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.
