Democracies Online

Democracies Online Proposal Priorities

Greetings,

Thank you for your interest in helping Democracies Online get started.  This project is not designed to be another Internet-hype project that disappears before the begins.  Work on this concept has been evolving for the last two years and has now reached a point where formal activities and partnerships can be established.
 
Your input, suggestions, and ideas are appreciated.  The following items identify some of our current priorities geared toward establishing our formal operations in a timely basis:

1. Foundation Funding - Around $120,000 will be raised from a foundation(s) to support the initial core activities identified on the main page. A short list of target foundations is being developed. Specific contacts within foundations you think may be interested in providing funds to this project would be most helpful. Also, the Minnesota High Technology Council has formally endorsed the project which should assist smaller grant proposals ($5,000 - $15,000) to Minnesota-based foundations. Specific contacts in Minnesota-based foundations are appreciated.
2. In-kind Donations and Support - The project will have a number of needs that can be met through in-kind support. Technical hardware and software, air travel, translation services, conference planning, are among an extensive list of possible in-kind donations. In-kind offers of specific items or services are requested, a future call for general participation, interns, and volunteers will be distributed once the project receives base funding.
3. Conference Co-Sponsors - Depending upon the timeline for receipt of grant resources for core activities, the conference phase may be included in some grant proposals. Suggestions about potential conference co-sponsors that may help underwrite the general costs of the conference or the costs for participants from specific countries would be most useful.  Levels of sponsorship will be created to indicated contributions of resources or organizational name.
4. Letters of Support or Endorsement - A collection of letters of endorsement from individuals or organizations will be helpful in the grant seeking process.  An individual's organizational affiliation will be listed, but it will be noted that it for identification purposes only.  Along with your comments about the potential/need for Democracies Online, please include some background about the areas of interest that you represent.  Letters may be e-mail to:  clift@freenet.msp.mn.us   - Or mailed via the postal service to the address at the bottom of this page.
5. Presentations and Outreach - On September 17 -18, I will be speaking at the Electronic Democracy: Discourse and Decision Making in the Information Age conference at the University of Teesside, Middlesbrough, UK.  The European Symposium on Democracy and Multimedia Networks in Parthenay, France on September 25, 26 and 27 is another event at which I will give a presentation.  If you would like a full list of my half dozen or so public speaking events in the UK and France, please send me an e-mail message.

The G7 Government Online and Democracy White Paper, of which I am co-editor, will be announced at the October 20-22 G7 Government Online meeting in Melbourne, Australia.  The main public presentation will be at the Summit on Service to the Citizen in Denver, Colorado on October 8-9.  If you are planning to attend the Denver conference, please let me know.  I have postponed my Australia/New Zealand/Japan/Pacific trip until January or February.  I am working to arrange a number of Democracies Online and government online presentations in the region.  Hopefully this will provide a significant opportunity introduce Democracies Online and to learn about online democracy activities in those countries. If your organization would like to explore sponsoring a presentation, please contact me.

Over the last year and a half I have spoken in over eight countries. Plans for a more extensive outreach effort in Winter/Spring 1998 to complement online outreach activities are under consideration. The global nature of this project makes this type of travel and outreach a fundamental requirement. A set of presentations, meetings, and training sessions for civic, government, media, academic/graduate students, and commercial groups will offered in exchange for some basic project support and coverage of related travel costs. If you are interested in sponsoring a two or three day visit to your area/country next year please send me a note. Visits of a longer duration may be considered based on the circumstances.

Sincerely,
Steven Clift, Project Director 

Project Contact Information

WWW:  http://www.e-democracy.org/do/
E-mail: clift@freenet.msp.mn.us
Telephone:  612-824-3747

Last updated - September 1, 1997