Watch this space for details on a limited space roundtable discussion in Central London exploring the intersection of digital inclusion, neighborhood empowerment, and collaborative democracy. Space is limited.

The event will be followed by a pub gathering.

This event will encourage extensive two-way conversation with limited and short presentations.

This July 2nd event is being organized by Steven Clift, founder and Executive Director or E-Democracy.org to coincide the with a trip to the UK to speak on July 1 at the Activate conference.

E-Democracy.org, based in Minnesota in the U.S. currently serves four UK communities with local "Issues Forums" and ten communities in the United States. The "Issues Forum" work was a uniquely citizen-based model piloted in the more council-centric UK Local e-Democracy National Project. UK-based Board members include Mary Reid, former Chair of the UK Local e-Democracy National Project and former local councillor, and Edward Andersson, with Involve. Dan Jellinek, publisher of the e-Government Bulletin is a former Board member and co-chair of the Brighton & Hove E-Democracy.org steering committee.

E-Democracy.org has Ford Foundation funding for a ground breaking Inclusive Social Media project to bring e-participation and online community building to the heart of the lowest income, highest immigrant, most diverse areas of Minneapolis and St. Paul.

The technology is simple - but the who, what, when, where, and why is extremely complex and nuanced. We are interested in learning from any and all projects that are active with digital content and community interaction for inclusion. Moving from "loudest voices" and "who shows up" to real inclusion leveraging digital divide crossing work is new territory. A recent webinar may of interest for further background.

Also, as a project long-based on democratic engagement and less on the "citizen journalism" frame of respected community website promotion efforts in the UK, we are particularly interested in how digital inclusion at the neighborhood level might relates to concepts such as "collaborative democracy" as suggested by the new UK government. Neighborhood empowerment and collaborative democracy imply broad participation that in our experience require 24 x 7 "anytime, anywhere" forms of participation that complement the time and place-based restricted traditional forms of in-person participation that while essential are in practice quite exclusive.

This is what we would like to discuss and more. Please bring your own stories, examples, and perspectives.

If you have questions about being an event sponsor, please contact Steven Clift at clift@e-democracy.org