The UK Consult Episode 39 | Community engagement

Welcome to “The UK Consult,” episode 39

Our occasional ramble through all things public engagement and citizen experience in the UK along with special guests and lovely examples of online citizen participation and digital transformation from around the world!

In this episode, we are delighted to have Caitlin Hafferty of Oxford Universityas our special guest. She’ll talk about her recent PhD focused on online engagement and share her views on some of the ethical issues around AI and the Metaverse!

We’ll also cover the following sensational topics and glorious insight into citizen engagement in the UK (and further afield):

1. Key learning points from Caitlin’s recently completed PhD on digital engagement and citizen participation.
2. Caitlin’s insight on key challenges facing citizen engagement in the future.
3. What citizen participation may look like in a 3-D internet metaverse!
4. Is Elon Musk right to claim that Twitter is the public square of the internet?
5. We have two Shout Outs this week: Solihull Council launched their new site Your Voice Solihull. Also, Transport for Wales recently launched their new site which kicked off by asking people to get involved in a project surrounding proposed improvements to Holyhead station. Well done!
6. We also have a special mention for Torbay Council for achieving high levels of participation on their discussion forum about a possible closure of part of Brixham Road between January and April 2023, a controversial subject best dealt with in the safety of their EngagementHQ site.
7. No stat of the month, a homage to Stato, this episode as we ran out of time.

All this in one episode! Grab a cake and a coffee and take your time with this epic episode of citizen participation and digital services goodness.

Until next time!