Giving a Voice to the ‘Hard to Hear’ - Informing Digital Futures: Strategies for Citizen Engagement - page 89

prior to and after the surgeries. On the day of the surgeries, students gath-
ered round computers, registered online for a chat room and posed their
questions. These were forwarded to Hansard Society staff in their offices,
who articulated the questions within the chat environment and forwarded
the questions to an appropriate political representative. The student and the
representative then held one-to-one discussions on topics including graffiti,
drugs, voting, Iraq and careers. Each surgery had at least one local council-
lor and one MP or Greater London Assembly member available to consult.
In total over 60 young people and ten political representatives took part in
the online surgeries (Hansard Society 2005a).
It became evident that the surgeries made it possible for young people to
discuss topics that they probably would not have discussed in person with
politicians. This was especially the case for those who were not very vocal
in class or who did not like working in groups. Expressed willingness to
vote in future and to have a say in the way that the country was run in-
creased significantly between the initial expression of views before the
surgeries and those expressed afterwards. Students reported that they had
learnt much more about the work of political representatives as a result of
participating in the surgeries. Teachers felt that the experience engaged the
students much more in politics and citizenship courses and were keen that
more surgeries should take place in future (Hansard Society 2005a).
Overall, the Hansard Society concluded that online surgeries were just
one of the measures that could be used to engage citizens as a whole. The
Royal Borough of Kingston council feels that it now has a much stronger
relationship with schools. Recommendations for the future were that a
longer lead time should be allowed to 'book' politicians, especially MPs,
to take part, and that preliminary workshops for students should be more
interactive.
5.3.5 LOCOMOTION - Disabled and Elderly Citizens -
UK/Germany
LOCOMOTION is the acronym for a project to develop location-based
mobile phones applications for independent living of disabled and elderly
citizens. This research project was set up and administered from the
Department of Medical Physics and Clinical Engineering at Barnsley Dis-
trict Hospital. The aims of the project were: (i) to explore the potential for
combining mobile phone technology and GPS technology to provide facili-
ties and services which would enable vulnerable people to be more inde-
pendent in their homes and to give confidence in travelling; and (ii) provide