Washblog || State House Dems and web dialogues

State House Dems and web dialogues

By emmettoconnell
Tue Jul 03, 2007 at 04:20:30 PM PST
Section: Washington State Topic: Legislative performance

State Representatives will take another step toward improving citizen participation with two web-based dialogues from July 23 to July 25. Washington residents are invited to join legislators and experts in the "Web Dialogues" to address obesity issues in the first dialogue and higher education access in the second dialogue.
"Online democracy has exploded in recent years and the Legislature should jump in and be a part of this new and exciting method of communicating ideas with citizens," said House Speaker Frank Chopp (D-Seattle).

...

Two House committees will host the two web dialogues from July 23 through July 25. Each day will focus on a different topic and will involve a panel of experts. Registered individuals may participate at their convenience and will receive daily summaries each morning.

The Health Care and Wellness Committee's web dialogue will identify ideas to reduce obesity. Poor diet, lack of physical activity, and obesity are leading causes of chronic diseases such as diabetes and heart disease, which continue to increase every year. The treatment of chronic diseases is a major component of the rising cost of health care. The obesity web dialogue address is: http://www.webdialogues.net/wahousehcw/obesity

The Higher Education Committee will use the second dialogue to examine ideas on what communities, parents, colleges, universities, and the state can do to educate more students to higher levels. Topics will cover financial aid, improving access, and methods to educate students. The access web dialogue address is: http://www.webdialogues.net/wahousehe/access

Read on after the jump...

Here is a bit of the history:

In 2005, the Washington House of Representatives developed a strategic plan to guide its work over the long term. Overwhelmingly, the biggest concern that legislators wanted to address was citizens' confidence in the legislative process. Legislators thought citizens felt alienated from a process dominated by lobbyists and insiders. They set as their number one goal to increase public participation, understanding and transparency of the legislative process."

It's not like what happens in Olympia stays in Olympia, but not very many people make it down to Olympia during session so the more our state legislators do things like this, the better.

Some things that I hope happen around this:

Its not invaded by internet idiots who just want to flood the zone like a Yahoo!/AOL chat room.
Its moderated, not so much that no one can talk, but not so little that the above happens.
That it encourages the legislators that this kind of thing is not only important to reaching out to people they don't hear from, but also useful to them. If they don't feel like they're getting anything out of it (like new perspective), they're not likely to want to do it anymore.

This also reminds me of the local eDemocracy effort that the UK undertook in recent years. I hope that this small effort expands beyond a couple of topics in the middle of summer, but rather changes how citizens interact with elected officials.

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