Plain talking

If there’s one area that many commentators think social media can make significant impact on it’s democracy and participation. You only have to read Clay Shirky’s notion of ‘cognitive surplus‘ to see exactly how much power people think can be released. Whether or not you think Shirky over-plays the argument social Media spaces are indeed packed full of people with passionate causes and a desire for change.

But there’s evidence here in Birmingham that citizens want to control the space and the terms under which they participate. The City is currently consulting on the Big City Plan, a strategy to help shape how the city centre is organised. There’s plenty of ways to engage with it, via post, through the facebook group, or at the online consultation. However, a group of bloggers have now decided that the original document was just a little too, erm, overly-intricate, for general consumption so have taken it upon themselves to do a plain english translation.

The Big City Plan Talk website has every single word of the plan converted into plain english. It’s broken into sections, all of which can be commented on. The idea seems to be to complement rather than replce the official consultation methods:

“We feel that discussion could lead to some brilliant ideas for the city. We will pass all the comments made here on to the council — but don’t let that stop you responding to the council direct by any of the methods listed on the Big City Plan website.”

It’s another example of how far ahead Birmingham is in its use of social media. Digital technologies coupled with a highly-motivated group of citizens makes for a very powerful combination.

Share Posted in Digital City by Dave Harte
Keywords: big city plan, Birmingham, blogging, citizen media, plain english, social media, translation, upyerbrum