The Practical Democracy Project is a series of events dedicated to looking at how technology can best be used to make everyday improvements to the democratic process – with a particular focus on policy-making at local and central government levels. Delib has run the Practical Democracy Project as an ongoing series of events around the UK and now it's New Zealand's turn.

The events themselves are designed to get people talking about the interaction between technology and government, with a particular emphasis on the stuff that actually makes a difference to effective public participation in decision-making.

On one side, we’ll be mapping out in practical terms how to create the best democratic user-journey for citizens, using technologies that dominate people’s everyday lives; on the other side, we’ll be mapping out the optimal user-journey for government officials/policy makers/elected officials. The key point being that democratic processes are a two-sided affair, which need to be optimised for both citizens and government if they’re to work.

How to get involved:

The Practical Democracy Project is very much a civic community project, and we’re looking for others to get involved. We've got some cracking speakers heading over including Matt Jukes from the UK who has been Head of Product at a number of central Gov agencies including ONS, DEFRA and more recently MySociety.

Ways you can participate include:

• Sign up and come along
• Suggest interesting speakers or topics you want to hear about (we still have a few slots!)
• Participating in the events yourself
• Come along for a beer / wine catch up after