Make IT Policy

Liberal Democrat IT Online Policy Consultation

We launched this site in March 2002 as a pilot to learn how we can use the power of the internet to consult with the public and relevant experts in all our future policy development. The power of the net means that we can get input from experts from around the UK and the world - and also build a community to engage in discussion of our policy ideas.

Please feel free to comment on the policy paper or any of the blog entries below.

Richard Allan, former Liberal Democrat MP for Sheffield Hallam

Interesting article in the Guardian yesterday about

an attempt to map the Isle of Wight’s roads in one weekend for OpenStreetMap.org, a website that helps create maps free for anyone to use for any purpose. If Ordnance Survey and other national agencies will not make their data freely available, then OpenStreetMap, developed over the past two years, will re-collect it from scratch.

It links to the Guardian’s Free Our Data campaign for free public access to data about the UK and its citizens.

So far, this isn’t an area where the Liberal Democrats have policy one way or the other - although given our historical distrust of monopolies, whether state or private, I suspect it’s something we would support. The current situation also puts up a financial barrier to all kinds of party activity which could be helpful to fellow citizens: looking up local councillors and campaigners, creating tools to make it easier for people to report casework etc. etc.

Perhaps a motion to conference?

It’s clear that the threat to ‘net neutrality’ is increasing (as mentioned in this previous post) - and it’s not just a US problem.

Find out more at the SavetheInternet.com coalition website.

You can read more about net neutrality on the BBC website.

Given Tony Blair’s apparent unconditional desire to accept, and even reapply, almost everything done by George Bush and the Republican party, this is one we need to watch carefully.

Richard and I were shooting the breeze and we realised that our former version of this site replicated many of the techniques used by Wordpress - although mostly via manual means. So as an experiment, and to provide a model for other party groups wishing to consult on policy, we’ve converted the site to Wordpress and created a template that replicated our old site.

The one thing that this will let us easily do is post updates on IT related issues (such as ID cards) and easily allow comments on the site without all the hassle this caused on the old site!

I was reading a transcript of the Politics Conference today where Eli Pariser highlights the serious threat to the internet posed by possible loss of net neutrality - i.e. the current approach of treating all packets the same - no matter what their source.

I don’t know whether the same approach is likely to be applied by UK ISPs, but even if it isn’t, the changes proposed in the US look likely to affect UK internet users as well.

Find out more at the Net Freedom Now website.

Although the policy outlined in this website has now been adopted by the party, we are keen to get input and advice from members, supporters and other interested parties to ensure that it remains up to date and relevant. The Liberal Democrats believe strongly in consulting and campaigning with the communities that we are part of. In this particular case we are interested in hearing from the internet community with policy ideas and reaction to the ideas put forward in our policy paper. There are two primary opportunities for feedback:

1. Joining the discussion in our email group
2. Direct comments on the policy paper

You do not need to be a party member to participate in any part of the process.

If you wish, you can download the consultation paper in Adobe PDF format or access this site via your PDA using Avantgo.com. It is also designed to be easily accessible on talking browsers and can even be viewed on some modern mobile phones.

I look forward to hearing your views.

Following the first round of consultation based on our original consultation paper, the responses generated and the party’s fundamental values, we developed a full Information and Communication Technology policy paper and accompanying policy motion for debate at the party’s Federal Conference in Spring 2003. It was passed by conference overwhelmingly, so the paper now forms the policy of the Liberal Democrats.