Digital Democracy And The Cyber Chamber, Welcome To Magna Carta 2.0 —Here's Why.

My Views On UK Parliament Speaker’s Commission on Digital Democracy

The report recommendations — if implemented will empower voters with easy access to all parliament data, videos, Hansard records, and engage them more in the democratic process, including the creation of legislation.

One of the greatest challenges MPs have is getting the public to engage with them directly. As as a society, we have a habit of talking about political issues with friends and complaining about politicians not doing what we want them to, yet we hardly ever communicate with them.

Not only that there isn’t an effective way to communicate. Apart from meeting face to face, which isn’t easy for most people, there isn’t another way, snail mail doesn’t allow for interactive dialog. We’re in the age of context, and social media is showing us how easy it is for people to engage in dialog. We have to fix this!

“I think one of the most interesting things that came out of the talks we had with everyone, was the repeated cry that parliament wasn't fit for purpose”  —  Commissioner Emma Mulqueeny

We can do this better; let’s give people a voice.

“The 2015 newly elected House of Commons should create immediately a new forum for public participation in the debating function of the House of Commons.”

One of the recommendations of this report; was to create a Cyber Chamber in the House of Commons. Which would effectively be a digital collaboration platform for engaging with the public on the issues that matter to them, with the possibility of transferring those debates to the Main Chamber for the Prime Minister and our political parties to debate.

I've been to parliament hackathons and other government hackathons and every time. The government representatives were crying out for ways to engage better with the general public, MPs want to help, and they're just as frustrated as the general population. The Cyber Chamber will enable government and the general population to communicate effectively, and create the type of society we want. We all want to work together for a better future. Now is the time to make that happen!

I’d like to finish on this; today I felt proud to be British that our government is leading the world once again on how democracy should evolve. This model can not only be used in the UK but in other countries around the world, we did it once before with Magna Carta, and we can do it again. Open democracy is the future and this time we have the correct model to ensure that it works well and that it’s not just a buzzword.

The full report is available at http://www.digitaldemocracy.parliament.uk