Developing local e-democracy in Bristol: From information to consultation to participation and beyond

Purpose – Bristol City Council has received national and international recognition for its local e‐democracy work. This paper seeks to tell the story of three phases of development of local e‐democracy in Bristol. In summarising findings from the national evaluation of the Local E‐democracy Project, the paper also aims to consider stage four – where Bristol's e‐democracy programme is headed next.Design/methodology/approach – Bristol acted as a lead authority on the evaluation of the Local E‐democracy National Project. This was a large multi‐method academic study, which set out to examine the aspirations and experiences of a variety of “actors” involved in more than 20 e‐democracy pilot projects across England. Professors Stephen Coleman of the Oxford Internet Institute and Ann Macintosh of the International Tele‐democracy Centre at Napier University undertook the evaluation, working with Bristol City Council as part of an E‐democracy Experts Group.Findings – Findings from the national evaluation have been...