Congratulations to Yarra Ranges Council who threw open their doors to an online public so they could have their say on Public Art from May to July. In a progressive move, the forum discussion was enhanced by a trio of discussion leaders; artist and Coordinator for the Graduate Certificate in Public Art at RMIT – … Continue reading →

GovFresh this year announced that June 15 would now be Gov.2.0 Hero Day.  A day to celebrate the people both inside and outside of Government who have stepped, jumped, skipped and galloped into the new and burgeoning world of online community engagement. Here at Bang the Table we’re in an unequalled position to give a … Continue reading →

The Blue Mountains City Council is responsible for one of the largest municipal areas in the world.  As an area completely surrounded by World Heritage listed forest, it means that the environment and the relationship that the community has with it, is embedded deeply within the Council’s psyche. Adrienne Murphy spent 12 years as an … Continue reading →

Blue Mountains City Council has launched a new community engagement site using EngagementHQ which is getting a fabulous community response. Their first 4 issues up for discussion are a rates variation forum, a street tree strategy masterplan forum, a forum about community and cultural facilities in Springwood and a forum on integrated planning for services. … Continue reading →

Best Practice is a term that is often over used but in this case I believe it to be deserved. We have written before on this blog about Lismore City Council’s debut online engagement. They asked their community about a Rates rise and got an astonishing reaction with over 1300 comments and more than 1800 … Continue reading →

Thanks to guest poster Anne Bransdon (left) for this great article on how Broken Hill used online engagement to gather community opinion. “About a year ago, we engaged online consultation software experts, Bang the Table, to consult our community about the fees, activities, infrastructure and day-to-day management of the newly refurbished Regional Aquatic Centre. As … Continue reading →

The Greater Taree City Council’s proposed smoke free outdoors policy was given the nod on March 11, 2010 after a three month community consultation was delivered using Engagement HQ. The decision to introduce the proposal means that smoking will be banned: Within 10 metres of all children’s playgrounds Within 10 metres of Council playing fields, … Continue reading →

Another day another resource! This publication by the US based Public Agenda’s Centre for Advancement in Public Engagement includes a bunch of pretty well known case studies from around the world. I found the Appendix (Practical Suggestions for Starting an Online Engagement Effort) most useful… To organize your online engagement effort, we suggest that you … Continue reading →