Legislating for the Long Term?

[Alan Burkitt-Gray]

At 19:17 16/03/1998 +0000, you wrote:

>We have computer-literate decision makers in Westminister/Whitehall
>on this list! What I was envisaging was a high-profile site where:
>
>* government, business, academics and private individuals can focus on
>  areas of the proposals and debate them in detail
>
>* business and the general public can drop in and view the issues for
>  themselves, and view the democratic process in action
>
>* the resources are there should the latter decide to get involved in
>  the democratic process and join the former group
>
>[snip good ideas]
>
Sorry, the words "high-profile" and "site" don't sit easily together in my
mind if your primary purpose is to run a campaign and get action taken. I'm
not sure where "the democratic process in action" actually takes place, but
we've not yet moved to the point at which it operates through the Internet.
If "the latter" (ie the general public) decide to get involved it's unlikely
to be by joining a bunch of people who produce a website: net users are too
likely to sound like a self-interested group. 

You need to take it into the wider arena - attract the support of those who
don't use the net and electronic communications but can see (maybe) their
future importance. But that means using media that they're familiar with and
decision makers, who will be influenced by the public, are familiar with. 

That means conferences, reports, press releases; it means face-to-face
meetings with ministers and backbenchers, civil servants, journalists,
professional lobbyists, PR companies, technology suppliers, commercial
users, academics. Sorry, not a website - of whatever profile - if you really
want to do something. Do you see our opponents working through a website?

Alan B-G

-

ALAN BURKITT-GRAY, Editor
Government Computing
The independent magazine about information age public service, 
for the people who are going to make it happen
Next issue: April 1998, despatched Wednesday 25 March
Published by Kable Ltd, 
The Courtyard, 55 Charterhouse Street, London EC1M 6HA, UK
tel 0171 608 0900; fax 0171 608 0916
website http://www.kable.co.uk
e-mail alan@kable.co.uk