Ideas for my Council
Submitted by: Guy Dickinson & Simon Wheatley
Website: http://www.simonwheatley.co.uk/2008/07/09/ideas-for-my-council
Describe your idea. How does it work and who does it help?
It would seem that people have little opportunity to get involved in defining the priorities for their local council (other than at local elections).
Our idea is for a website that enables any constituent to 'suggest an idea for your council'. Other people can engage with the ideas, by adding their comments and rating the ideas. A bit like this site (but with comments and ratings)!
This 'open innovation' model has proved hugely successful for organisations like Dell, Starbucks and their customers (e.g. http://www.dellideastorm.com ) .
Why not equip people and their councils with a similar participatory tool?
We propose a base website that has a running 'Ideas for my Council' setup for every council in the UK, e.g.
http://www.ideasforcouncils.org/manchester
http://www.ideasforcouncils.org/plymouth
http://www.ideasforcouncils.org/etc.
When an idea reaches a certain critical mass (e.g. 250 votes), the site will email the details of the idea to the relevant department and for each of the councillors from wards where people are voting, an email in the following format:
===========================================
From: Ideas For Councils - Leeds
T0: councillor@leedscouncil.gov.uk
Subject: Your constituents are really interested in
Hi,
We'd thought you'd like to know that residents in the Western Ward have shown their interest in the idea "adding a play area in Western Park"
The original idea and comments and voting can be seen at: http://www.ideasforcouncils.org/leeds/adding-a-play-area-in-...
We've also e-mailed the department responsible - with this information, and notified the following councillors who also have constituents interested in this idea:
Councillor A
Councillor B
Councillor C
We'll email you again when the idea reaches the new milestone of .
Yours etc.
===========================================
Each time the votes hit a certain threshold, another e-mail is sent.
The original page for the idea would be updated with the department and councillors who have been informed by email.
Here's a quick mockup:
http://www.simonwheatley.co.uk/2008/07/09/ideas-for-my-counc...
As well as automating awareness of emergent issues to the relevant councillor and department, Council representatives would be able to request logins (based on their email domain) and have rights to post blog updates to discuss the ideas, and also mark ideas as under review, etc.
We've built similar functionality for commercial organisations - we'd love the opportunity to apply our experience and skills, by building an open platform for the public and their Councils.
What information or services do you need?
1) Relevant Council department's contact email addresses for key categories (e.g. Parks, Recycling, etc.)
2) Data allowing the linking of constituents with their Ward Councillor's contact email address, driven by postcode.
Posted by Manoj Ranaweera on 11 September 2008 at 03:04 PM
We will be keen to explore the possibility of hosting all related documents on www.edocr.com and then providing a facility to embed them on your application for greater interactivity.
regards
Manoj
Posted by Simon Wheatley on 30 July 2008 at 01:28 PM
We've also submitted this proposal to the Building Democracy site, here: http://www.buildingdemocracy.co.uk/fund/2008/07/ideas-for-my-co.html