• Map based

• Identify issues with Bristol’s central area and solutions

• Identify areas or things people value in the city centre

• Early engagement feeds in to Central Area Action Plan

• Strong social media links used ideas phase

http://bristolstreets.co.uk/

• Pin point areas • Make a suggestion / Comment / upload photos • Spatial patterns emerge • An engaging experience • 925 comments • Comments grouped into

10 main themes

http://www.ideasforbristol.co.uk/

Ideas for Bristol

• Next phase of engagement on Central Area Action Plan (leading on from Cherish and Change)

• Sign-in with FB/Twitter account • Suggest ideas can • Vote on ideas• Share • 3,654 unique visits • 128 ideas, 377 users, 955 votes

Getting the message out….

Feeds, widgets and e-bulletins

• 2010 moved into social media / letting our content travel

• Feeds – auto-updating – Google Feedburner • Widgets – help promote• Twitter account: consultations, e-petitions,

citizen ideas, webcasts• Facebook page• Our e-participation tools are being

optimised for social media

Where we’re going…..

• Rise of neighbourhood and hyper local sites – already happening

• More video to explain issues• Tools are becoming free and easier-to-use• Often community will set-up sites themselves – join in • Social networking sites could help with community

development • Skills development opportunities for the digitally

excluded

Thank you for listening• www.askbristol.com• www.twitter.com/askbristol